i mean i’ll concede that it’s not entirely ineffective, but i very much question that it would significantly affect their survival.
If a human sees a tiger which they know may well kill another human, they’re not going to give a toss about where the tiger is looking, they’re going to have 5 friends with them who all carry the best weapons they have available to turn that tiger into a rug.
Even arrows or spears wouldn’t have been long enough to develop such a trait. And with those tools, still I don’t think Tiger would have been a primary target for humans. Seems like for most societies felines and canines were just not things we eat. Though maybe hunted for the pelt? In which case maybe they do eat the meat?
Also statistically (since we’re talking evolution) it wouldn’t help much against humans, we’ve got good vision and intellect, the chances to fool us enough times for this adaptation to arise are slim.
Very good point, I didn’t mean to conflate it happened in the last 100 years, more so the data of their deaths that I had access to had that timeliness.
Probably humans, given they went from 100k to 5.6k in population in 100 years and are still in decline.
i mean i’ll concede that it’s not entirely ineffective, but i very much question that it would significantly affect their survival.
If a human sees a tiger which they know may well kill another human, they’re not going to give a toss about where the tiger is looking, they’re going to have 5 friends with them who all carry the best weapons they have available to turn that tiger into a rug.
That’s not long enough to evolve something like this, though.
Even arrows or spears wouldn’t have been long enough to develop such a trait. And with those tools, still I don’t think Tiger would have been a primary target for humans. Seems like for most societies felines and canines were just not things we eat. Though maybe hunted for the pelt? In which case maybe they do eat the meat?
Eating a tiger liver would probably kill you with Vitamin A poisoning, a particularly painful affliction.
Easy to just avoid eating entirely, even if the rest of it is safe enough.
Considering evolutionary time scales, this trait may have been a response to something large and dangerous that’s extinct now.
Also statistically (since we’re talking evolution) it wouldn’t help much against humans, we’ve got good vision and intellect, the chances to fool us enough times for this adaptation to arise are slim.
Very good point, I didn’t mean to conflate it happened in the last 100 years, more so the data of their deaths that I had access to had that timeliness.
They are actually doing a bit better than we thought
https://www.npr.org/2022/07/23/1113186725/tigers-population-numbers-endangered-species
Sweet, that’s good to know. WWF needs to update their website. Too many chairs to the face I think.
https://wwf.ca/species/tigers/#:~:text=Sadly%2C tigers are on the,of all remaining wild tigers.
I didn’t know this was something I needed. Stolen!