Lions are often considered the world’s most dangerous predator, at least by us humans. But according to a new study, carried out in the Kruger National Park in northeastern South Africa, the animal kingdom perceives humans as more dangerous, which also BBC reported on.
When researchers played audio recordings of humans from hidden speakers in waterholes in the park to the savannah animals, about 95 percent of the animals showed extreme fear and quickly ran away.
Fleeed more often and faster from human sounds
But when the recordings were instead replaced with the sounds of lions, the reactions were significantly less. The animals’ propensity to escape was cut in half, and those that ran away did so 30 percent slower on average.
The conclusion the authors draw from the study is that animals seem to have learned that contact with humans is more dangerous than other animals, for example due to hunting with firearms and dogs. A picture that is consistent with other international research.
According to the study, the fear of humans is reasonable, as humans kill more animals than predators do. And according to Liana Zanette, a professor at Western University in Canada and one of the co-authors of the study, fear due to human presence can also affect prey populations in areas.
– Predators kill prey, and that obviously reduces the number of prey. But what we have shown in other work is that the fear that predators instill can also reduce the number of prey, she tells the BBC.