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   John Carlos Baez (johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Wednesday, 22-Oct-2025 10:17:51 JST John Carlos Baez

   Humans are dangerous and feared. Even in parts of Europe where wolves are supposedly protected, they avoid the sound of people more than the sound of dogs.

   And there's nothing special about wolves here. A researcher in this study said:

   “These results track with basically the same experiment we did in Africa, where we tested the entire savannah mammal community. You know, a lion is the apex predator, and yet pretty much everything across the board was twice as afraid of us."

   https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/10/even-with-protections-wolves-still-fear-humans/

   • Blaise Pabón - controlpl4n3 repeated this.
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     Martin Escardo (martinescardo@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Wednesday, 22-Oct-2025 10:18:20 JST Martin Escardo

     in reply to

     @johncarlosbaez

     Even humans are afraid of humans. And they should be.

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     Strider Uwe 🇺🇦🇨🇦🇲🇽 (uwehalfhand@norcal.social)'s status on Wednesday, 22-Oct-2025 10:18:31 JST Strider Uwe 🇺🇦🇨🇦🇲🇽

     in reply to

     @johncarlosbaez We were apex predators even 50000 years ago… I’ve read that either the Masai or the Zulu, don’t remember which now, will walk into a lion pride’s resting ground, a group of 5-6 young men armed only with spears, and take the lions’ antelope kill away: a test of bravery. And the lions get the F out of the way, too. Because humans are very scary apex predators.

   • Embed this notice
     Martin Escardo (martinescardo@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Wednesday, 22-Oct-2025 10:18:41 JST Martin Escardo

     in reply to

     @johncarlosbaez

     (Or if you just are a woman or a child.)

   • Embed this notice
     Martin Escardo (martinescardo@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Wednesday, 22-Oct-2025 10:18:42 JST Martin Escardo

     in reply to

     @johncarlosbaez I am sure that if you walk in certain parts of the UK or the US, and particularly at certain times of the day, you will be very afraid of humans.

     Blaise Pabón - controlpl4n3 repeated this.
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     John Carlos Baez (johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Wednesday, 22-Oct-2025 10:18:43 JST John Carlos Baez

     in reply to

     • Martin Escardo

     @MartinEscardo - we are actually surprisingly unafraid of other humans, able to crowd into subway cars and trains without panicking. I've heard chimpanzees are much less able to tolerate the presence of unfamiliar chimps. This could be because they live in small groups, or the reason why they do (or both).