Dangerous Animal Encounters – Section 2.1 Body Language
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Learning how to read animal body language
Before we get into specific animals and how to avoid or react to dangerous encounters with them it is important to understand that most animals largely communicate by closely scrutinizing of the body language of others. This is done both inside and outside of their species and includes humans. Animals use body language cues to detect everything from threat, aggression, fear, alarm, strength and confidence, awareness, relaxation, stress, and health and injury among other things.
Identifying intent
Remember, in the natural world intent means everything. A relaxed house cat laying on its side and sunning itself will probably draw very little attention from birds feeding nearby. If that same house cat gets up and begins crouching or hiding, you will see the birds cease feeding, alarm intensely, and even begin scolding the cat once they are safely out of its reach. It’s the same cat, but it is broadcasting different intentions.
You can most certainly personally relate to this phenomenon. Imagine an average man walking down a well-lit street at night smiling and nodding at those he passes. Now imagine that same man crouching in the shadows slowly scanning the faces and bodies of those who pass by. Even though it is the same man, these two scenarios result in completely different emotions. We assume that the individual in the first scenario poses no danger while the individual in the second has sinister intention.
We’ll get into the how and when to use different body languages later in the course but for now, I want to just generally go over different types of body language and how these actions will be read by other creatures.
Eyes matter:
Humans are predators – wait, we are?
Not only are we predators, but we are some of the most successful predators that have ever lived on the Earth. Even without past experience with our species other animals understand that humans are predators because of the placement of our eyes in the front of our head. Predators have eyes in the front of their heads to allow for accurate depth perception, which is vital for catching prey. Prey animals are more interested in overall awareness than predators so they have eyes placed on the sides of their heads to give them a much wider field of view.
Other animals are very familiar with this concept and both predators and prey will feel more threatened by predators (i.e. animals with eyes in the front of their heads).
So why does this matter? Well it matters for a couple of reasons. Firstly, you need to understand that no matter what actions you take in an animal encounter you are going to be viewed by other animals as a predator. You can assume non-threatening body language to make yourself seem like a non-threat, but you are still a predator. (Even if you are a vegan…) Being seen as a predator isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It can go either way, when dealing with many animals, posing as a big bad predator can give you a huge advantage; with others (i.e. big bad predators) it can be dumb and/or deadly.
Secondly, the eyes themselves matter. Lets go back to the mind’s eye picture I asked you to conjure up of the crouching cat. When hunting, that cat’s eyes are fixated on their prey, watching every little move as it creeps ever closer or prepares to spring. Your eyes matter too. In the animal world, a predator staring at another animal is most often considered aggressive behavior and generally gives off one of two messages, either, “I’m about to try to kill and eat you” or “Do you want to fight? If you don’t, then you had better submit, if you do, then bring it on!”.
Direct eye contact (or intently staring directly at an animal) = aggression and/or projected dominance. If you want to establish dominance and project aggression stare intently or make direct eye contact, if you want to establish a non-threat message look away.
Imagine a dog that is growling and barking at you fiercely as you approach its yard. Its eyes are fixated on you. Now think of a dog that is being scolded by its master. The punished (submissive) dog is looking down and away.
An important note:
When projecting non-threat you don’t need to, nor should you, let the animal that you are looking away from out of your sight. You should instead look slightly down and slightly away but keep the animal in your peripheral vision so that you can continue to see and track its behavior and adjust accordingly.
