Cats, dogs, bears, owls, weasels. Most of them could seriously injure/kill an average human with minor difficulty and yet we find them adorable?
Does not compute.
I wouldn’t consider dogs predators like cats are. Cats can easily survive in the wild. Dogs cannot as easily. They mostly need people to survive. Some breeds probably could but a lot would be absolutely fucked. I’d take dogs off that list lol.
Wild dogs exist on all continents except Antarctica. Dogs are actually very good at surviving on their ownthey just require a “pack”
I’ll admit i did no research aside from a 2 second google search and mostly pulled that out of my ass :-P
“Who’s a cute little pedophile?”
The things we find cute are not necessarily the things which we associate with predators. We find prey animals cute too.
The peacock jumping spider is cute af.
They are the end results of millions of years of evolution prioritizing speed, strength, and stealth.
They are simply elegant and have to be strongly assertive to survive.
They have a spark of danger while we’re not living in competition with them, or for most of us, we’re not in any danger from them.
They share a number of qualities of things most humans would be attracted to aesthetically.
They’re the pro athletes of the animal world.
If you picked an animal to come back as if you were reincarnated, would you want to be a rabbit or a cow when you could be an eagle or a shark?
Most aren’t killing for fun (looking at you, house cats!), they’re just doing what is required of them to survive. It’s a brutal world for all wild animals, from the single celled to a whale. A predator is no worse than anything else trying to make it to the next tomorrow.
It’s funny you say this because I’ve heard people who believe in karma and reincarnation talk about coming back as a tiger like it’s bad thing.
Interesting. I tried looking it up quick but didn’t see anything that would be bad. Buddhism and Hinduism seem to regard tigers as symbols of strength and valor and as protectors. There are an almost infinite number of beliefs though, so I won’t doubt others believe the opposite just as well.
The only guess I could come up with is maybe if you were a tiger people would ask be afraid of you and possibly want to hurt you for being so potentially dangerous.
I like spiders. wait fuck they are predators too. the only animal which I can think of that aren’t, are fish, and heck yeah, one of my favorite animals IN THEORY but they just suck, I mean they are in the water, how will you cuddle or form a bond, you will drown upon entering the fish’s dome, it will suffocate upon entering your world. it is an impossible relationship, it cannot be. I want floating fish in air, can someone engineer this
we are configured to find child-like things cute, and they theyre appearance throws a lot of that at us.
owls have giant, child-like eyeballs. bears have roly-poly bodies…
If not friend, why friend shaped?
Ask Little Red Riding Hood.
“Why such big teeth?” “To better eat you.”
I suspect that there’s a relationship between cute and being eaten by the parents of cute.
Agreed. I find rodents cute. Rats absolutely included.
Then there’s the dog question. My position:
- huskies, collies, spitzes - cute
- labradors, dachshunds - moderately cute
- poodles, pugs, bloodhounds - not cute (at all)
bears… are cute? 🤨
Also, I’m pretty sure my cat cannot eat me.
I always remind my cat “btw, I’m bigger than you, you can’t eat me you know” just in case she gets hungry.
From behind a lens? Adorable and majestic, frankly!
Scary! But a baby bear is cute. Because of mammal instincts to take care of baby
That’s cute and all, but it’s a far different thing to see one up close and personal, and trailing a couple of cubs. Like I did last week.
My 170lbs dog could eat me if he decided to. He would get less cuddles then so he has high incentive not to
Lions and Tigers are cats.
Oh my God I once saw a black bear get stressed out after wandering into the neighborhood. Truly had no idea what to do about all the people other than climb and try to hide in a tree that it then got stuck in.
Eventually it was tranqued and they caught it fireman style with a tarp held underneath it as it slipped out of the tree.
I’d probably have a less cute story if it was a Polar, Grizzly or Kodiak bear though.
This is an evolved trait. Cute babies are less likely to be eaten. Over time, babies become more cute because they were selected for.
Excellent question! I was pondering exactly this conundrum just the other day while watching a snow leopard on BBC Earth. That thing would rip your face off but wow, what a gorgeous beast! I almost ache to pet it.
Actually my pondering went even further. Not only are cats and owls and bears cute, they are much cuter than than our cousins the primates. And it get worse! I for one find that monkeys are cuter than apes, and that our closest cousins the chimpanzees are really pretty fugly indeed. Even the babies. Maybe especially the babies.
What a weird world.
It’s a bit like how people closely related to you are not attractive.
Except in Alabama
Ha. Except, jokes aside, I’m not sure it’s true. Obviously this is getting into dangerous territory but, as I understand it, people do tend to go for their own ethnic group disproportionately.
Then again, sexual attraction does seem to be qualitatively different. After all, that snow leopard would go straight to the friend zone if you know what I mean.
I think it’s more like an uncanny valley phenomenon. Or it could be that humans are largely neotenous and other primates haven’t developed that trait, so they remind us of old, or diseased members of our own species at a unconscious level.
Or it could be both. Strange hairy men that live in the woods? Avoidance response activated.
Yep, that’s the self-domestication thesis. Humans have selected themselves to look young and inoffensive, a bit like how they transformed wild ox into cows and wolves into, uh, poodles.
It definitely explains the ape paradox.
Maybe it has something to do with our coevolution with canines? Just speculation on my part.
Jus wook at dem! ☺️
This is the exact response I’d expect from you lmfao
kindred spirits
You just listed a bunch of mammals, not a representative sample of predators. You think lobsters and spiders are cuter than cuter than deer and koalas?
edit: oops, 4 mammals and a bird
Jumping spiders are kinda cute.
Owls are not mammals. Also many people think certain spiders are cute and same with many lizards and amphibians.
Frogs are cute, jumping spiders are cute, geckos are cute. They’re all predators but they’re still cute
Good point.
Which raises another paradox: attractive does not seem to be a proxy for appetizing.
At least for most people. Personally I find lobsters creepy as hell and would never even touch one much less eat it.
Spiders of the sea. Crabs too. I wouldn’t want to touch one that wasn’t cooked.
Although I find the comparison discomforting to think about, the sea spiders both go well with butter and are generally regarded as delicious.
That introduces the question: if there were a land spider large enough to nullify the risk/reward/deliciousness equation, would I give it a try? My gut answer is no, but I think the realistic answer is, “I’ll wait and see what my fellow apes do with it first. If they have any good recipes, probably yes.”
Fascinating subject. I seem to be out of the ordinary here. To me it is completely unignorable that crustaceans are arthropods, i.e., close cousins of insects and spiders, which I would never be able to eat. Ergo, I find the idea of eating crabs and lobsters and shrimps just as gross as the idea of eating tarantulas and would never touch any of them.
Similarly, it is completely obvious to me that rats and mice are close cousins of hamsters and squirrels. Hence I find them all equally cute and cuddly.
My guess is that my mind is abnormally literal. In other words I’m probably a bit autistic. Most people are just more socially conditioned than me. Waiting to see what their fellow apes do first, as you put it.
What’s funny is that I also think I’m on the spectrum.
And to continue the conversation - my husband and I have been talking about visiting a South American country this summer where roasted guinea pig is on the menu. I honestly think I could give it a try even though I try to save any mice that my cats corner.
Food choices are both weird and personal. I’ll always respect that.
Yeah I could eat guinea pig. At a pinch.
I read once that all mammal flesh is roughly indistinguishable in texture and taste. Yes, including humans. Chimps think nothing of chowing on monkeys. The reality is that we’re all extremely close cousins.
It’s basically all just culture, as you say. Enjoy your guinea-pig stew.
