Wow indeed. This was one of your best interviews and completely changed my viewpoint on the possibility and even necessity of animal/human co-existance in the Anthropocene. As Vidya says, it's the people we have to manage not the animals. That account of the leopard in the kitchen and the children throwing stones at it....wow!!! Case closed.
Thank you! Yes, large animals in the Anthropocene, across species, attack humans incredibly rarely given how many humans there are and how much their habitat overlaps with human-dominated landscapes. Conjecture on my part: there's likely some kind of evolutionary effect at work, with a *very* high selection pressure against attacking or even defending oneself against humans. It really is a question of managing the humans not the animals in many (not all) cases.
Wow indeed. This was one of your best interviews and completely changed my viewpoint on the possibility and even necessity of animal/human co-existance in the Anthropocene. As Vidya says, it's the people we have to manage not the animals. That account of the leopard in the kitchen and the children throwing stones at it....wow!!! Case closed.
Thank you! Yes, large animals in the Anthropocene, across species, attack humans incredibly rarely given how many humans there are and how much their habitat overlaps with human-dominated landscapes. Conjecture on my part: there's likely some kind of evolutionary effect at work, with a *very* high selection pressure against attacking or even defending oneself against humans. It really is a question of managing the humans not the animals in many (not all) cases.