the adventures of harry nile internet archive

It's clearly going to come down to a climactic battle of man vs. Ooh, Shiny! and stop chasing us, and will continue the hunt even as we tire. No, this is something smart enough to see through our stratagems, that won't fall prey to Attention Deficit. The use of this trope instantly makes the 'dumb animal' a credible threat and Worthy Opponent, since we don't have the option of outfoxing it until it gives up and goes away. 'Persistence hunting' isn't only a scarily good hunting strategy, provided the predator has enough stamina to keep chasing until the prey doesn't have the strength to keep running, it's also our strategy, both in hunting and escaping (waiting for the predator to give up), thanks to our genes being arranged to favor stamina over speed. You might find an ethologist tearfully screaming that nobody, animal or human, would be this vindictively persistent just for one difficult meal.īut there's a reason this trope can work so very well. Sometimes it's explained away by stating that they've got human intelligence, but that just raises further questions about why an intelligent predator would expend so much effort to eat something that keeps eluding them.

A situation like this might have you thinking that it'd be more productive to just find something else to eat. If the heroes manage to find shelter, the predator(s) will go through an extreme amount of effort to break windows, unlock doors, or learn to bypass complicated security measures and then bash through a wall anyway to get to its prey. Once the climax comes by, the beast will most likely be right there, ready for one Final Battle. Because Predators Are Mean, even if they are Xenophobic Herbivores.īasically, this predator will hunt the protagonists far beyond the call of common sense or even instinct, be it through fierce jungles, caves, canyons, or whatever else the protagonists have to go through. No matter how long it goes without a meal.

Seems like this thing just won't give up until it has another taste of human. No harm done, time to focus on getting to the shelter or something, right?īut wait, what's that sound? Is it following them? Through rivers and mountains and who knows what else? After a dangerous escape (someone will probably be killed), the explorers dust themselves off, maybe laugh nervously, and try to get as far away from that thing as possible. Namely, they run into some monstrous beast that wants only one thing from them: lunch. In any case, they are unaccustomed to the land, but aren't exactly smart about being careful. Our intrepid young adventurers are exploring their new unknown land for whatever reason it may be: money, pursuit of knowledge, or simply by accident (a quest for survival).

The adventures of harry nile internet archive