• saltesc@lemmy.worldEnglish
    781·
    2 days ago

    Not to alarm anyone, but unless you’re doing the 100m in around 11s or less, current large crocodiles are still faster than you. But if you’re fit enough to keep the speed going, you should outlast them over short enough distance.

    And if you can’t do any of that, well you’ll have to run lateral to it and hope your agility out maneouvers them.

    • Artyom@lemm.eeEnglish
      48·
      2 days ago

      Mythbusters tested whether it was better to zig zag or run straight away from a gator. Turns out, it doesn’t matter, gators won’t chase you.

      • rickyrigatoni@lemm.eeEnglish
        27·
        2 days ago

        They’ve spent hundreds of millions of years sitting in lakes waiting for food to step in their mouths. They deserve to be called sloths more than actual sloths.

        • AngryCommieKender@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          1 day ago

          Some Floridaman has. Apparently their jaws are really good for chomping down, but not that great for opening back up. So, you belly flop on the thing from behind, and it can’t really do a thing to you while you take some shoelaces and tie the gator’s jaws shut. At that point you can transfer the gator to a different swamp that isn’t inhabited by Floridaman. At least that’s the best description I have, of the technique I watched the guy use.

        • Tyfud@lemmy.worldEnglish
          151·
          2 days ago

          It doesn’t necessarily matter. They just don’t like running after prey.

          They can make swift dashes on land to catch prey sunbathing or something that’s escaping, but that’s the limits of what they’d like to do.

          It’s like Pandas. They’re cute as hell, but if it wasn’t for us, they’d have died out already. They’ve evolved themselves to a point where all they eat is one specific plant, and they have such a low sex drive that we can’t even show them Panda Porn to get them horny. We literally have to extract sperm from their balls and inject it into the uterus of the female to make baby pandas.

          Evolution is lazy is what I’m trying to say.

          • aubertlone@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            1 day ago

            Dude you’re completely totally wrong about Pandas.

            Pandas only have fertility issues in captivity. Everything you described just now ONLY applies to pandas living in captivity

            They do just fine in the wild. At least, they

            The reason for their falling population numbers is their loss of habitat.

            And if I remember correctly they have one cub every two years, overall low rate of reproduction but that has more reproductive strategy than anything else.

            Suffice to say: pandas reproduce much more successfully in the wild than previously thought

    • Owl@mander.xyzEnglish
      111·
      2 days ago

      Or that you have the adequate weapons on you, the knowledge and physical ability to use them properly.

  • Tyfud@lemmy.worldEnglish
    351·
    2 days ago

    Alligators can already outrun a person on land.

    They just choose not to. Because they’re lazy and they don’t like running after their prey.

    I suspect the same was probably true of whatever it was we killed off back then too.

    • Bytemeister@lemmy.worldEnglish
      147·
      2 days ago

      Flat solid land? Nah, person wins on any distance over a few feet.

      Through brush and marsh? Nobody beats the gator.

      • Tyfud@lemmy.worldEnglish
        192·
        2 days ago

        That’s not true. And another one.

        TL;DR;

        They can run up to 35mph over short (20-30ft) distances. Then they can run at a slightly slower (though faster than most humans) pace for a sustained period of roughly 100 feet (30ish meters for the non-'mericans).

        In every scenario they can and will catch every human on earth except an Olympic sprinter. And even then, it wouldn’t be a comfortable race for them.

        The reason they don’t chase you down and eat you on land, is because they’ve evolved to be ambush predators from water transitions to land. They are lazy. Simple as that. And their food comes to them in most cases. Why would they want to spend all those calories just to maybe get a un-tasty human? They conserve energy so they can perform several ambush attempts for prey, rather than one long chase.

        In the end, their current approach gets them more calories for the efforts, which is why they’ve evolved that way.

        But they can, on paper, absolutely wipe the floor with you in a sprint over solid, flat land. For 100 feet.

        • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
          2·
          1 day ago

          Yeah, humans are pretty slow compared to most animals. We’re good at long distance running, but nearly every animal out sprints us. I’m sure most of us have tried to catch an animal before. I think the only ones I’ve actually caught are turtles on land and snakes, which weren’t trying to run.

        • Bytemeister@lemmy.worldEnglish
          121·
          2 days ago

          You should try reading your source…

          “Experts say the American alligator’s top running speed clocks in at 11mph.”

          I a fat outta shape slouch, but I think in a life or death situation I could manage 11mph for a few minutes.

          Sure they can burst a good bit of speed, but that 20-30 ft sprint mostly comes from them lunging with all 4 legs and their tail as hard as they can and then maybe 1 or 2 more lunges and some scrabbling.

          It’s mainly a matter of weight and gait. They got stubby little side protruding legs and they weight a ton incomparison to their leg musculature. They can high walk for a good distance, and they can gallop, but only for a few steps.

        • Flocklesscrow@lemm.eeEnglish
          91·
          2 days ago

          Usain Bolt’s fastest recorded speed is 27.79 mph.

          Unless you can dust the fastest man on Earth in a footrace, you’re gonna be a snack.

        • stoicmaverick@lemmy.worldEnglish
          33·
          2 days ago

          They can only do that for about half of one body length though. It’s not really a run, so much as a spring forward to surprise something with their murder mouth, and then pull it back into the water.

          • Tyfud@lemmy.worldEnglish
            61·
            2 days ago

            No, sorry, that’s not true. And another one.

            TL;DR;

            They can run 35mph in that short sprint you’re talking about. Then they can run at a slower (though faster than most humans) pace for a sustained period of roughly 100 feet (30ish meters for the non-'mericans).

  • BaroqueInMind@lemmy.oneEnglish
    375·
    2 days ago

    Fun fact, the reason dragons appear in literally every culture that developed language came from people surviving horrific encounters with enormous crocodiles.