Comment on Bears or no bears?

• shneancy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  we made doggos out of wolves :)

  but lions and tigers… guess they were harder to spot among the foliage

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  • Nikelui@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Have you tried with catnip?

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  • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    but lions and tigers… guess they were harder to spot among the foliage

    Lions live in the savanna and grassland. They can hide among the grass, but they generally hunt by chasing prey in turns until the prey tires. Tigers are ambush predators and excellent at hiding.

    Healthy lions and tigers do not hunt humans. They can kill humans pretty easily, but prefer meatier prey. But when they get too old / sick to hunt wild animals, they might hunt humans out of desperation.

    Also Asian lions have become used to humans since their protected area has tribal settlements and is surrounded by villages. Local people sometimes feed the lions, and on youtube you can find videos of people even touching them. (This is dangerous, messes with the lions’ ecology and is illegal, but people do it and stopping them now might cause new problems.)

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    • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Sounds like the beginning of a domestication process. RemindMe in 1000 years.

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  • hector@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Actually dogs are a distinct lineage that shares a common ancestor with wolves. Our pals are more closlely related to african painted dogs or India’s endangered dhols. Maybe dingos count, idk if jackals are dogs actually, but I think that’s about it for wild dogs left.

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• jaybone@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  Oh my

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• Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  They don’t really prey on humans & we coexisted without much issues for humans (very much a lot of issues for them).

  Eating a baby every so many years doesn’t really count, in nature it’s usually disregarded even if a regular thing bcs of the size difference (and the mortality rate to adulthood). A bit along the lines that babies of all species are food & that doesn’t give you much representative info.

  With polar bears, even with villages in the migrating area (their ecosystem is shrinking rapidly), you just can’t be outside, they will munch you.

  Hikers can hike through woods with wolves, you can park your car next to lions, … tigers would be borderline (and endangered), but it seems they fear us, they fear injury & our unpredictability. Polar bears don’t back off.

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  • hector@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    When tigers prey on people it’s usually when they are old. They get lazy and we are easy. Until the guns and poison come out.

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    • Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Lazy ~ everything is harder with age, you get physically worn out, all manner of injuries & chronic pains accumulate (teeth & paws included).

      Taking the only available option when you need/decide to survive some don’t even consider an option, but a necessity.

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  • NIB@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    There is a reason there are no lions left in Europe, we killed them. We killed most wildlife and only recently we have tried to bring those somewhat large predators back(wolves, bears, etc).

    I am pretty sure if there were polar bears in the Mediterranean, and the rest of the history remained the same, they would also be considered extinct or endangered.

    All you need is a lot of humans and time and eventually all big animal threats will be eliminated.

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    • Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      big animal threats

      They don’t have to be threatening, just big, and a good source of meat. Plenty of docile megafauna went extinct in places just as soon as humans arrived.

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      • Evil_Shrubbery@thelemmy.club ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        They don’t even have to be known by humans, we destroy entire ecosystems without knowing the species (eg draining wetlands, or even greenhouse gases global climate change).

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    • hector@lemmy.today ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Did people kill the lions and cave bears and the like in europe? How far back was that. I know a lot of the species got limited to spain and greece in the ice ages.

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