Man the Hunted is an anthropology book written in a plain and easy to read manner. The authors make use of the fossil record and studies on modern day primate predation on primates (including humans), to argue that man as prey rather man as predator drove human evolution. The majority of the book takes a look at the variety of past and present predators that ate/eat primates, including large cats, wolves, hyenas, raptors, snakes, crocodiles etc. An interesting and informative read.

( )

The authors state the hunting theory arose in the 1970s and with it the erroneous belief man the hunter feels driven to hunt large game because it is in his nature. This idea is so much bunk because for millions of years, early hominids were defenceless, tasty morsels eaten by the early ancestors of the great cats, wolves, hyenas, crocodiles, birds of prey, and snakes. In order to prove their theory, the authors have relied on the fossil records and the present day predation of and by great apes. Both the fossil record and ethology conclude hominids and the great apes are primarily foragers of fruit, leaves, nuts, tubers, roots, and vegetative matter. Hominids were opportunistic hunters of insects, eggs, small animals, and lizards but didn’t have either the weapons to hunt large animals, the dentition to eat the meat, nor did they possess fire to predigest the meat. Should you decide to read this book, read it in tandem with “The Big Cats and their fossil relatives” by Allan Turner and illustrated by Mauricio Anton to see representations of the big cats that were preying on hominids. ( )