#prey drives

[theros]

on prey drives, or the lack thereof

a lot of nonhumans have mentioned their predatory urges or prey drives on here. it's a common topic of discussion, especially when it comes to not being ashamed of these thoughts and urges. i often see posts reminding carnivores and predators that they're not bad for having prey drives and predatory urges, and that of course these are a normal part of being a predatory animal. there is nothing to be ashamed of if you have a high prey drive or want to pounce on a small herbivore for breakfast.

but the more i think on it, i don't really have a prey drive.

i'm multiple predators; bobcat, snow leopard, kestrel, fox, coyote, cougar-- and i can't think of a single time i've looked at a small animal and thought prey.

potential food, sure-- but there was no urge accompanying the thought. just an idle recognition that that creature could be food if i were in a situation where i had to hunt it. i think humans have the same line of thought, especially if they are or have been around other humans who hunt for their food. i've known a lot of hunters in my life, so i wonder if that recognition of a deer or a squirrel or a rabbit as potential food just comes from that. it certainly doesn't have any accompanying instinct.

bobcats primarily hunt rabbits. when i see a wild cottontail outside, i don't think "i'm hungry and should catch that prey!", i think "huh. didn't expect to see a bunny in the open when there's so many coyotes around here."

small rodents are also common staples in the diets of bobcats, foxes, coyotes and kestrels. when i see a mouse or a squirrel or a rat or a chipmunk, i don't want to hunt it. that takes way too much effort.

the most my hunting instincts ever really trigger is when it comes to spotting quick traces of movement. kestrels and cats will happily snatch lizards when they can. being obsessed with reptiles now, i've taken advantage of that sense whenever i'm looking for wild lizards and snakes-- or trying to see the skittish mourning geckos in my indoor vivarium. even then, i don't watch them with the intent of eating them. if i want to catch the reptile i'm after, it will be released after i'm done looking at it and talking about its species to whoever's nearby to listen.

the thing is, foxes and coyotes are fundamentally lazy when it comes to food, foxes especially so. they're opportunists. both will happily eat roadkill and other carrion, or steal parts of other predator's kills. foxes will go for just about anything they can eat, and the less effort it takes to get, the better. eggs, worms, berries, garbage, bits off my mate's plate-- easy meals that take little effort to get are highly preferred over anything i have to hunt down. it's one of the many reasons that feeding wild foxes is a bad thing. foxes are lazy. if you can get an easy (even if unhealthy) meal from this human's backyard, why bother expending the energy to roam a territory searching for food? hell, why bother having a territory? if there's such an easy food source here, there's no need to maintain territory large enough to ensure you can find enough food for yourself. not having a territory to patrol means you can spend more time eating from the human's backyard.

the only time i ever feel that my predatory instincts really get triggered is whenever migrating goose calls push me into an arctic fox shift-- and then it's still the eggs i focus on more than the goslings. they don't struggle as much.

honestly, prey drive is the least of my concerns when it comes to alterhuman-related instincts, but the satyr's instincts should be left to their own essay.

if i wasn't a fox as well as a bobcat, would i have a prey drive? would the sight of a fawn away from its mother strike me with the desire to leap? would i want to crunch down the chipmunk in the garden or would i still watch it with the idle fascination of an already-satiated cat? would seeing the hawks circling the nearby field fill my kestrel's heart with envy because i can't fly high, scanning the ground for prey?

i don't know. but as it is, the combination of things i am has created a creature with no prey drive whatsoever, and i suppose that's okay. lack of hunting instinct doesn't make me any less what i am. hell, it may even reinforce it.

lazy fox, indeed.

#alterhumanity #therianthropy #nonhumanity #prey drives #hunting instincts #hey look. i finally posted one of the 'essays' i've been working on for months. what a surprise #i have no issue with alterhumans with prey drives/hunting instincts and i love all of you. this is just about *my* experience

[canisalbus]

✦ Hound mode ✦

#meat! food for the pack! we're eating well tonight! #for context I mentioned earlier that in their setting normal four-legged dogs don't exist #which is a bummer since in canon timeline Vasco likes to hunt and in that era hunting usually involved a lot of hounds #and they just have to do without #own art #own characters #CanisAlbus #art #artists on tumblr #Machete #Vasco #anthro #sighthound #dogs #canine #animals #modern au #comics #typically sighthounds are also known for their high prey drive but I think Machete's reaction time and fitness leave a lot to be desired

[elodieunderglass]

I have to say, I just started casually watching ofmd after basically watching it through you guys. I am already spoiled. I thought there would be no surprises. I am already aware of the best jokes, the foot touch, the plot beats. You can become an expert on any show simply by scrolling past gifs of it for months.

However, NONE of you prepared me for this little guy here:

It is profoundly obvious visually, through dash osmosis and general visible evidence, that this is a little man with a lot wrong with him. but what you cannot grasp from gifs is his voice. His voice is amazing: I did NOT expect it: I cannot describe it: the actor chews on his lines like a menacing guinea pig. It is like hearing Kermit the Frog trying to strangle his own puppeteer. Like someone has trapped a vengeful spirit in a balloon and is allowing it to speak prophecy, but only in short, squeaky bursts. No, I can’t describe it at all. I was expecting the character to be “scrungly” and was aware that many of you wish to place him in a jar and shake him vigorously, but I didn’t know he sounded like something that would cause all greyhounds in hearing distance to instantly go cross-eyed and launch themselves into outer space. He! Is! Scrofulous!!!!

If you watched the show on its first principles you probably wouldn’t have noticed this because you would have accepted it as part of the full sensory experience of the character, but if you have only encountered it as gifs for the best part of a year, the sound of this chap is one HELL of a shock . Definitely adds to the flavor. Enhances the sensory experience. Sign on today.

#ofmd #scrofulous!!! scrofulous man!!! evokes prey drive in beasts! #watching ofmd with the sound on is like adding MSG to a dish

[claudiasescapesubmarine]

Split my original Google Drive into two parts. The above has:

-Prey (2022)

-The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

-The Handmaiden (2016)

-Cocaine Bear (2023)

-Bottoms (2023)

-Mammal (2016)

-Nope (2022)

-Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

-The Watermelon Woman (1996)

-Possession (1981)

-Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

-Airplane! (1980)

-Jojo Rabbit (2019)

-The Green Knight (2021)

-Crimson Peak (2015)

#movies #my google drive #prey 2022 #the banshees of inisherin #the handmaiden #nope 2022 #bottoms 2023 #cocaine bear #mammal 2016 #anatomy of a fall #the watermelon woman #possession 1981 #portrait of a lady on fire #airplane! #jojo rabbit #the green knight #crimson peak #a girl walks home alone at night

[dinoserious]

im sure thats fine

#bazal the birdman #sketch #eyestrain #blood cw #something fun baz got from his new form was new predatory instincts and a prey drive. he has a lot of intrusive thoughts abt homicide now #less a problem the longer hes had in this form but like in the beginning it was kinda hellish

[bearwithextrapickles]

Prey drive is going brrr today

I need to sink my fangs into something and tear it apart

#theriotype #therian #therian community #therianthropy #nonhuman #therian things #otherkin #bear therian #alterhuman #therian blog #prey drive

[beatcroc]

pest control TWO!!!!! heres the first one

adn heres the obligatory bonus bc i can't help myself :')

#i already threatened that little basard twice in these i may as well make good on it #pizza tower #peppino spaghetti #fake peppino #the noise #fp ''oh god wait that is not a real rat and also tastes awful'' moments. he doesnt actually have any interest in eating that thang ok #even if seeing a small scampering little guy like that WILL activate his prey drive without fail #peppino loves it he thinks it's the funniest shit in the world for fp to go after noise. so he is always encouraging this. #but anyway yeah. fp is *really* not the one noise should be worried about. #arting #pizzaposting #i still have lots of tag room thjis time so im gonna do some tangential nonsense rambling. e #fp gotta be like crazy good at hunting i think. not just for strength and predator instincts but also bc like #he doesn't have much in the way of a scent or body heat or anything that would give him away as an alive thing #not to mention he's uh... not particularly organically-shaped a lot of the time #so esp. to smaller prey that don't like... memorize a landscape; if he holds very still he's like completely undetectable #total ambush king. though i'm sure hes also very good at #persistence and pursuit hunting since he has peppino's speed and no way of getting muscle fatigue. ultimate beast #fortunately he doesnt care that much and doesnt really need to eat so hes not devastating the local ecosystem or anything #except for the rats.

[creatureheart]

Because you seem to just be deleting all replies that give an alternate view instead of replying with actual discussion, as is your right but still kinda annoying, I figured I’d make a post that you cannot delete. =3

Caring for animals and their well-being is important!

Telling people that the thoughts they have determine their morality is nazi bullshit! =D

Thought crimes do not exist!

(PT: Thought crimes do not exist!)

And I will continue to repeat that because it’s the truth whether anyone likes it or not.

You cannot measure someone’s morality or their actions based on the thoughts they have. Unless they ACTUALLY act on these things, you have no right to tell other people if they are bad people or not.

And yes, this includes all the thoughts that you and others see as immoral.

If you’re the kind of person who thinks that someone thinking something bad makes them a bad person than you’re both ableist and just an asshole, because intrusive thoughts exist and those are not purposeful thoughts and cause distress among those who have them. Hence why they’re called intrusive.

But also humans are omnivores. Humans are predatory animals. Humans eat meat. Humans have natural and instinctual prey drives!

It might not be as strong as that of wild animals, or other nonhuman animals, but it’s still there!

To condemn someone for having a slightly stronger prey drive and calling them “budding psychopaths or paraphiles” is downright defamatory, ableist and tells more about you than it does about them.

Stripping away someone’s humanity because of something you don’t like is a fascist idea, and I would recommend taking a step back and really thinking about just how you have framed your mindset.

You can advocate for the safety of animals without condemning people who have done absolutely nothing wrong to those animals.

And as I mentioned in my now deleted reply, mental health professionals would not intervene on someone having simple thoughts. The only time they would intervene is if there is an immediate plan and danger towards the individual or others.

——

To anyone else reading this:

Your thoughts do not make you a bad person.

Your prey drive doesn’t make you a bad person.

Block and blacklist those who say otherwise from interacting with you because all they are is misguided assholes who need some more time to realise that the world ain’t black and white and morality is not straight forward.

#therian #therianthropy #otherkin #otherkind #otherhearted #alterhuman #alterbeing #prey drive #creature; the voice #creature; the wrath

[leechlovely]

Prideful creature

#mirrorskin max is a mess #he steals the faces of his victims and uses their voices to lure more into the woods #after his durance he's a sweetheart but never lost the prey drive #wod #changeling the lost #ctl #oc: mirror max #tw blood #tw gore #tw animal death

[abirddogmoment]

losing my entire mind at this hot take in an aggresisvely R+ Facebook trainer's post. comment section is full of people asking for sources and the poster claiming the "prey drive myth" has been debunked same as alpha theory. I can't comment because I'm not in the group but oh my god.

#dogblr #dog training #absolute nonsense #this was on a post about how ecollars shouldnt be used to train recall which like whatever #i have no strong opinions on that although i do and probably wil forever proof recall with ecollars #but oh my god #when you see this in a post you cna pretty much disregard anything else this person saus #im an actual real life biologist and i can confirm dogs do have prey drive and dogs are predators :)

[jkpng]

day 152/547 of missing jungkook

#this video fucks me up. that Hypnosis to love males (gay) meme is in my carrd bc its real and it happened to ME #bro stop batting ur pretty eyelashes at me. ur gonna trigger my prey drive like a sighthound that just saw a squirrel run across the street #also id like to know why he thought it necessary to be shirtless in that live. answer quickly #hes so pretty im gonna eat a houseworth of drywall and exploade #anyways who said all that #jk #jungkook #buny

[mishapen-dear]

Shape do you see my vision bad would be about to ingest a perfectly normal weed brownie and missa would spot it an go OH NO HE'LL BREAK HIS FAMILY FRIENDLY RULE and rush to eat it. And then bad would be like oh missa!!! And as he likes to do with missa he Just lies to him. Yeah we've got everyone coming over better be ready to act normal forever. And missas just like

i see your vision

(og)

#gif #mishapen sketches #mishapen answers #popcornsalty #qsmp badboyhalo #qsmp missa #drugs #salty your mind is large he WOULD do that #he loves loves loves to lie #his prey drive really is something else #but he also would REFUSE to say the word weed and also somehow verbally use the wrong version of youre #a gift.... for you salty #i was having such intense blorbo brain and then your post was so funny it snapped me out of it #long enough to get started on this anyway i did go back to blorbo brain like 20 mins later but #yknow

[alasse-earfalas]

Came across this post recently and I just realized that this is exactly the tactic Twilight used to get the others away from Sky. And the fact that no-military-training Hyrule completely falls for it while the two trained Knights are like "uhh" is beautiful detail.

#linked universe #linkeduniverse #lu #lu sky #lu hyrule #lu warriors #prey drive #military tactics #lu twilight

[fr0zenballs]

Im the kind of dog that would bring you dead rabbits, bringing them inside, tail wagging as their blood drips down my muzzle.

#prey drive cw #prey drive #Prey drive tw #blood mention #Caninekin #dogkin #canine cladotherian #physical nonhuman #Alterhuman #Nonhuman #Otherkin #Balls barks

[fjordfolk]

only reason she sat still was that she was trying to kill a bumblebee with her mind

#prey drive triggered by bumblebees specifically

[stillflight]

Mutuals: there's been some rancid hot takes about whether therians can watch animal media ethically so I'm gonna set the record straight and--

Me coming out from under the rock I was under: There was what? I didn't notice. Would you like to come under this rock and hang out the soil is so damp and cool and the ecosystem is thriving

#i thought we did the whole ''having a prey drive is evil'' song and dance like years ago and got over it #insert lovecraftian discourse monsters under the ice reference