Every Animal That's Afraid of You (Only One Isn't)

What's the scariest sound in Africa? Not a lion's roar. Your voice. Eight animals that are afraid of you, ranked, and the only animal on Earth that isn't. Crows in Seattle held a grudge against one caveman mask for 17 years. Badgers in England waited two hours to come out after hearing a person calmly reading out loud. Just one car every two hours was enough to put elk on alert. Wolves killed two people in all of Europe and North America in nineteen years. At watering holes around Kruger National Park, 95% of animals were more scared of people talking than of lions. Elephants can tell from one sentence which people are dangerous. And fifteen lions backed off from three hunters who simply walked straight at them. Only one animal isn't afraid of you at all. It sleeps on park benches. Chapters: 0:00 The scariest sound in Africa 0:11 #8 The crow 1:07 #7 The badger 1:53 #6 The elk 2:50 #5 The wolf 3:46 #4 The giraffe 4:54 #3 The elephant 6:03 #2 The lion 7:04 #1 The only animal that isn't afraid of you 8:00 The dodo 8:30 The scariest animal on Earth Watch next: Every Animal That Could Snatch You (Only One Actually Can): https://youtu.be/fL-4wlCoBvE?si=x602gQfmlYgpCfbb Sources: - Zanette et al., Current Biology, 2023: wildlife in Kruger fears human voices more than lions: https://publish.uwo.ca/~lzanette/papers/Zanette_et_al_2023.pdf - Animals of the safari are more afraid of humans than lions (Scientific American): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/animals-of-the-safari-are-more-afraid-of-humans-than-lions - Darimont et al., Science, 2015: humans are superpredators (Raincoast Conservation Foundation): https://www.raincoast.org/2015/08/humans-are-superpredators-like-no-other-species/ - John Marzluff's caveman mask study, University of Washington (The Conversation): https://theconversation.com/never-cross-a-crow-it-will-remember-your-face-2121 - Crows hold grudges against individual humans for up to 17 years (University of Washington): https://urban.uw.edu/news/crows-hold-grudges-against-individual-humans-for-up-to-17-years - Clinchy, Zanette et al., Behavioral Ecology, 2016: badgers and the human voice: https://publish.uwo.ca/~lzanette/papers/Clinchy_Zanette_et_al_Behav_Ecol_2016.pdf - Human disturbances keep elk on high alert (University of Alberta): https://www.ualberta.ca/folio/2012/11/human-disturbances-keep-elk-on-high-alert-study.html - Female elk learn to avoid hunters as they age (University of Alberta): https://www.ualberta.ca/science/news/2017/june/female-elk-learn-to-avoid-hunters-as-they-age - Rocky Mountain elk (National Park Service): https://www.nps.gov/brca/learn/nature/rocky-mountain-elk.htm - Gaynor et al., Science, 2018: wildlife switches to the night shift near people (EarthSky): https://earthsky.org/earth/more-wildlife-night-shift-avoid-humans/ - Are wolves dangerous to humans? (International Wolf Center, on the NINA report by Linnell et al., 2021): https://wolf.org/wolf-info/factsvsfiction/are-wolves-dangerous-to-humans/ - Did dogs domesticate themselves? (American Kennel Club): https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/lifestyle/did-dogs-domesticate-themselves/ - Elephants recognize the voices of their enemies (Scientific American): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/elephants-recognize-the-voices-of-their-enemies/ - Bates et al., Current Biology, 2007: elephants and the smell of Maasai clothing (ScienceDaily): https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071018123714.htm - BBC Human Planet, "Grasslands": three Dorobo hunters and fifteen lions (ENN): https://enn.com/articles/42771 - Smith et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 2017: pumas fear the human voice (UC Santa Cruz): https://news.ucsc.edu/2017/06/puma-fear/ - Galapagos sea lions in town (Eduardo Infantes): https://www.eduardoinfantes.com/sea-lions-galapagos-islands/ - Sea lions take over beach chairs in the Galapagos (Action News Jax): https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/trending-now/sea-lions-cuddle-on-beach-chairs-on-galapagos-islands/218025197/ - Galapagos National Park rules (Galapagos Conservancy): https://www.galapagos.org/travel/park-rules/ - Charles Darwin quotes from the Galapagos (Galapagos Conservation Trust): https://galapagosconservation.org.uk/charles-darwin-quotes-from-galapagos/ - Cooper et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 2014: island animals are tamer (Phys.org): https://phys.org/news/2014-01-islands-animals-tamer.html - The dodo (Oxford University Museum of Natural History): https://oumnh.ox.ac.uk/node/315156 The host's own "experiments" with masks, bedtime stories and loudspeakers are just for fun. #animals #science #wildlife