Re: lions, chimps and sticks

Rich Travsky (rtravsky@UWYO.EDU)
19 Oct 95 09:27:02 MDT

hubey@pegasus.montclair.edu (H. M. Hubey) writes:
>rtravsky@UWYO.EDU (Rich Travsky) writes:
>>The chimp's strength has been established. Tho smaller than a human,
>>they can easily knock one down.
>
>Knocking a man down doesn't have to be done like a boxer. It depends
Didn't say it did.

>on the momentum of the hitter, and that depends on velocity
>and mass so lots of animals can knock a man down.
So if something the size of a child slaps you down you're not
impressed. I've been involved in martial arts for about 20 years.
We've a number of smaller adults who simply couldn't compare to
a chimp their size - mass and velocity aren't there naturally.

>>But we're talking about defense against four legged predators,
>>not humans.
>
>Those animals don't know what throwing motions mean. it
>won't scare them and won't work as a defense.
They learn after being hit. Even my cat has acomplished that.

>>How about _many_ stray rocks, thrown by many chimps/humans? Being
>
>I'd have to test the accuracy of chimps first. They don't
>exactly seem set up to be baseball pitchers.
Zoo patrons - pelted by feces and food scraps - would differ with this.

>Finding rocks on the grassy plains is kind of hard.
I live on the grassy plains of south eastern Wyoming. Rocks are not hard
to come by.

>>you? All I have to do is reach to the ground and pretend to pick up
>>a rock. Response: the dog stops his advance or even backs up.
>>Predators are no less capable of making this association.
>
>It's strange to find dogs bevave this way unless it's
>already been pelted with rocks. Maybe it has to do with
>your motions and not with the pretense of picking up rocks
>unless of course, this particular dog has already been
>pelted by all the joggers in the neihghborhood.
It's not strange at all. Joggers can pretty much depend on this
association. Kids are another source of "pelting". Animals can
make this simple association.

>>In the plains? Assuming they traveled alone, instead of the
>>groups they are found in, then yes a chimp is at the same
>>disadvantage any lone animal would find itself in...
>
>It doesn't matter. I'll bet on the hyenas and lions any
>day of the week and twice on Sundays.
It matters much, you just don't want to accept it.

>>The same can be told of early peoples and their relations with
>>predators. It must be effective since they survived...
>
>We don't know where they survived. Isn't that what the
>discussion is about.
Predators had much wider ranges than now. This is an easy scenario.
Without tools, or with primitive ones, they dealt with predators
and survived.

+----------+ Rich Travsky RTRAVSKY @ UWYO . EDU
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