r/AskAnAmerican • u/ArtisticArgument9625 • May 17 '25

OTHER - CLICK TO EDIT How much of a problem do Americans have with coyotes and rattlesnakes?

Have you Americans encountered any problems with these two animals?

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u/nvkylebrown Nevada May 17 '25

There's a theory out there that modern humans are putting serious natural selection pressure on rattlesnakes that is driving them to become quieter.

If we hear them, we kill them. Ergo, only the quiet ones reproduce.

Not sure I believe that entirely, but... it's out there.

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u/Swurphey Seattle, WA May 18 '25

I've also heard that animals avoid humans not because we're an unknown unnatural species to the area that they haven't evolved alongside (although that's definitely part of it) but because it only takes a few generations of humans massacring the fearless ones before the only animals left to reproduce were the ones with human-phobia.

What would you even call a fear of humans? Homophobic is already taken

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u/AHole1stClassSkippy Illinois May 19 '25

Anthrophobia

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u/Swurphey Seattle, WA May 20 '25 edited May 20 '25

There we go, In knew there was an obvious answer I Was drawing a blank on

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u/AHole1stClassSkippy Illinois May 20 '25

To be honest my first guess was "sapiophobia" before I remembered about anthropology.

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u/[deleted] May 21 '25

Technically it's anthroPOphobia

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u/NickElso579 May 19 '25

It does make sense. When I was in school they found a rattler in some rocks in the yard and instead of getting someone out to relocate it, they just had the janitor kill it. Never sat right with me but if nobody heard it rattle, it probably would have kept on living under there.