[OC] When the 1 Gorilla vs 100 Humans debate was going on, I asked people how many average humans they think it would take to defeat 1 of each of these animals:

Posted by DM_me_fun_stuff_pls

43 Comments

  1. DM_me_fun_stuff_pls on

    Source: A Google Forms survey over at r/SampleSize . Sadly My Sample Size is relatively small at n=57. But I thought the trends might still be fun to see. (Link to the Form https://forms.gle/e4vzKwZ1UcSm62ta6) The question was if they were humans of the same skill level and strength as them. As well as unarmed.

    Tools: Google Sheets. Taking the Average of all answers, counting a “couldn’t defeat” the same as 500 (Max answer) for ease of calculation. The results are a bit swingy due to the low sample size and have decently large but not gigantic standard deviations.

    I have tried my best to filter out obvious joke answers, like the person that stated that they could 1v1 any animal except for a Chihuahua…

  2. people are really underestimating ostriches.
    I wish you had added confidence intervals to see which animals are the most controversial.

  3. More than 1 for cats andraccoons 180 for elephants? They realize we have been hunting elephants for millennials?

    If anything, this data shows that the modern human is so disconnected from animal processing that they have really no clue of what they and what animals can do.

    But I guess the gorilla debate showed this already. Most of us have also forgotten that our strength is in endurance and tricks, and that most dangerous animals have really comparably low endurance and can be withered down easily, if you don’t charge at them directly and evade them for some time.

  4. Is the “Chihuahua” bar a little bit bigger because it takes 2 people?

    I think a teenager can kick that thing dead.

  5. RampagingPenguins on

    Is the question about Humans with bare hands or anything they can craft with x amount of people from their surroundings or anything is allowed? Because all of this would lead to very different numbers.

  6. I really want to know what 40 people are going to do with a box jellyfish.

    if your smart then one person with a stick could do the job.

    if they are dumb and try picking it up by hand then it has more then enough venom for all of them

  7. apple_pi_chart on

    Do a scatter plot of the the “weight of the animal” vs “assumed number of humans”. Distance from the best fit line will be the “assumed ferocity” of each animal.

  8. I will give this chart props for not including Canadian Geese, knowing full well that a single goose can defeat an infinite amount of humans.

  9. Moose should be higher up this list. I would fight a mountain lion before I’d fight a moose, those things are huge

  10. Do they really think it would take 6+ men for a goat and a penguin? Solo farmers routinely wrangle goats by themselves and the largest emperor penguins weigh 46 kg. 30 men for a giant tortoise and 40 for a box jellyfish? One person can rip it to shreds in seconds even though its’ likely to kill them later.

  11. thearizztokrat on

    How do you kill a blue whale without weapons? Like that was the debate that it was hand to hand combat only.

  12. A lot of people out there haven’t seen a coyote relative to a wolf or a pit bull

    Edit: or a hyena(!)

  13. A lot of those numbers would drop dramatically if humans were allowed to use basic wood spears.

    Hell even a fist sized stone for each human changes the whole equation

    I just say that because its arguably one of the two big reasons humans even prevailed. Pack bonding and basic weapons. Having a human fight without anything basic is like telling a Lion he isnt allowed to bite to hard.

  14. The fact that cat was greater than 1 is hilarious.

    I’m stuck at 1 until cow and only because it jumps to such a bulky animal for one sec person. Everything else seems manageable with a good plan. I’m assuming no weapons but able to use the environment, aka two things stuck in an empty room. For that greater than 1 would start at anaconda, but I’d still consider wolf 1.

  15. My grandfather told me about that time the great tortoise was tormeting their village. They gathered a force of 30 men, counting him, barely enough for just a risky quest but that’s all they had.

    They marched towards where the tortoise was resting and circled it, ready to attack, but just as they started charging another tortoise appeared from behind a rock. “Retreat! Retreat!” someone shouted, but it was too late. The second tortoise advanced at a slow yet ominous pace, so intimidating the men’s legs refused to move.

    In the chaos, my grandfather crawled away as the tortoises slowly but surely defeated every man, becoming the only one who survived to tell the tale. He still has nightmares about it to this day.

  16. I have no idea how 200 people would kill a blue whale in the water…. like… I don’t think 5000 people could because the whale would simply swim away.

  17. Do we have to drown the whale? Or is 200 just the crew size it takes to get clean burning lamp oil?

  18. It’s so sad imagining all of those passive animals like cows just getting beaten up on by a gang of humans….

  19. 1 person can kill a Box jellyfish

    not fucking 40

    oh and everything turns into 1 person with a 9mm

  20. It’s funny that most of these are wild exaggerations but then there are two that seems extremely optimistic, how are any amount of humans suppose to beat a great white or a blue whale in water??

  21. Ridiculous. Aren’t crocodiles stronger than alligators? And why are multiple humans needed for a chihuahua? And why are more humans needed for defeating a box jellyfish? One human can do that if necessary. He’ll die as well but whatever, a win is a win.

  22. Given how useless we are in the water, I can’t see 200 unarmed humans taking down a blue whale. 

  23. People are definitely unaware of the relative sizes of animals.

    How did an American alligator end up with a higher number than a Nile Crocodile?

  24. People think an ostrich is easier to beat than an eagle or a coyote or a tortoise? Have y’all mfs seen an ostrich before?

  25. The number for giraffe is is wild. A 2 tonne giraffe will take the head off a lion like it’s nothing

  26. What were the specifics of the question? Can the humans have weapons? If the humans don’t have weapons then I think you’d need a lot more to defeat a blue whale or elephant. And if they do have weapons then you’d need a lot less.