For instance, most of us would have a very hard time surviving in the wild. And even then, we need tools in order to survive. Our physical strength is weak compared to many other animals. Why are we so weak compared to other wild animals who have no problem surviving on their own?
In: Biology
We have the best endurance of any animal. Not sure if that counts a strength. Sure a cheetah or dog can run faster than us but they’ll have to stop for a break. Humans can walk and outlast them. It was a tactic used for hunting historically too.
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-humans-evolved-to-be-best-endurance-runners-2018-3
Because we are the smartest animal. If we were any more powerful we’d probably destroy everything by now.
Evolution doesn’t necessarily design the best creature possible, it makes one that can reproduce the best. As it happens, humans reproduce best when they are in large groups, and by being in large groups we don’t have to be stronger than everything else. More humans can hunt easier, and make more advancements since we can share knowledge and pass it down generations much better than solitary predators. We eventually turned from a hunter-gatherer species into an agricultural one as that is even better for sustaining large groups of people. Since we could support more people in our societies, more could successfully reproduce and this means that strength isn’t bred into us like other animals, who can only survive to reproduce if they are the strongest.
I’d wager our brain probably has a lot to do with it, as well as our anatomy. Too much build isnt necessarily good for survival, muscles require alot of energy and in the wild conservation of resources is pretty important.
I say our brain due to our ability to problem solve. We may not be able to lift this object by ourselves but we can create a tool or a means to lift that object, thus not needing the extra strength.
I’ve always thought that it isn’t so much strength where we lag behind animals, rather it is in instinct and reflex. We need to think about the things that we do, which allows animals who just act to have an advantage over us in reaction time.
Although, we do in general lag behind in strength now as well, due to our more sedentary lifestyle.
we are the most intelligent, that allows us to create tools and structures to make surviving easier. Evolution helps animals/species adapt and survive. We went from being hunters/gathers to easy sustainable living.
>For instance, most of us would have a very hard time surviving in the wild
For the vast majority of human history, this wasn’t the case. Your parents weren’t forced to survive in the wild, nor were their parents, or even their parents. Sure, maybe your grandparents or great grandparents or great great grandparents were farmers, but still. Humans are great and making and using tools, but for the vast majority of human/proto-human history, tools other than rocks or rudimentary spears weren’t really a thing.
Why is it so hard now? None of us grew up being taught and being REQUIRED to know how to hunt, forage, build shelter, treat injuries using only what’s available in the wild, and all the other skills needed because… Well, most of those are all outdated skillsets for a post-industrial, much less modern world.
>And even then, we need tools in order to survive
Depends on what you mean by tools. Plenty of animals besides humans use tools. Even outside of apes which use things like sticks and rocks, you have sea otters that use stones to crack open shelled prey, crows using twigs, feathers, or other things to reach otherwise inaccessible objects, elephants waving sticks around to shoo away flies, dolphines using sponges to stir up sand to uncover prey just to name a few. Sure, they may not be super common or as vital for most of these animals as usage of tools is for humans, but it’s an evolutionary advantage that other people in this thread have gone into in more detail.
>Why are we so weak compared to other wild animals who have no problem surviving on their own?
Wild animals die and oftentimes die young a LOT. Probably a lot more than you’d consider. Predators prey on them, they get injured and die, they get disease and die, they starve… The wild is pretty brutal which is part of why humans have devoted so much time, energy, and resources into modifying their environment to be as safe and comfortable for humans as possible – not just in terms of building cities and stuff like that, but even basic agriculture.
Our ‘physical strength’ comes from our strength in numbers and our ability to cooperate. It’s largely attributed to our intelligence and capability of higher order thinking.
The physique of a human is by no means ‘weak’. An adult is physically larger than many animals and can kill them without ‘tools’.
On top of that, things which may seem minor such as opposable thumbs actually give our bodies much more utility than other animals.
We’re not physically strong because we don’t need to be.
Culture has allowed humans to more or less dominate the natural world, and the brain — specifically the planning capabilities of the prefrontal cortex — is what made that happen. It’s not just that individual humans are smart and can invent new tools or ways of finding food, but that we can share the tools and methods with each other. We can make societies that build on previous knowledge and transmit information across time and space. We can plan for the future in ways that other animals cannot.
(This is a paraphrase of one of the central arguments in Russell Barkley’s book “Executive Functions”. I do find it fairly compelling.)
We evolved for endurance in hot dry climates. We evolved a detached shoulder which makes short arm movements less powerful than, say, a chimps, but fast whipping arm motions far more powerful, which is great for throwing things. The ability to throw things is a fantastic advantage. If I come at you with a powerful leg with claws, my claws and leg might break trying to fight you. If my spear breaks, I can just make a new one in a day or two. As far as solitary survival: lots of animals actually have a very difficult time surviving on their own as well. We also are the best endurance runners. If you are decently fit, you can chase an antelope to exhaustion, walk up to it, and stab it. On top of that, you can secure the whole kill, and re-purpose it. A lion will be able to consume some of its kill before it becomes useless and left to the rest of the wild. A human can finely butcher all of the meat off of it, extract nutrients from the carcass left using stewing, turn its skin into protection from the elements and some physical damage, and turn its bones into tools and weapons.
Humans can only do all of these things to the extent that they can because our limbs moved from being pure blunt force muscle to being semi-muscular and highly dexterous, able to deliver somewhat powerful physical force, but also made to multiply the effectiveness of that force by changing the nature of the tools we can make, and how we can use them, and, also, able to make protection so that we can stay in a fight longer without being mortally wounded, all of which require extraordinary dexterity to craft and use effectively (horses can wear armor, but only if humans make it and put it on for them). By losing mastery over our own animal capabilities, we gained mastery over the capabilities of everything else in reality. We evolved to be naked, because we expect to be fortified by the knowledge of our tribe by the time danger arrives. And it is less evolutionary advantageous to live in a tribe of precocious apes, than one of pathetic babies and children, surrounded by hardened veterans, who will eventually becomes hardened veterans themselves if the current hardened veterans can protect them into adulthood.
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