Mom raised abandoned mountain lion cubs. Let's just say I now have no illusions as to my skill fighting an angry possum.
tl;dr: A 90lb. cat with eat your fucking lunch. Even without claws.
this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2025
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Any dude who thinks he can beat a horse is just so wrong. I don't think anything bigger than a bug is possible. I would feel too bad lol
Depends what counts as winning. If leaving the arena counts as forfeit then I reckon I could beat a horse cus I don't think a horse has any desire to be there
If you get prep time surely its easy? What is the horse going to do, I can just make a few spears and set a stick on fire to wave in its face to scare it.
Imagine doing it. Stabbing a weapon into the panicking animal while trying to not get kicked. The blood from the wound makes the weapon slippery and hard to hold...
Could you really? You make it sound so easy, like the people who have not taken a life tend to.
I don't think a horse would choose melee if it can run, and if you prepare for range (multiple javelins), you have an advantage. A gokd hit on the more sensitive parts of the legs can knock it down, and while it keeps running you could collect your projectiles and keep trying. Persistence hunting can wear it out, even if it's faster. Once it's on the ground, finishing it wouldn't be as dangerous any more if you stick it from outside kicking range.
If it does fight up close, yeah, that'd be terrifying, but the range advantage of the spear would give you an edge still. Physically, I think I could pull it off.
Emotionally, I'm pretty sure I couldn't handle it. I'd go down, paralysed at the thought of hurting it.
I mean a horse is certainly bigger than anything I have had to kill, I will give you that.
But I went with spear because it's typically the weapon of choice against cavalry, it gives you distance reducing the chance you get kicked. You can also place multiple spears around you to protect your location, or make traps and scare it into running into them.
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Don't think horses can carry HIV. PreP is not necessary
Ok Mr. Hands...
With or without tools? Tools change the equation big time. The ability of humans (and other monkeys) to throw stuff is probably the closest thing to fucking bullshit sorcery the animal kingdom has ever seen. Even just being able to throw a kinda heavy rock competently can massively level the playing field between a person and a mid-size predator (obviously bears won't give two shits).
I could definitely beat the piss out of a salmon, especially if we were brawling out-of-water. A sheep too. I might get a little hurt, but I think I'd be evenly matched with an angry sheep.
Nah, a sheep would kick my ass. A salmon too probably.
I would say unarmed unprepared combat I could do a coyote. I would be super fucked up but I think I could take one.
See the problem I have with this is that sure, you could take a coyote one-on-one. When is that situation going to happen though? Coyotes typically hunt in duos at minimum. Maybe you're able to get your hands around the first, but you're not going to be able to finish the fight before the second attacks from your blind spot.
A lot of people judge their ability to win in a fight based on their 1v1 matchup, when realistically you should base it on how many you can expect to face at oncem
I mean this whole thought experiment is based on hypotheticals in the first place. I never go anywhere completely unarmed and with my knife that I always carry I could absolutely kill many coyotes.
Many people also conceal carry which would probably change the matchup to something much larger like a wild cat. I know handgun calibers generally only serve to piss off large game like bears and moose so it would probably top out somewhere around a mountain lion if we are allowing what some of us normally daily carry.
Their bites aren't as bad as you might think. They can fuck you up, but they rely on pretty quick attacks, so the risk is more in repeated strikes(from what we've seen with the limited coyote attacks that happen).
Don't recommend going for a straight-on brawl, but if you can get behind one, you might have a chance. Bonus points, they're naturally pretty disinclined to fight a human unless given no other options, so you might be able to slip behind at a point?
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I heard of a grandma taking a bobcat once, so maybe that?
The biggest problem is that most animals will never fight to the death. I could take multiple coyotes if I just need to scare them off. I could take a bear or mountain lion if all I need to do is not die.
Checkmate liberals! 😁
I could take a bear
If the bear actively wanted you dead? It would also hugely depend on the bear. A sunbear? Maybe. A polarbear could kill me just by sitting on me.
Animals only have so much motion to kill you. Polar bears have few food options and aren't as scared of humans, while a lone black bear is more scared of you than you are of it. If you threaten any bear's cubs, they'll end you. However, apex predators rarely fight in the wild unless they have strong motive. They'll often claim and cede territory without fighting directly.
"take in a fight" assumes both sides will be fighting though, not just stumbling upon eachother.
If a small sunbear wants to actively fight me, they're like 30 kilos. I feel like have a nonzero chance against one. Not very much beyond zero though, because it's got claws the size of my fingers
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I think for me the line is somewhere between big dog and wolf lmao