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
>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injuries using only what’s available in the wild, and all the other skills needed because… Well, most of those are all outdated skillsets for a post-industrial, much less modern world.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.
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