(May 14, 2021 at 4:08 am)Brian37 Wrote:(May 9, 2021 at 11:44 am)Anomalocaris Wrote: Every complex organism is a big package of exploitative opportunities for other organisms. Even the strongest apex Marco predator is but an ambulatory meat locker for parasites and pathogens.
So there seems to be nothing more than particular squeamishness in picking out macro-predation as more distasteful than infection or any other exploitative inter-species relationship.
We might think we, by virtue of intelligence and technology, are the ultimate apex predators, but nature guffaws loudly at our pretenses and fabricated numerous different organisms designed to feast exclusively our species. By all indications most of these, as species, are prospering as never before.
Humans unfortunately DO widely think we are an "apex" species. But this current pandemic should teach us a lesson.
Parasitism and disease are not predation. Good arguments can be made that humans, in most scenarios, are apex predators.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
