…stop acting like food.
Remember a couple of years ago when the news reported a rash of coyote attacks in the Northeast? They never really stopped, it seems, and people around here find it perplexing. We’re up to our collective ass in coyotes around here, and with simple precautions they’ve really proven no problem at all. At least most of the time.
But of course that exception shows why the rule is that coyotes leave us alone. Coyotes are smart, adaptable, and opportunistic: They go where the food is, but they’re not interested in getting killed. They quickly learn that humans are too dangerous to be considered prey – in places where they’re actually dangerous. In places where people have decided they’re above all that, like Massachusetts, the coyotes will learn that it can’t really hurt to try taking a bite. Your pets, your livestock, and even your children become legitimate prey. Hey, mother nature’s a bitch. If you’re not going to defend what’s yours, welcome to the menu.
You know another species of smart, adaptable and opportunistic predators? Human beings.
Back in the days before reliable handheld firearms and cell phones, highway robbery was a thing. Groups of bandits would ambush lone travelers out in the middle of nowhere, far from help and unable to defend themselves. It was the perfect crime, and was a popular method of robbing and murdering people in the United States right through to the early 1900’s. It remains a popular method of robbery and murder in much of the disarmed world (like South Africa and India) but it isn’t something very common in much of the United States. Except in . . .
New Jersey.
Granted that this was a pretty clueless attempt at highway robbery, I’m not surprised at where it took place. If I heard of such a thing happening on a road around here, I’d be thunderstruck. And I’d inquire about the body count.
… stop acting like food
Paul Rosolie claims he’ll journey into the belly of the beast for Discovery Channel: What he’s referring to is shoving his head into the mouth of an anaconda, letting it swallow him, and filming the experience for a Discovery Channel special called Eaten Alive
Somehow, seemed related.
Such is the way of things. I think that the reason that humans were able to rise to the level of apex predator, in spite of our obvious disadvantages in tooth and claw at first, was because of our sense of vengeance.
When animals eat other animals, they shrug it off as a thing that happens. When animals eat people, we track them down and kill them in horrible and creative ways. This is why the human male grief response is more often than not anger. Sad that your niece was killed by a wolf? Time to go kill you some wolves, eh?
That anger, and the requisite sense of vengeance, is what caused us to rise to the top. Now that we’re here, we’ve become complacent, and mother nature is reminding us to get off our duffs and stay on top.
Jed;
I saw that too. Gives me the willies, but the upshot is that it’s total bullshit. The amount of pressure he’s talking about being under would be deadly. No breathing for you, pal, I don’t care what kind of “snake proof” suit you’re planning on donning.
Also, he claims he doesn’t want to “harm” the snake, but getting himself back out of the snake after he’s swallowed seems to be a difficult task to do without hurting the animal.
It’s a publicity stunt. I figure he’ll shove his head in it’s mouth, then come up with some sort of BS excuse like “the snake isn’t swallowing me!!eleventy1!!” and then call it off because the “snake isn’t cooperating!”
But he’ll get a shit ton of viewers… And that’s all he wants.
I see that, and all I can think of is the Men’s ‘Being Eaten By A Crocodile’ event.