Gene Ward Smith <gene@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>:
> > Predators change prey as available niches change.
>
> Vampires are usually depicted as obligate predators on humans, though
> admittedly not in a way which makes any biological sense. If they are
not,
> then they won't be predators on humans at all under most cir***stances,
> since it's a lousy idea.
It is a lousy idea because som far we have been able to beat the crap
out of just about every predator we have encountered. But if we posit
that a vampire is really, really good at it the name of the game
changes.
> >> Human prey are a very
> >> difficult target, and until the rise of civilizations, were too few
to
> >> allow a population of specialized predators anyway.
> >
> > Not really. it all depends on what the requirements are of the
predator
> > relative to the prey population. If the prey population can sup****t a
> > breeding population of the predator (i.e. you are more likley to find
> > them in China than on Easter Island) then there is no reason they
could
> > not appear.
>
> The point is, until relatively recent times the prey population could
not
> sup****t a breeding population of predators. And even today, it would
get
> noticed.
Thst depends on how many humans a vampire needs to kill per year. If we
arte talking about "a few at most", and a species that can sup****t a
very small breeding population.
Idea; it is not actually the vampire that is the predator, it is a
parasite that spreads to new hosts when it is in infectious mode, and in
the rest of the time just alters the hosts behaviour and characteristics
in some way (i.e. making it into a vampire). I think one could argue
for this model without waving ones hands very vigorously. Not something
I expect written up in Nature next month, but not totally out of the
concievable either.
> >> After humans became
> >> numerous, you can imagine specialized predators hiding in our midst,
> >> disguised as us, but you get two questions:
> >>
> >> (1) Where the hell did they come from?
> >
> > Earlier they were preying on monkeys in the jungle, but as people
became
> > more plentifull than monkeys some of them changed prey.
>
> Sort of like the way leopards and jaguars did? Because humans, as is
well
> known, are dead easy. But why, then, are they stuck with humans?
Something in the higher primate makeup that they need?
/Par
--
Par usenet@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
hills nowadays are populated by folk that use their mobile phone to
call out teh SAR when they snap a shoelace.
-- Andy Woodward
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