Something that has long baffled me is why wild animals fear humans. On first thought it would seem most logical that this fear would be a learned response.

In some cases the animal could have been shot at or otherwise experienced a frightening event involving a human. Obviously, this doesn’t wash. I’m quite certain the grosbeaks, cardinals, goldfinches and myriads of other birds at my feeders have never had a bad human experience yet they panic and scatter the moment I step out the door. I can positively say no one has ever shot at the rabbits and squirrels residing on the 50 acres surrounding my house yet they immediately bolt for cover upon seeing me.

If we stay with the learned concept, it makes more sense that this fear is in some way taught to young animals by their mothers. At some point in the family lineage an animal had or witnessed a bad human experience and thus learned to fear humans. Later this animal’s offspring saw the fear exhibited by its mother upon encountering a human so it, too, adopted the fear. Conceivably, in this fashion the fear could be passed on from generation to generation with few or no other frightful human experiences ever occurring.

But this theory doesn’t fly, either. I’ve been in the Canadian bush a hundred miles from the nearest civilization. If a human had ever been in the area, it would be so infrequent and brief that almost none of the animals and birds could have had any contact, much less a bad experience. Yet all these animals still fear us. In many cases this fear isn’t as extreme as with their kin that live alongside humans but it is still there.

Okay, so perhaps it isn’t a learned experience at all.  Could it be a simple matter of size? It would make sense that an animal would naturally be leery of any other animal that is bigger. Then conversely an animal would not fear a smaller animal unless it was known to be an enemy, such as a rabbit fearing a weasel that routinely preys on rabbits three times its size.

This theory seems to have some potential. In the days before guns became the great equalizer tigers, lions, bears and leopards sometimes preyed on humans.  This occasionally happens even today. However, in all of recorded history this has never been the norm. These encounters have always involved desperate, starving animals or those that somehow learned to overcome their natural fear of humans. Also, a 1,200-pound moose that has never seen a human before should not naturally fear a 180- pound man but they do.

Surprisingly, the fear seems more intense in larger animals than smaller ones. Let’s again go back to the remote Canadian bush where animals have had little or no contact with humans. At the mere sight or smell of a human a moose, bear, caribou or wolf immediately heads for cover and often leaves the area entirely. On the other hand, Canadian jays, pine squirrels and grouse, the little guys near the bottom of the food chain that should be the most fearful, are much less so. As long as there’s a comfortable amount of space between them and the human they pretty much go about their business, albeit with caution. I’ve also partially tamed Canadian jays and pine squirrels with food in just a few days. You’re not about to do that with any of the larger animals.

So here we are, no closer to an answer than when we started. If we depart from logic and reasoning there’s another possible explanation.

Open the Bible to Genesis 9:2 where God says, “And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered,” or something similar to that depending on which Bible translation you have. I tend to be the logical type but since there appears to be no logical explanation perhaps this is as good as any.

Carpe diem.

Larry Lyons writes a weekly outdoor column for Leader Publications.
He can be reached at larrylyons@verizon.net