“The fear of the lion”: because all animals are frightened, including man

Most of us live in cities and are used to a "domesticated" nature , for the use and consumption of us human beings. The idyllic and comforting nature of naturalistic oases and theme parks, to understand. Chiara Morosinotto, evolutionary biologist and expert in animal behavior, has been carrying out her studies for many years mainly in the endless forests of Finland . And here he explored an emotion that all animals, including humans, know very well: fear. Like it or not, in fact, hunters are fundamental in the natural world, where everything is based on the relationship between predator and prey, between those who run to feed and those who run to save themselves. Fear is therefore a dominant factor in nature: it determines behaviors, habits, survival strategies. Studying fear becomes a way to understand how ecosystems and the beings that inhabit them work, including us.

In her book "The fear of the lion" (Rizzoli, 2022, pp. 228), written together with her brother Davide - one of the best known children's authors in Italian publishing - Chiara Morosinotto shows us precisely how nature affects in an often unimaginable way on the life of all of us and he does so by proposing a series of examples and anecdotes resulting from his experience in the field.

However, we first ask Chiara Morosinotto how she found herself writing a book, among other things designed for the youngest:

“It was fun and challenging. I had to move from a scientific language to a more popular one so as to make myself understood by the readers and at the same not to bore. My brother Davide was helpful to me, because he has been writing books for children and teenagers for years. The strategy we adopted was that I wrote the entire draft of the book and he made the language more usable ".

You got along in love and harmony, which is rare between brothers and sisters ...

“Let's not exaggerate: there were also some nice discussions, because I proposed examples of animal behavior that seemed super to me and Davide instead wanted to suppress them, giving importance to other aspects that were not essential for me. In short, we had to make an effort and both change our starting point a bit ”.

We come to the book, in which a very different nature emerges from the one we are used to seeing in Disney films… isn't that so?

“Nature has very little Disney. In technical language we call it 'the landscape of fear', because every animal, in every environment, including the garden of the house, either looks for a prey to eat or tries to escape from a predator or tries to avoid competitors who eat its own. same thing and are an obstacle to survival ".

In short, our view of nature is often distorted. But isn't this distortion ultimately detrimental to the natural world that many of us say we love so much?

“Unfortunately, there is an excessive tendency to look at animals as if they were all human beings. And not all animals work like us. So, at times, we also subject our four-legged friends to stressful situations, without even realizing it. For example, not all dogs love to be petted. Some experience it as an intrusion to be touched by strangers. In general we tend to think that animals are not disturbed by our presence because we are dealing with species that live in our cities and have become accustomed to us. In nature, however, we are a source of disturbance and strong discomfort. All animal species are afraid of us humans because they have known since the dawn of time that we can be very dangerous. We too are predators ”.

You spend a lot of time in the woods of Finland where you study the behavior of owls, a kind of bird of prey. So live in contact with a little anthropized nature. What can the natural world in which you remain immersed for long months convey to you?

"Although, as mentioned above, it is a place of continuous war between species, nature gives me peace".

Ever been afraid alone in the woods?

“Some areas are anxious and it has happened to me several times to feel observed. In some forests in Finland this feeling was stronger and some colleagues explained to me that I was probably really under observation. In fact, I was in areas where there are many moose and when the females have young that are not yet able to escape they hide in the bushes and observe if the intruder or, in my case, the intruder represent a real danger".

If you were to explain in a nutshell to the younger ones why it is important to get to know nature better, what would you say?

“Without nature we cannot exist. This is enough to understand how important it is to know it, respect it and protect it ".