Im not sure if the title made sense but how babies cry to communicate, did they do that in the like prehistoricy times. Cause I refuse to believe that people who were surrounded by bears, moose, just aggressive/kill you quick wild life, lived with screaming babies around.
*Youre in a mudhut*
Husband- Oh my god theres a bear outside
Wife- What do we do
Baby- WAHHHHHHHH
Husband and Wife- :/
In: 6206
Okay, this got long. TL;DR: this wouldn’t actually be a problem.
First off all, it was rare to have just a man, woman and baby, it was usually a whole tribe or extended family unit, and that meant safety in numbers. And ever since we got dogs we’ve also had them as an alarm system, deterrent and weapon in one. It’s common practice today to capture bears that go into populated areas, traumatise them by having dogs barking aggressively at them outside their cage, and then letting them go, because now they’ll stay away from areas with barking dogs. (Autocorrect really wanted the dogs to be baking. Imagine a golden retriever kneading dough angrily.)
Secondly, predators, especially bears, are generally lazy and risk averse. Even a single human with a spear, a torch and a loud voice would seem a lot more trouble than they’re worth (humans being quite scrawny in the scheme of things), and they don’t really have any inborn tactics to deal with us. A lot is made of humans being persistence predators but wolves are the true archetype of this, they chase their prey for hours to exhaust the weakest link. Animals just standing their ground and fighting confuses them to the point they might just… leave. Especially if the animal has an advantage like a sling, spear or fire.
Thirdly, as much as it might seem that way to us, babies don’t just cry out of the blue. They cry because they’re hungry, lonely, or have soiled themselves, and they usually start by whimpering and groaning, if you stay on point and act quickly you can keep your baby from crying entirely.
Lastly, as I alluded to earlier, being loud helps scare away animals. If you go hiking in bear country it’s often recommended that you make noise, rattle the undergrowth and talk, maybe wear bells, because this keeps you from surprising animals (which might make them attack you) or looking like prey not wanting to be spotted (making them attack you), it makes you look like you aren’t scared of anything. The auditory equivalent of the colours of poison dart frogs, if you will. It’s entirely possible the wail of a baby could have this same effect. That’s just a hypothesis, mind, I wouldn’t want to rely on it.
All of these together means that it almost definitely wasn’t an issue.
Side notes: Masai people have actually scared lions off of their prey just by walking confidently at them, convincing the lions that these humans weren’t to be messed with.
Dogs are excellent guardians of both humans and livestock because they’re observant, loud, and tend to stand their ground to protect their pack. Livestock guarding dogs are a whole category of breeds that does this so well that they’re being used in conservation efforts, their mere presence scaring away predators that would otherwise be hunted to keep the herds safe. The karelian bear dog just seems to hate bears and are really good at keeping them away.
There is footage of stags standing their ground and wolves trying to get it to flee because they don’t know what to do if it doesn’t. There’s also footage of stags running to freezing rivers and then just standing there, because the wolves don’t want to fight in those, the wolves try to harry it from the shore but eventually leave.
Bison will usually form a protective circle around their calves when wolves come. If they kept their formation and did this consistently then wolves could never successfully hunt them. Unfortunately for the bison, they tend to eventually panic and start a stampede, which is exactly what the wolves want. Forming a circle with spears pointing out and occasionally throwing rocks would be an excellent defensive tactic our forefathers may have used.
Latest Answers