How come bears, tigers, even apes are naturally so powerful… And why are humans so weak in comparison
In: 48
A few things not touched upon:
Proportional strength: Smaller animals, for their size, can be stronger. Like if you took a ferrari engine and stuck it in a go kart that thing would fly (or rip itself apart) but if you put that in a semi 18-wheeler it might barely move forward. For the same amount of muscle, smaller animals are stronger which is why you get those “ants can lift 100 times their weight” kind of factoids.
Muscle Composition: Basically there are two types of muscle fibers: high yield and low yield. High yield gives you power, low yield gives you endurance. Different animals have different mixtures in their muscles which is why even the same amount of “muscle” might yield very different strengths. An adult orangutan weighs about the same as a human but is about x7 stronger.
Strength Limiters: Muscles have built in limiters that prevent them from being used too hard that can cause damage. Things like adrenaline can “unlock” those limits which is why you see people lifting cars or boulders because of adrenaline. You don’t suddenly hulk up, but your muscles suddenly can exert a lot more power in the short term at the expense of shredding your ligaments and supporting structure in the long term. Yeah people can lift cars but then when its all said and done and the adrenaline wears off they find that they’ve pulled every muscle in their upper body.
I remember reading about a climber who had to dislodge a massive boulder that had pinned his leg and he said after the adrenaline wore off he could barely move because of how much pain his upper body was in from the stress/damage he had done due to adrenaline strength surge.
Different animals have different kinds of connective tissues and support structures that can allow them to use their muscles harder without causing long term damage like a human would. In the case of the organutang I don’t know for sure but this might also be a difference.
Physical Layout: Muscle power is heavily dependent on physics and by using/abusing physics you can do specific things in different ways. Some animals are very specialized in certain tasks and their muscles are built and connected in different ways to hyper-specialize. A crocodile closing its jaws is MUCH stronger than opening them. The pistol shrimp has a claw that can close at supersonic speeds to stun its prey.
Muscle Mass: Cows, Bears, Tigers, and Gorillas are much much larger than humans in terms of muscle mass. A female tiger for example might only be about 6’6″ which puts it on par with a large human but will probably weight x2 or x3 times as much. While proportionally smaller animals are stronger by weight, in reality bigger = more muscle = stronger…just not quite as efficiently as small animals.
Latest Answers