Don’t underestimate the power of a pointy stick. Whatever size advantage the beast may have, it’s not going to be able to simply ignore stab wounds.
Look at it this way, if you were naked and unarmed, and a dozen or more little imps as tall as your knee started stabbing at you from all angles with spears that can easily rupture your vital organs, how brave would you be to charge at them and try to kill them all with your bare hands?
Strong disagree. The sheer maneuverability advantage a gorilla has (over a mammoth) makes it considerably harder for unarmed fighters. A reach weapon that you can poke at the mammoth’s ass, forcing it to run and exert itself on defense. I don’t think the mammoth is killing as many humans as the gorilla, or even a proportional amount.
My only source for fighting animals is my experience fending off a wild dog. But tell me I’m wrong, I want to hear why so I can counterpoint.
A gorilla to a human is nowhere near the same difference. A large gorilla is ~500 lbs. There are healthy humans almost that heavy. Even if you average it down to 200lb able bodied men, the gorilla won’t have the capacity to kill that many passive men before it’s a panting heap on the floor.
Could you kill 100 passive large mandrills before tiring out? Could you kill 100 not passive mandrills before dying? That’s the situation the gorilla is in.
People seem to have this vision of gorillas as raging murder beasts, but nothing could be further from the truth. Frankly, I don’t think a gorilla definitively wins even 10 on 1. 100 on 1, the poor gorilla doesn’t stand a chance.
… I’m starting to understand why the Roman Colosseum did all those animal matchups… I wonder if people have kept records of the victors over the centuries.
Disclaimer: I’ve never fought a gorilla, or obviously a mammoth.
I’d believe it if someone told me a grown human could survive a glancing blow from a gorilla. If he has his focus on you then yeah you’re fucked, but if he’s surrounded by 30 guys with 70 more waiting to reinforce, his attention is probably going to be a bit scattered.
If you get hit by anything on a mammoth, either kicked or tusked, by sheer difference of mass I expect you’re out of that fight. One good trampling tantrum might take out 20 guys who are trying to be in melee range. Mammoth is going to burn through the reinforcements a lot faster I think.
If we’re allowed to throw the spears though this might change the entire fight, for both fights.
Also, looking into it, I can’t find any videos of an elephant kicking behind itself. I’m not sure that it has any way of defending its backside. I assume mammoths are similar.
I don’t understand why it would change the unarmed gorilla fight? But yes I would assume throwing the spears is almost certainly the most common tactic tbh.
Edit: but also we are talking about spears. If attacking from behind, at spear range, I don’t think a mammoth has opportunity for a trample attack. They would certainly need to swing around and attack with their tusks, giving attackers ample time to back up.
OK I assume the hypothetical implies either the humans are bare handed or that the gorrilla also gets a weapon.
Though, outside of hammers and swords I don’t think that really gives the Gorrila much of an advantage…
tbf, 100 unarmed men vs. a gorilla is probably about the same difficulty level as 20 men armed with literal sticks vs. a mammoth
Don’t underestimate the power of a pointy stick. Whatever size advantage the beast may have, it’s not going to be able to simply ignore stab wounds.
Look at it this way, if you were naked and unarmed, and a dozen or more little imps as tall as your knee started stabbing at you from all angles with spears that can easily rupture your vital organs, how brave would you be to charge at them and try to kill them all with your bare hands?
Visualizing this made me think twice, even trice
Strong disagree. The sheer maneuverability advantage a gorilla has (over a mammoth) makes it considerably harder for unarmed fighters. A reach weapon that you can poke at the mammoth’s ass, forcing it to run and exert itself on defense. I don’t think the mammoth is killing as many humans as the gorilla, or even a proportional amount.
My only source for fighting animals is my experience fending off a wild dog. But tell me I’m wrong, I want to hear why so I can counterpoint.
A gorilla to a human is nowhere near the same difference. A large gorilla is ~500 lbs. There are healthy humans almost that heavy. Even if you average it down to 200lb able bodied men, the gorilla won’t have the capacity to kill that many passive men before it’s a panting heap on the floor.
Could you kill 100 passive large mandrills before tiring out? Could you kill 100 not passive mandrills before dying? That’s the situation the gorilla is in.
You’re arguing with me about something I don’t believe in.
100 unarmed men body a gorilla.
I’m saying I think a gorilla could kill a higher number of unarmed humans than a mammoth could kill of armed humans.
People seem to have this vision of gorillas as raging murder beasts, but nothing could be further from the truth. Frankly, I don’t think a gorilla definitively wins even 10 on 1. 100 on 1, the poor gorilla doesn’t stand a chance.
Hmmm, now that’s a whole different ball game.
… I’m starting to understand why the Roman Colosseum did all those animal matchups… I wonder if people have kept records of the victors over the centuries.
Disclaimer: I’ve never fought a gorilla, or obviously a mammoth.
I’d believe it if someone told me a grown human could survive a glancing blow from a gorilla. If he has his focus on you then yeah you’re fucked, but if he’s surrounded by 30 guys with 70 more waiting to reinforce, his attention is probably going to be a bit scattered.
If you get hit by anything on a mammoth, either kicked or tusked, by sheer difference of mass I expect you’re out of that fight. One good trampling tantrum might take out 20 guys who are trying to be in melee range. Mammoth is going to burn through the reinforcements a lot faster I think.
If we’re allowed to throw the spears though this might change the entire fight, for both fights.
Also, looking into it, I can’t find any videos of an elephant kicking behind itself. I’m not sure that it has any way of defending its backside. I assume mammoths are similar.
They can turn remarkably fast.
Not fast enough.
I don’t understand why it would change the unarmed gorilla fight? But yes I would assume throwing the spears is almost certainly the most common tactic tbh.
Edit: but also we are talking about spears. If attacking from behind, at spear range, I don’t think a mammoth has opportunity for a trample attack. They would certainly need to swing around and attack with their tusks, giving attackers ample time to back up.
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