WEBVTT - Maneater 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:05.960 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:13.440 Works dot com. Hey, wasn't a stuff about your mind? 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:18.320 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. I 0:00:18.400 --> 0:00:20.119 was I was just about to say, what comes to 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:26.680 mind when I say the word man eater? Oh? Comes, 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:29.720 she's mad? H Now? Was she actually a man eater? 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:33.319 Was she out of control cannibal in that? Because that's 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:35.600 got kind of the vibe. I hear that song on 0:00:35.600 --> 0:00:39.000 a picture kind of like Miami Vice type situation where 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:42.400 they're hunting down this woman who is on the loose 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:45.519 and killing and eating men and kind of like a 0:00:45.600 --> 0:00:48.640 black widow cannibal fashion, and only two men hall and 0:00:48.760 --> 0:00:53.080 Oates one mustache can bring her down exactly detectives Holland 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:55.520 Oates on the case. I think it was more like 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:58.800 she's a gold digger, She's going to run through all 0:00:58.880 --> 0:01:01.960 the men. But we could take the whole the skew 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:06.480 on it that she was a flesh eating woman rampaging 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:09.600 around the social circles of humans. Okay, all right, I 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:12.800 like that interpretation. Now, for anyone who's thinking about turning 0:01:12.840 --> 0:01:15.800 off the podcast right now, let me assure you this 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:20.840 is primarily not an episode about cannibals. This is this 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:23.920 is when we when we say man eater, we're bringing 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:27.480 to mind the the jungle man eater, the uh, the 0:01:27.520 --> 0:01:31.440 idea that there you have animals out there that may 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:33.800 turn man eater or animals that are in and of 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:36.800 themselves man eaters. Uh. And it's a it's a term 0:01:36.800 --> 0:01:39.480 that carries a lot of weight because as humans, we 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:42.520 generally like to think that we are in a safe area, 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:45.560 that we have not only reached the top of a 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:48.360 food chain, but we have removed ourselves from the food 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:54.480 chain entirely. We've we've achieved liberation from from that particular structure. Yeah, 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:56.240 we've talked about this before. Louis c. K has a 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:58.840 bit about how humans really take for granted the fact 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:01.120 that we are out of the food chain. But as 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:04.200 we read in the listener emails last week, there's one 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:08.760 person who dared to ask the question, could you have 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:12.359 a sudden blood luss when it comes to humans? Could 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:14.920 you get a taste of it and want more? Yeah? 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:16.880 And and to what extent is that just sort of 0:02:17.919 --> 0:02:20.320 you know, human self obsession to think that we just 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:24.280 were so tasty, like we're we're off the menu item. 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:27.000 And we are so delicious that if that if a 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:30.320 tiger or a lion, or a chimpanzee or any kind 0:02:30.360 --> 0:02:32.519 of creature that dabbles and meat eating at all or 0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:35.119 to get a taste of us, then there's no way 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:36.760 they could go back. They would just have to be 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:40.120 man meat all the time. Cut it up for me, 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:42.040 put it on my plate. That's all I'm gonna eat 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:45.079 until you take me down inhala bullets. Wow, So you're saying, 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:47.360 could there be some sort of sea change that all 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:49.359 of a sudden put us on the menu. In other words, 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:51.720 these animals wouldn't go into their restaurant and have some 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:54.040 sort of code word in order to bring this delicacy 0:02:54.080 --> 0:02:56.920 of humans about all of a sudden, We would just 0:02:56.960 --> 0:02:58.760 be on the menu all the time. We would be 0:02:58.800 --> 0:03:01.840 the other white meat. Yeah, I mean. And as we're 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:05.480 gonna discuss here, there are situations where something does occur, 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:08.600 or or a few different things occur that that seemed 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:11.000 to flip a switch in a predator that make it 0:03:11.040 --> 0:03:15.720 go from from just it's normal dietary practices to becoming 0:03:15.720 --> 0:03:19.560 a man eater to to preying on humans um exclusively. 0:03:20.360 --> 0:03:22.680 But to what extent is it a thing? To what 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:25.720 extent is it us over reacting because because man eating 0:03:25.840 --> 0:03:28.560 is uh, it's such an a loaded idea because it 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:32.280 just digs into our primal fears and into this, uh, 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:35.520 this situation of prey and predator that we again largely 0:03:35.560 --> 0:03:38.840 like to think that we have achieved liberation from that. 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:41.400 We're you know, we're able to distance ourselves from predators, 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:45.200 were able to protect ourselves, and we're generally really smart prey. 0:03:45.320 --> 0:03:50.800 We're generally not a good prey and mostly mostly um. 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:55.080 But but genuinely speaking, we're an intelligent, large creature that 0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.200 that's not worth the effort of hunting. But if we 0:03:58.280 --> 0:04:01.520 are in the wrong place at the wrong time, all 0:04:01.520 --> 0:04:05.240 of a sudden, it becomes a very precarious event for us. Yes, 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:08.560 so we should probably kick off by talking about shameless 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:10.560 man eaters. And I think that the best example of 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:17.840 shameless man eaters are the nile crocodiles crocodia. Yes, you guys, 0:04:17.880 --> 0:04:19.760 these guys, if we if we had like our ring 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:23.320 here in the right corner, you'd have a nile crocodile 0:04:23.400 --> 0:04:28.719 wing and sometimes as large as sixteen hundred pounds in 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:32.520 twenty ft long. Now for for everybody that resides outside 0:04:32.520 --> 0:04:34.360 of the United States. I'm talking about seven dred and 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:38.279 thirty kilograms and six meters long. Yeah, and these and 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:41.240 basically sub Saharan Africa is just lousy with these things. 0:04:41.279 --> 0:04:45.640 They're they're they're everywhere and uh, and they are indiscriminate 0:04:45.760 --> 0:04:48.000 in their diet. So so there's not a situation of, 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:51.800 oh that that crocodile, that that nile crocodile went man eater, 0:04:51.880 --> 0:04:54.120 it developed a taste for human blood. No, the crocodile 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:57.080 is game for whatever it can get its jaws round. 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:01.160 And since human beings often live in for close proximity 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:03.600 with these creatures because because the river is their habitat 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:05.960 and the river is light, if you are somehow hacking 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:09.040 out an existence for yourself, then you are depending on 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:12.679 the river for water, for food, for laundry, two children 0:05:12.720 --> 0:05:15.480 play in the water, etcetera. That the chance is going 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:18.760 to come up for a crocodile to snack on a human. 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:22.120 And it's it's hard to put an exact number on this, 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:25.159 but it's estimated that upwards of two people may die 0:05:25.200 --> 0:05:28.919 each year from nile crocodile attacks. Yeah, so imagine yourself 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:31.160 at the Nile River at the banks, you're washing your 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:35.120 clothes and all of a sudden you are pitted against 0:05:35.200 --> 0:05:39.400 this animal that is camouflaging itself in the water effortlessly, 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:42.599 just waiting right up to you, undetected. And they have 0:05:42.720 --> 0:05:47.719 these incredibly fast reflexes, and you know, surprise attacks are 0:05:47.760 --> 0:05:50.280 their purview, So you really don't have a chance in 0:05:50.320 --> 0:05:52.760 one of those situations. And you can see why just 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:56.640 in this sub Saharan Africa and and the Nile that 0:05:56.839 --> 0:06:00.240 something up to two hundred deaths a year occur because 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:03.640 of these crocs. Now that humans and crocodiles ever live 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:05.719 in harmony, I mean this is not an animal that 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:10.520 it is just overflowing with intelligence and uh and social 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:16.119 adaptability with with with non crocodile species. Yeah. Actually, um, 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:18.520 if you look at the case of one place in 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:22.839 western Africa, it's called Bazul, where one hundred Nile crocs 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:25.960 reside along with humans and what I would say is 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:29.800 relative harmony. You can see that this community regards Nile 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:34.040 crocs as sacred and they think of these crocs is 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:38.640 is having a link to survival and welfare in the seasons, right, 0:06:38.880 --> 0:06:45.039 so they routinely sacrifice chickens to these crocodiles. So in 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.799 a way, it's a kind of a domestication, right because 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:50.560 they're they're giving them an animal, and they're keeping them 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:52.840 fat enough and full enough that they're not going to 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:56.000 be tempted as often by that that human snack that's 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:58.400 washing it's it's clothes in the water. Yeah, and this 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:01.680 has been going on since the fourteen century. So um 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:05.479 in some cases, as we'll discuss later on, with other animals, 0:07:05.520 --> 0:07:08.800 there's this possibility that not only this act going on 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:11.480 is sort of routinizing it for the crocs, but maybe 0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:15.760 it's a learned behavior through generations of these crocs, you know, 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:18.760 because that what instantly ticks off of my mind when 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:21.119 I think about that is I think about the alligators 0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:22.880 here in the United States, And what do they always 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:26.520 tell you about alligators. Do not feed the alligators because 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:29.040 with other wild animals, you start feeding them, they start 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:34.200 associating a human presence with food, which is generally not 0:07:34.320 --> 0:07:36.960 a good idea because again, one of the reasons that 0:07:37.240 --> 0:07:41.240 humans are so good at largely avoiding uh consumption by 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:43.680 a predator is that we keep our distance from them. 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:47.040 We know not to go and mess with the bears, 0:07:47.120 --> 0:07:49.600 and the bears by and large don't want to mess 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:52.920 with the humans. But when you start confusing the equation 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:56.320 by having a gift of sacrificed chicken or a delicious 0:07:56.720 --> 0:08:00.680 garbage can involved, then it starts bringing these two species 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:03.960 closer and closer. And they're both very dangerous species in 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:07.120 their own way, so when they meet, uh it, it 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:09.920 might not be pretty. And the thing is though, in 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:12.800 in this area of western Africa, you may not have 0:08:12.840 --> 0:08:15.520 the choice to keep your distance, so your water source 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:17.880 is probably going to be the same as these crocs, 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:19.720 So it would make sense that you would create this 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:23.000 sort of symbiotic relationship with a croc. Now, I don't 0:08:23.040 --> 0:08:25.960 suggest that everybody hearing I didn't go out and start 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:28.920 doing that, because you know, by and large we have 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:32.120 the ability to keep our distance. But yeah, this, this 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:35.439 is what you see when when two species are or 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:41.280 cohabitating in the space on a very intimate terms, all right, now, 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:45.120 when it comes to killing and eating humans, uh, there 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:49.440 is one type of human that is clearly the best snack, 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:53.520 the best meal, and that is the child. Uh. Children 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:58.040 are of course smaller humans. They are largely uh stupid 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:01.320 er humans. When it comes to surviving on their own, 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:05.240 and they don't have as much experience they you know, 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:07.120 they're not gonna really be able to punch a bear 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:11.520 in the nose. They're they're slower, they're easily distracted. Firstance, 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:13.120 I took my son out on the belt line today, 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:17.600 which is this like running walking bicycling strip here in Atlanta, 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:21.079 formerly a train track, A really nice environment, but it 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:24.000 was hard to get him to walk uh ten feet 0:09:24.200 --> 0:09:27.320 without stopping to stick to poke sticks through the fence 0:09:27.640 --> 0:09:30.319 to try and pick up dog crap or two. And 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:33.080 then occasionally he would see somebody running and run himself. 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:37.040 Now there were no tigers or bears or coyotes or 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:38.880 wolves or anything like that on the belt line, but 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:42.040 if there were, they would have easily seen. This is 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:45.880 the kid. We're gonna try and eat these large adult runners. 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:48.520 And they're too fast, they're too wary. Some of them 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:50.920 are on bicycles. I'm not messing with that. But this guy, 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:53.800 he is short, he is stubby, and he keeps stopping 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:56.160 to mess with things could eat him up in a heartbeat. 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:58.160 Like I like to joke to my wife that if 0:09:58.160 --> 0:10:01.360 he were out in the wild, even like squirrels would say, hey, 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:03.480 I could eat that guy, Maybe I should get a 0:10:03.480 --> 0:10:05.320 taste in here. All of a sudden, you have like 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:08.880 twenty squirrels marching towards your son exactly. I mean, you know, 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:13.199 the economic value of eating um a toddler is just 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:15.560 it should be obvious to anything in the animal kingdom, 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:18.480 and a number of predators do pick up on that. Yeah, 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:21.000 And I think that's why we have so many fairy 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:25.880 tales that are these cautionary tales really for children, especially 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:28.200 when it comes to wolves, right, yeah, I mean just 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:31.280 think of the wolf in nursery stories. Uh and and 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:34.120 in myths as well. But a little red riding hood. 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:36.320 You know, she's just minding her own business and this 0:10:36.360 --> 0:10:38.240 wolf is going to eat her in the woods. It 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:41.720 also goes after her elderly grandmother as well. Uh and 0:10:41.720 --> 0:10:44.280 and then there are other stories like this three Pigs. 0:10:44.320 --> 0:10:45.800 I mean, it just it just goes on and on. 0:10:45.840 --> 0:10:49.120 We just have this this cultural idea of the wolf 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:52.200 as this predator that's roaming out on the edges of 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:55.120 our human world and is going to be eager to 0:10:55.320 --> 0:10:58.480 creep in and steal our children or even eat us. 0:10:58.480 --> 0:10:59.880 I mean, look look at some of the films we 0:10:59.920 --> 0:11:02.360 have of out there in which the wolf plays a 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:06.559 very nefarious role. There's the the Liam Neeson movie The Gray, 0:11:07.160 --> 0:11:09.880 about Liam Neeson punching a bunch of wolves as they 0:11:09.880 --> 0:11:12.240 try to eat him. So culturally it is woven in 0:11:12.240 --> 0:11:15.040 our fabric. We are frightened of wolves. They are the Boogeyman. 0:11:15.200 --> 0:11:20.280 So imagine you live in Reserve, New Mexico. Okay, I 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:23.000 just imagine you're here in New Mexico and your child 0:11:23.120 --> 0:11:26.360 is waiting for the bus, but instead of throwing rocks 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:31.480 or playing chase, the children are huddled in wood and 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:35.600 mesh cages meant to keep them safe from any wayward 0:11:35.640 --> 0:11:38.800 wolves that happened by this is just such a fantastic story. 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:42.200 I mean, especially once you start getting the details. And uh, 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:44.560 in in this case, we got the details from the 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:48.160 article do kid cages really predict children from wolves? By 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:52.760 Jeremy Berlin and he and he talks to an expert 0:11:52.840 --> 0:11:57.360 on wolves. He specifically, he talks to Daniel McNulty, a 0:11:57.400 --> 0:12:00.520 wildlife ecology professor at Utah State University. Uh, this is 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:03.240 a guy who's been studying wolves in the Alsto National 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:07.200 Park for past eighteen years and he askin said wolves 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:10.400 eating children at bus stops. Is this really a threat? 0:12:10.400 --> 0:12:12.839 And he says, of course, it's not a threat, like 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:17.000 there are so few examples of wolves attacking humans in 0:12:17.040 --> 0:12:20.000 the wild. For starters, Yeah, he says, a child in 0:12:20.040 --> 0:12:22.199 a rural area is more likely to be hurt or 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:25.360 killed in an accident with an off road altering vehicle 0:12:25.960 --> 0:12:28.559 or in a with an encounter with a feral dog 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:31.920 or hunting accident. And there are very few instances in 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:35.720 North America have wolves hurting anyone, let alone children. And 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:38.400 the reason why people are up in arms in this 0:12:38.559 --> 0:12:43.960 area is because in smaller subspecies of the gray wolf 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:47.240 called the Mexican wolf was reintroduced in the area. It's 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:50.160 a protected species. And so on one hand you have 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:54.520 you have governmental bodies saying, don't hurt the wolves. They are, 0:12:54.679 --> 0:12:57.400 they're endangered, they're protected, leave them alone. But on the 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:00.280 other hand, we have this primal or almost i'm all 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:03.240 fear of the wolf. We have certainly had experiences of 0:13:03.240 --> 0:13:07.760 wolves praying on livestock and beloved pets, and so you 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:10.280 have you have this tug of war here and also 0:13:10.320 --> 0:13:12.880 probably a little bit of political manipulation as well, where 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:15.040 people are saying, Oh, well, if you're gonna protect the 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:17.080 wolf and we can't shoot the wolves, then I guess 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:19.400 we'll have to put our children in shark cages at 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:22.240 the bus stop exactly, because otherwise the wolves would just 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:25.480 sweep in and just eat all of them every morning. Yeah. 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:28.280 McNulty said that he thought that this was probably a 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:32.679 publicity stunt by people who felt like their rights were 0:13:32.679 --> 0:13:35.480 being infringed on upon the government, particularly since the e 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:38.160 p A was had something out there to actually have 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:43.960 tighter restrictions here on the Mexican wolf. So again, the 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:45.959 idea is that there may be some groups that are 0:13:46.000 --> 0:13:49.280 fueling this fear, which is sort of an ancient fear 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:52.400 ingrained in us against wolves. Well, let me ask you this. 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:54.560 You have you have, you have a daughter. Can you 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:57.840 imagine taking your daughter to a bus stop to to 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:01.360 await the school bus since telling her, listen, honey, everything 0:14:01.480 --> 0:14:04.840 is gonna be okay today. However, we're gonna have to 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:07.120 put you in a cage as you wait for the 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:09.760 bus because wolves may come for you and try to 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:12.680 eat you. No, I can't. I can't imagine like putting 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:15.679 her into what amounts as a chicken coop really if 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:18.560 you look at these structures and telling her that there's 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:21.880 this this fear that she should, you know, really be 0:14:22.000 --> 0:14:24.600 keyed into. I mean, can you imagine what that's doing 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:27.440 to a kid's psyche. That's it's just not healthy. I mean. 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.800 And and also it again, it fosters this idea that 0:14:30.840 --> 0:14:33.120 the wolf is a threat that needs to be eradicated, 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:36.440 when in reality, if you encounter wolves in the wild, 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.960 it's generally going to be a very a very calm situation. 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:42.600 They're gonna see you, they're gonna take off because you're 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:46.320 just not a prey animal to them. Yeah, McNulty says. 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:50.560 They don't have supernatural powers. They can't jump over mountain ranges, 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:53.160 they can't bring down a moose with a single bite 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:57.640 to the neck um. They are constrained by their morphology, right, 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:00.280 So they're going to go after something that is mall. 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:02.160 They're going to go after a rabbit or something that 0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:06.960 is easy prey. They are generally frightened of humans. So 0:15:07.040 --> 0:15:10.200 to sum it all up, yes, it's there's a small, 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:13.720 small chance that wolves would prey on a human child, 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:17.600 but but generally it's not something to worry about. Certainly, 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:20.800 nothing to worry about at the bus stop. Um. But 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:22.760 of course the child would be an irresistible meal to 0:15:23.000 --> 0:15:26.720 uh to any number of other predators, uh, interestingly enough, 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:31.840 including the champ to the chimpanzee, which I found horrifying. Yeah. Well, 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:34.200 and I think that's because you know, when you think 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:37.160 about chimps, you think of them as these playful creatures, 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:40.920 and uh, you know, even when you hear accounts of 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:44.080 them killing each other, it's disturbing when when they start 0:15:44.120 --> 0:15:47.440 eating other primates, which they do, yes, or rather monkeys, 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:50.280 that's that's when it starts getting a little weird for 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:53.840 the human observer. But certainly they eat a lot of meat, 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:58.240 I believe, if I remember correctly, the chimpanzee is only 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:01.800 surpassed in its meat consumption by human beings when compared 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:05.480 to other other species. So we can't so we can't 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:07.440 really judge. I think it's what you're saying. Yeah, yeah, 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:09.920 I mean we we have. We get kind of weird 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:12.800 about eating things that look too much like us for 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:15.120 the most part. But but they have no such qualms. 0:16:15.360 --> 0:16:18.040 And a lot of this is about context, right, So 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:20.560 what sort of food sources are available, what else is 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.560 going on in the ecosystem, and we're going to discuss 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:26.840 a little bit more about this some other species that 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:29.600 we should really keep more worried about when it comes 0:16:29.640 --> 0:16:39.640 to man eating. Right after we cutis great, all right, 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:44.600 we're back lions and tigers and bears. Oh my, Yes, 0:16:44.920 --> 0:16:48.160 particularly lions and tigers. These are the big cats are 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:52.040 among the best examples of of man eaters that we 0:16:52.080 --> 0:16:55.120 can you can really focus in on, and particularly when 0:16:55.120 --> 0:16:58.080 you're looking at the situation of an animal turning man 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:01.040 eater and try and and just trying to to figure 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:03.160 out what is that, what is happening at that pivotal 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:07.800 moment when this animal changes from something that lives outside 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:11.639 of the human scope to a creature that is praying 0:17:12.040 --> 0:17:15.520 exclusively on humans. Yeah, and before we talk about some 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:19.280 of the circumstances that would drive man eating and lions, 0:17:19.400 --> 0:17:22.679 let's just discuss really quickly that the population of African 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:26.520 lions is in decline while the human population, of course 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:29.000 is on the rise. You have to factor in the 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:32.840 loss of habitat and human encroachment, and then you begin 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:36.320 to see this picture emerging of how humans and lions 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:40.120 are meeting far more than they ever did in history. 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:43.439 And of course attacks are on the rise. Yeah, and 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:46.440 now there's some of some very key examples of man 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:50.359 eating lions throughout history, and all of this certainly stokes 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:53.400 the fires of our fear and our in our fascination 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:56.760 with the idea of the man eating lion, but particularly 0:17:56.800 --> 0:18:03.480 the situation in evolving two lions named ghost in Darkness. Um, 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:08.480 they unleash this harrowing string of attacks on Ugandan railroad workers. 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:12.359 Uh and uh. If you look at the older accounts 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:15.440 of the Savo lions, they were saying that the lions 0:18:15.480 --> 0:18:18.040 flew something like a hundred and thirty five African and 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:21.800 Indian railroad labors and sometimes dragging them from their tents 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:24.080 while they slept. And you know, it all ends up 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:26.760 escalating in the in the hunters having to go out 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:28.640 and set in search of them. If you've ever seen 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:31.280 the movie The Ghosts in the Darkness that has a 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:36.160 fictionalized account of this situation. But here's the thing. These 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:41.200 lines are currently on view underneath the St. Louis Gateway Arch. 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:42.840 If you go to the Gateway Arch and you go 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:45.359 into the museum underneath it, you will see these lines 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:49.919 and they are surprisingly small. Um, you see them, and 0:18:49.960 --> 0:18:51.600 you have you if you hear the story, you expect 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:54.240 the giant lions that are just dripping with human blood, 0:18:54.440 --> 0:18:56.800 and they're there are a lot smaller specimens in your life. 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:00.760 So are these vampire lions that are existing to the centuries? No? 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:03.359 No, no no, these are the actual lions were killed and 0:19:03.400 --> 0:19:05.560 stuffed and wound up in St. Louis, Okay. And it 0:19:05.600 --> 0:19:09.560 turns out, by the way that these lions actually did 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:12.520 the lives of thirty five people that you know, hundred 0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:16.440 plus people. Uh. Still is nothing to sneeze at. Now 0:19:16.440 --> 0:19:18.720 this isn't the only story. There are various other accounts 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:20.639 and um, and you know, I could, I could go 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:23.560 into listing each of them connt by account, but they 0:19:23.600 --> 0:19:27.199 all basically amount to the same thing. Suddenly a lion 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:30.480 or even a group of lions begin praying on humans 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:34.359 and then they don't stop until those lions are themselves 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:38.000 put down. Um. There are a number of reasons for 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:40.560 why this happens. One of the reasons is it could 0:19:40.600 --> 0:19:44.359 be passed down behavior. Yes, and there's a study of 0:19:44.400 --> 0:19:48.359 the subbo lions actually uh from the Chicago's Field Museum 0:19:48.400 --> 0:19:52.760 that discovered that generations of the same pride exhibited similar 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:57.080 human eating tendencies. So the same pride had a higher 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:01.840 incidence of man eating. So that's and the idea here. 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:06.199 But of course there's lots of different competing circumstances and reasons, right, 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:08.360 I mean, one of the big ones is altered habitat 0:20:08.400 --> 0:20:11.920 induced prey switching. Now, this is a situation, uh that 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:13.680 they should make a lot of sense, especially in light 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:18.280 of of the reality of growing human populations and uh 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:21.960 and at times shrinking uh prey populations in an area. 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:24.560 What ends up happening is you have alliance and they've 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:28.040 they've lived in this area for generations and generations and generations. 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:33.840 They've always prayed exclusively on this particular population of animals, 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:38.880 and suddenly that prey population is affected by this human presence. 0:20:39.040 --> 0:20:40.879 Suddenly there's less for them to eat. What are they 0:20:40.880 --> 0:20:43.320 supposed to do? They're gonna do whatever they have to 0:20:43.359 --> 0:20:45.680 do to survive there. So they end up switching their 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:48.760 prey preference. They realize they can't uh you know, get 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:52.320 this traditional uh you know, dear like gazelle like animal 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:54.520 or whatever that they prey on. What are they going 0:20:54.560 --> 0:20:56.560 to turn to? Well, here are all these humans in 0:20:56.560 --> 0:20:59.440 their areas. So they end up making the switch, and 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:01.680 there may be a sational things that end up um 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:05.680 affecting that switch. For instance, what happens then if lions, uh, 0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:07.639 these same lions who are trying to figure out what 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:09.680 they're gonna eat, what kind of prey they're going to 0:21:09.720 --> 0:21:12.200 consist on? What happens when they come across the body 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:15.199 of a dead human or or or even you know, 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:18.359 a destigated grave of some kind, they end up trying 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:22.639 the human flesh. It's just another argument in their favor 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:26.000 of oh, well, these creatures seem to be uh as 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:28.840 delicious as anything else I could eat and uh, and 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:30.920 then then they seem to be everywhere, and then you 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:34.440 end up with the eventual situation where they actually prey 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:38.040 on a human, and in that they may learn, oh 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:41.160 well they're not that difficult to kill either. Well. Yeah, 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:44.000 it really plays into the whole uh survival game that 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:46.400 we've talked about before. You tried to conserve as much 0:21:46.480 --> 0:21:50.720 energy as possible and get as much energy as possible, right, 0:21:50.720 --> 0:21:53.440 And so if if a human presents him or herself 0:21:53.480 --> 0:21:56.480