• Question: why are animals a lot stronger then humans

    Asked by 296bsmf29 to Elliot, Hazel, Thomas on 23 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Thomas Biggans

      Thomas Biggans answered on 23 Jun 2016:

      It comes from an evolutionary need for strength. I think its probably to do with hunting.

      Humans developed tools we could use as weapons like spears and hammers so rather than needing strength to fight our prey we just hit them with a hammer. Animals don’t tend to use tools so they’ve got a fight on their hands when they go hunting.

      From what I remember from uni when it comes to muscles you have a trade off between speed and power. So you can either have a really strong muscle that is slow or a weaker muscle that works really fast. Over the course of evolution I think humans have needed more speed while some animals have need more strength and that’s why alot of them are stronger.

    • Photo: Elliot Jokl

      Elliot Jokl answered on 23 Jun 2016:

      Thanks for the question!

      Another point to add is just sheer size. Bigger muscles are stronger (usually) and lots of animals are a lot bigger than us. lions, for example, are over twice our size! So the amount of strength divided by weight might actually be quite similar between humans and some animals.

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