People who don't like non-human animals

[Scrapheap]

Actually, since an organism's greatest enemy is usually its own species (since it has the most in common with it and therefore is fighting over similar resources)

Biology 101 FAIL!!!

[Peter]

Actually, since an organism's greatest enemy is usually its own species (since it has the most in common with it and therefore is fighting over similar resources)

Biology 101 FAIL!!!

When was the last time that you found yourself competing with a sparrow or a rabbit for territory and breeding opportunities?

[Blasted]

 :lol:

[Scrapheap]

Actually, since an organism's greatest enemy is usually its own species (since it has the most in common with it and therefore is fighting over similar resources)

Biology 101 FAIL!!!

When was the last time that you found yourself competing with a sparrow or a rabbit for territory and breeding opportunities?

The same time a sparrow and a rabbit engaged in "cooperative hunting" behavior with me. FFS is it so difficult to understand social-group evolutionary theory??

['andersom']

I think the important thing that you're all forgetting whilst busying yourselves with bickering is that I'm the most important person on here and should be adored.

So stop wasting time and get back to adoring me. 

I worship the ground you walked on.

[Peter]

Actually, since an organism's greatest enemy is usually its own species (since it has the most in common with it and therefore is fighting over similar resources)

Biology 101 FAIL!!!

When was the last time that you found yourself competing with a sparrow or a rabbit for territory and breeding opportunities?

The same time a sparrow and a rabbit engaged in "cooperative hunting" behavior with me. FFS is it so difficult to understand social-group evolutionary theory??

Human social evolution wasn't driven primarily by the need to compete more effectively with non-human animals; it was driven by the need to compete more effectively with other humans.  Social aptitude only has a minor impact on an individual's ability to hunt, forage and avoid predation, but it has a huge impact on an individual's ability to secure a breeding partner, and the combined social traits of individuals in a group has a huge impact on the ability of those individuals to compete with individuals in other groups, who as a group may be more or less socially cohesive, aggressive, xenophobic etc.  There's a long history of groups of humans being displaced or wiped out by more aggressive or sophisticated groups of humans, but not so much of a history of groups of humans being wiped out or displaced by sparrows, rabbits or even dangerous predators like lions.

[Alex179]

Humans have no real competition, that is why.   Animals that hunt in packs usually have to compete against other species, and not another pack of their own species.

['andersom']

* microbes, parasites, and malaria mosquitoes approaching now *

[ProfessorFarnsworth]

* microbes, parasites, and malaria mosquitoes approaching now *

* arms the big fucking bug bomb and runs like fuck *

[Peter]

Humans have no real competition, that is why.   Animals that hunt in packs usually have to compete against other species, and not another pack of their own species.

Would you say that wolves are atypical of social predators?

Wolves are territorial animals. Studies have shown that the average size of a wolf pack's territory is close to 200 km2 (77 sq mi).[53] Wolf packs travel constantly in search of prey, covering roughly 9% of their territory per day (average 25 km/d). The core of their territory is on average 35 km2 (14 sq mi), in which they spend 50% of their time.[54] Prey density tends to be much higher in the territory's surrounding areas. Despite this higher abundance of prey, wolves tend to avoid hunting in the fringes of their territory unless desperate, due to the possibility of fatal encounters with neighboring packs.[55] Established wolf packs rarely accept strangers into their territories, with one study on wolf mortality in Minnesota and the Denali National Park and Preserve concluding that 14–65% of wolf deaths were due to predation by other wolves.[56] In fact, 91% of wolf fatalities occur within 3.2 km (2.0 mi) of the borders between neighboring territories.[57] The majority of killed wolves are dominant animals, due to their greater assertiveness in confronting other packs.[58] In rare cases in which a stranger is accepted into the pack, the animal itself is almost invariably a young specimen of 1–3 years of age, while the majority of killed wolves are adults.[59]

Communication between these boundaries is achieved in part through scent marking and howling. Howling is the principal means of spacing in wolf populations. It communicates the location of a core territory as well as enforcing a territory-independent buffer zone around the roaming wolf pack. This territory-independent buffer zone is a means of avoiding encounters with neighboring packs near territory borders.[60] Lone wolves, in contrast, rarely respond to howls, instead taking an "under the radar" approach. Howling communicates a core territory over time, as a wolf packs spends much of their time there.

[Al Swearegen]

"Sewer rat may taste like Pumpkin Pie but I would not know because I would not eat the nasty mother fucker"

[The Member Formerly Known As Sophist]

You are adorable. 

Now doesn't that feel better? 

Actually, since an organism's greatest enemy is usually its own species (since it has the most in common with it and therefore is fighting over similar resources)

Biology 101 FAIL!!!

I would take the time to disagree with you and defend my reasoning but it seems Peter's already beaten me to the punch. 

Go, Peter... go, Peter... it's ya birthday... 

[Scrapheap]

Actually, since an organism's greatest enemy is usually its own species (since it has the most in common with it and therefore is fighting over similar resources)

Biology 101 FAIL!!!

When was the last time that you found yourself competing with a sparrow or a rabbit for territory and breeding opportunities?

The same time a sparrow and a rabbit engaged in "cooperative hunting" behavior with me. FFS is it so difficult to understand social-group evolutionary theory??

Human social evolution wasn't driven primarily by the need to compete more effectively with non-human animals; it was driven by the need to compete more effectively with other humans.  Social aptitude only has a minor impact on an individual's ability to hunt, forage and avoid predation, but it has a huge impact on an individual's ability to secure a breeding partner, and the combined social traits of individuals in a group has a huge impact on the ability of those individuals to compete with individuals in other groups, who as a group may be more or less socially cohesive, aggressive, xenophobic etc.  There's a long history of groups of humans being displaced or wiped out by more aggressive or sophisticated groups of humans, but not so much of a history of groups of humans being wiped out or displaced by sparrows, rabbits or even dangerous predators like lions.

Since Sophist's comment wasn't directed at any one species (humans in particular) you're commiting a fallacy of division.

[Alex179]

14 to 65 percent is a huge swing there, doesn't seem like a real accurate measurement as far as statistics goes.   If it was 60 to 65 percent it would be more convincing. 

[Scrapheap]

14 to 65 percent is a huge swing there, doesn't seem like a real accurate measurement as far as statistics goes.   If it was 60 to 65 percent it would be more convincing. 

  I caught that too.