Despite lions’ strength, speed and ability to hunt in packs, a recent study found that animals in the African Savanna are more afraid of people than lions. According to conservation biologist Michael Clinchey of Western University in Canada, lions should be feared most because they are the largest land predators and hunt in packs.
“Normally, if you’re a mammal, you won’t die of disease or starvation. The thing that will really end your life will be a predator, and the bigger you are, the bigger the predator will end you,” ‘ Says co-author Michael Clinchy, also a conservation biologist at Western University, “Lions are the largest group-hunting land predators on the planet and so they should be the scariest, and so we looked at humans versus lions to find out. are comparing the fear of whether humans are scarier than the most feared non-human predator.”
But after studying more than 10,000 wildlife reaction recordings, scientists found that 95% of animals were more afraid of human noises than lion roars. The idea that animals will become habituated to humans if they are not killed is refuted by this widespread and deeply ingrained fear of humans.
The research team from Western University played recordings of various sounds to animals at waterholes in the Greater Kruger National Park in South Africa. Even in a protected area known to have a large lion population, the animals reacted more strongly to human voices, suggesting that humans are viewed as a significant threat.
“We put the camera in the bear box, not because there are bears in South Africa, but because hyenas and leopards like to chew on them,” says first author Liana Y. Zanet, a conservation biologist at Western University in Canada. , “One night, the lion recording made this elephant so angry that it attacked and tore the whole thing up.”
“I think the prevalence of fear throughout the Savanna mammal community is a real testament to the environmental impact humans have,” says Zanet. “Not just because of habitat loss and climate change and species extinction, which are all important things. But just getting us out there on that landscape is enough to signal the threat that they respond to really strongly.” “They fear death from humans, more so than any other predator.”