More feared than lions – 10/28/2023 – Reinaldo José Lopes

“There is not a single humble animal in England that does not flee from the shadow of man, like a banshee from Purgatory. No mammal, no fish, no bird fails to do so. Just extend the path of your walk to the ravine of a river and even the fish will dart away from you. You have to have done something serious, believe me, to be feared like that in every element there is.”

These terrible words come from the mouth of an elderly King Arthur in “The Once and Future King”, a series of fantasy novels written by the British TH White (1906-1964). . The books, in addition to recounting the Arthurian cycle with delicacy and passion, investigate the violent tendencies of human nature, thinking about the relationship between our species and other animals. And, at least with regard to the paragraph I just quoted, White hits the nail on the head. Everything indicates that there is no more feared predator than Homo sapiens on the face of the Earth.

Experimental data that corroborates this idea comes from a study recently published in the specialized journal Current Biology. The work, coordinated by Liana Zanette, from Western University, in Canada, used an automated system of cameras and speakers to try to quantify the fear of threats in a wide variety of African mammals.

We’re talking about 19 species that are exactly what you’d expect from the charismatic fauna of the African savannah: rhinos, giraffes, buffaloes, hippos, zebras, leopards — the dream of any child interested in putting together a collection of stuffed animals, in short.

Zanette and her colleagues installed their research apparatus in the Kruger National Park, one of the most important protected areas in South Africa. The devices were placed, during the dry season, around “water holes” — small lakes, sometimes temporary, which are the main source of water for the region’s fauna in periods of little rain. Many different species gather in (relative) peace around water holes, so this type of place is ideal for studying the reactions of different types of mammals at the same time.

The speakers around the “water fountains” could reproduce a series of different sounds: humans talking in African languages ​​common in the region, the sound of weapons being fired, dogs barking (the last two would be a clear indication of a hunt taking place), lions roaring and bird vocalizations. The cameras, in turn, were ready to record the reactions of the animals present to the sounds. Experimental design simpler than this, impossible.

And it happened that nothing, not even the sounds of gunfire or the roar of lions, made more animals flee, and with greater speed, than hearing the human voice. When faced with recordings of conversations, visitors to the “water holes” were twice as likely to flee, and fled at 40% greater speed than when faced with the sounds of lions. There is practically no exception to this pattern, even in the case of giants like African elephants.

The work corroborates other smaller-scale studies and makes it clear that the only global superpredator alive today is humans. As this type of pressure can affect the reproductive and feeding capacity of animals under stress, it is necessary to incorporate this fact into conservation strategies and, with any luck, mitigate it. The least that can be expected from a predator so fearsome that it is capable of understanding the consequences of its own voracity is to have some moderation and live up to its nickname. sapiens.

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