Animals Fear Humans More Than Lions In South Africa's Wild: Study

Over 10,000 recordings showed that 95% of animals reacted more strongly to human sounds than lion roars.

Despite lions' power, speed, and capacity for pack hunting, a recent study found that animals on the African savanna are more afraid of people than lions. Lions should be the most feared since they are the largest land predators and hunt in packs, according to conservation biologist Michael Clinchy of Western University in Canada.

"Normally, if you're a mammal, you're not going to die of disease or hunger. The thing that actually ends your life is going to be a predator, and the bigger you are, the bigger the predator that finishes you off," says co-author Michael Clinchy, also a conservation biologist at Western University. "Lions are the biggest group-hunting land predator on the planet and thus ought to be the scariest, and so we're comparing the fear of humans versus lions to find out if humans are scarier than the scariest non-human predator."

But after studying more than 10,000 wildlife reaction recordings, scientists discovered that 95% of the animals were more afraid of human noises than lion roars. The idea that animals would grow acclimated to people if they weren't killed is refuted by this widespread and deeply ingrained fear of humans.