Najakcharmer
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Joined: 5/3/2004
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Lordandmaster
I completely agree with the spirit of what you're talking about, but I still think that if a stingray launches its barb into someone, injects venom, and so on, it's reasonable to call that an "attack." It doesn't say anything about what might have prompted the attack.
I'd call it a natural defensive reaction. I usually think of the word "attack" as describing a deliberately aggressive move as opposed to a defensive reaction or reflex that is automatically triggered by the approach or attack of another creature which initiated the encounter.
quote:
You know very well that vipers can attack even when they're not being threatened. OK, sure, maybe they THOUGHT they might be threatened, but I don't think we have to start getting into the question of what's going through a viper's mind in order just to say that the thing attacked someone and (nearly) killed him.
Would you say in all fairness that you are the attacker if you are quietly minding your own business in your home and a giant who outweighs you by a factor of fifty or so crashes in and scares the bejeezus out of you, startling you into lashing out to avoid being stomped on? From a snake's eye point of view, a human foot is the equivalent of a Mack truck bearing down, likely to cause badly broken ribs at best and fatal internal injuries at worst. Vipers are incredibly fragile, with bones that snap like potato chips, skin that tears like sackcloth and very poor supporting musculature compared to the constrictors. Get up close enough to one to step on it, and as far as the snake's concerned, it's you or him. That's the point at which you will trigger an automatic defensive reflex. Stay out of immediate strike range and you'll be fine.
I'll cheerfully bet my life on the fact that with exceptions in two genera, a wild viper will *not* deliberately move forward to attack a human who is sitting or standing quietly a few feet away and not presenting an immediate threat of injury and death to that animal. They very much do not want to bite you unless they have absolutely no other choice, as it puts them at a rather extreme competitive disadvantage due to venom loss and the very high potential for fang sheath injury when they strike anything that is too heavy to pull back with them as they withdraw the strike. Viper jaw bones are delicate and easy to shatter, and fang sheath tissue is even more so. Stomatitis is no joke for a viper. Solenoglyphs just aren't designed to successfully bite and withdraw from prey that is larger than they can swallow. Venom does have defensive applications, but viper morphology makes it a two edged weapon with a real risk of injury to the animal.
The single circumstance in which a viper will be guilty of attacking, that is deliberately initiating contact with a human of their own volition, would be in a mistaken feeding response. Some species are more prone than others to having a wider range of criteria that can trigger the feeding response, whereas others are very much prey profile specific. None of the "super hot on the feeding trigger" species live in North America, and it would be extremely difficult to imagine a circumstance in which any of our native crotalids would have a mistaken feeding response to a human during an encounter in the wild. Lachesis and Bothrops are the two genera most often guilty of genuine attacks on people, as these species can quite accurately be described as heat seeking missiles with fangs. They are easy to behaviorally manipulate due to this extreme proclivity. They're found in Central and South America. I wouldn't advise wandering around in their territory with a hot cup of coffee or a lit cigarette in your hand. A Lachesis placed on the floor for cage cleaning will zip over to a patch of sunlight on the rug and attempt to eat it. Which is amusing to watch, but probably not so much when the target is your nice warm hand as it swings through the underbrush.
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Tigers most definitely attack human beings who are not harassing them. Human beings are not at fault for ALL violent encounters with animals.
Tigers are in the category of large carnivores which evolution has truly equipped to hunt and eat mammals of human size. So yes, our mere appearance can trigger their natural food getting instincts and prompt an attack. I don't expect the average person here will run into a lot of tigers in the wild, however.
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RE: 'CROCODILE HUNTER' CELEBRITY KILLED BY STING RAY - 
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