• Question: Are animals REALLY more scared of us than we are of them? Or is that just a lie, are they not scared of us at all?

    Asked by lucyluvslemurs to Charlotte, Jo, Kevin, Louise, Valeria on 15 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by kgriffiths31.
    • Photo: Kevin Mahon

      Kevin Mahon answered on 15 Jun 2012:

      Well we can’t make a statement like that for all animals! I certainly would be able to say that sponges are scared of us!

      What is true is that many of the large mammals humans have encountered in the wild are generally very suspicious and wary of us – which is understandable as we are a rare sight to them.

      Moon Bears are a species that traditionally we thought had a vendetta against humans – attacking us without provocation but now that we know more about how animals perceive our posture/tone of voice and movements, we know that this isn’t true and in many cases like this animals are acting out of fear.

    • Photo: Joanna Cruden

      Joanna Cruden answered on 15 Jun 2012:

      I think it depends on the animal, if they have never seen a human before then they may be more scared but generally speaking they will get scared if you get scared and the reason people may say animals are more scared of you than you are of them is because they feel your fear but don’t know what there is to be scared of whereas you know why you are scared. So if you become less scared the animal will become less scared.

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