Why are deer so afraid of me even though they’re three times my size and have no natural predators around my area?
In: Biology
Their predators frequently are smaller than them, wolves, coyotes, mountain lions.
But also, humans ARE their natural predator. Humans have been their predators for likely 10s of thousands of years, they’ve been running away from humans with sticks and bows for a long time.
The ones that linger around are the ones most likely to get shot. The scaredy cats are the ones most likely to live and pass their scaredy cat genes.
The flightless birds of New Zealand lost their ability to fly because there was no selective pressure to fly (no predators in the remote island).
Same reason people still have fear of animals that can kill them millions of years of “I am a prey animal and pretty much everything wants to eat me.” Don’t just go away.
Why are people scared of rodents, snakes, reptiles, spiders or insects?
It’s the fear of the unknown and they’d rather flee than risk a fight.
Because this is behavior developed over millions of years that is not going to be changed because of recent human developments in the area. It doesn’t cost them anything to be cautious, but might cost them everything to not be cautious.
They have a prey instinct that causes them to flee when confronted with pretty much anything out of the ordinary.
Latest Answers