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Has it ever crossed your mind that wild animals are exactly that WILD! I was at the Maasai Mara recently and of all the wildlife I came across, only the giraffe and antelopes stood out as near friendly. The Buffalos, Elephants and Lions were the exact opposite.

Is isolation the cause of such hostility?

I think it shows the intelligence of those animals ... the fact that they do not want to associate with humans...

If you look at people over the long term there is not a lot of reason for animals to trust humans...:biggrin:

there are a few domesticated exceptions, but they didn't start that way... :smile:KennyV

touree,man is the one animal most wild critters have learned to fear,that's mostly due to being hunted either for food or competion.You can go to places like the Galapagos Islands and see wildlife that has no fear of man because of isolation and never being hunted. russ

That is as it should be.

They're called wild for the sheer contrast with domesticated ones. Rats and rodents are wild animals. Yet they live with humans and they refuse to be domesticated. Good thing they don't attack humans the way they do in the movies.

Larger animals are not used to having humans around. In the wild, anything that moves is either an attacker or a prey. That's what makes them wild.

This reminds me of something. I've been to Singapore's night safari once. After seeing the lions and tigers, the loudspeaker back at the station greeted us this way, "Congratulations for coming back alive and whole."

That is an interesting way of looking at things....I have seen elephants in Asia clearly interacting with animals but question is, how did such associations begin? That was what nature intended it to be. I would never try getting near a buffalo, for heaven's sake.

Here the coyotes are getting brave and approaching humans, that was virtually unheard of just five years ago. They said they are being bread more and more brave. It is scary, there viscous.

This is an interesting thread It's indeed a question isn't it? What makes animals wild and what makes them friendly. I'd like to think that each animal starts out wild. But then some make some "connection" with humans. What happens is that a brave human initiates the connection. When that connection sticks, then that's when friendship and domestication begins. For some reason, man has not made any connection with many wild animals.

But hey, you'll find this absolutely interesting:
YouTube - christian the lion