Watching some YouTube clips on safari encounters with wild animals, some really too close for comfort, well, mine anyways, haha.
The safara guides staying calm, knowing what to do, sometimes even scaring an elephant away even though one said it's the animal they themselves fear the most, and with good reason.

So I was thinking, would wild animals react differently to African people than to white people? Or Asian maybe as well?
Anyone who's ever been to Africa maybe know about that?
Just because they smell African, so in a way more familiar, like they belong.
I know white/western people especially smell acid because most of us suffer from acidification due to how we eat and drink (too much cow milk among other, and coffee and basically everything we eat & drink).

I was once told that most non-western/Caucasian people do not like how we smell.
Meaning animals smell that too, even more so.
And wild animals react to scents, very much rely on that, hence my question:
Would and do they react differently to us than they do to their own native people?

1. Timothy Treadwell was an f'n moron.



As to the question...
I know domesticated animals, may behave differently toward
different types of people. I imagine, the animal behaviour
may have alot to do, with a person's body language, and
scent.

As to wild animals?
I don't know if a person's demographic matters.
If a grizzly bear is hungry, it will eat you.
(see 1. above)

I think it would be more important how the person behaved on the encounter.

But it would be difficult to prove. Perhaps we could ask for volunteers for an experiment involving a hungry grizzly bear and a bottle of deodorant.

The logic is there.
We are what we eat.

Different cultures eat different food.
Animals can smell much better than we can.
Perhaps this gives them preferences.

I didn't mean getting eaten by a wild animal. I doubt that happens so often.
I was talking about African wild animals and reacting differently to westerners due to our smell than Africans who belong in the place. Again based on their smell, which is defined by what they eat, which is African, grown / bred on African soil.
I know from experience -having lived abroad- that makes a huge difference.
Plus these people aren't acidified like we are.

So I was more aiming for them maybe easier getting defensive or aggressive towards westerners than towards Africans.
Not about them looking for the best tasting meal, lol, but being more tolerant or not of having them invading their living space.

Yes, what we eat is what we are. Even Aboriginals in northern Australia preferred to eat Chinese over Europeans as they tasted better than we did. And that was Chinese people, not Chinese food.
But I wasn't really aiming being a wild animal's afternoon snack, haha, more their behaviour, their tolerance of having us around in their space, which is what tourists do, or being more tolerant of Africans who smell like Africa, if that makes sense.

I see what you mean :) Maybe it's a percentage thing, 50 50 I you smell different it makes sense that it would cause extra wariness, but if the person was relaxed .... or if the one that smelled right was not relaxed... You see what I'm getting at.

I've had loads of encounters with animals :) By virtue of sitting very still and relaxed somewhere nice and waiting for 10 - 20 minutes. The animals start to appear. Youve got to be fairly still though..

Animals with a racial preference/prejudice?

As entertaining as it is, i do believe some animals do.

YEs, that makes a difference as well! Especially being afraid is a scent animals can easily pick up on.
And daft behaviour around wild animals is really stupid. yet when you watch those clips on YouTube many tourist do it. Maybe it's nerves. There was one where a huge elephant kept brushing past their open bus and in the end he tried to put its trunk in even.
Another one had a huge lion entering a jeep with tourists!! Totally amazing to see!
The people had to get out, the tour guide told them to, to stand up and get out. But outside were some 3 lionesses too while the lion stayed in the jeep, standing tall.
I believe those were white lions? Although that's almost impossible.
But in many of such clips you hear and see unbelievable nitwit / dumb stuff.

For instance, a couple was hurt by an angry elephant when it attacked their car and poked through it with its trunk. The woman badly hurt in her thigh by that.
BUT... the elephant had given them ample warning to let them know he wasn't happy and gave them several options to drive away with their car. However, the idiots kept going after the elephant, after which it attacked them.
And then the elephant gets shot?
It was a mature male elephant with full tusks (they only showed a few photos btw), so I think that alone was good enough reason to shoot it.

I digress... hihi. But it's so amazing to watch (when it's good clips of course)!!

And wild animals react to scents, very much rely on that, hence my question:
Would and do they react differently to us than they do to their own native people?


Olfaction is the sense of smell, which is generally to be critical for animal’s survival. There are definitely links between olfaction and animal behaviour, and the effects of odours in animal welfare. For human, the things that will evoke strong feelings and memories are: the invisible aromas rising from wet grasses after the rain shower, the fragrance of perfume wafting in the air, the smell of freshly-baked cakes, etc. Animals use their sense of smell (olfaction) in various ways to establish social bonds, to initiate reproduction, to orientate amongst themselves, to recognize food (and/or prey), to avoid predators and to protect them from imminent threats such as fire and natural disasters.

Some researches have been conducted to study the sense of olfaction in animals, i.e: Distel and Hudson, 1985; Waldvogel, 1989; Sommerville and Broom (1998); Rybarczyk et al. 2001, 2003; Rekwot et al., 2001; Asahina et. al., 2008; Niimura et. al., 2014; Nevo, 2015; Laska, 2017.

All of the research findings do not signify the relationship between olfaction in (wild) animals with human, based on their demographic areas.