Critical distance (animals)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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In proxemics of zoology, the critical distance for an animal is the distance a human or an aggressor animal has to approach in order to trigger a defensive attack of the first animal. The concept was introduced by Swiss zoologist Heini Hediger in 1954, along with other space boundaries for an animal, such as flight distance, etc. Edward T. Hall, the cultural anthropologist, reasoned that, with very few exceptions, flight distance and critical distance have been eliminated in human reactions, and thus proceeded to determine modified criteria for space boundaries in human interactions.
Hediger developed and applied these distance concepts in the context of designing zoos.
Since the critical distance is smaller than the flight distance, there are basically two scenarios in the wild when the critical distance may be encroached: the animal noticed the intruder too late or the animal was "cornered" to a place of no escape.
Other scenarios are possible for a semi-tame animal, for which the escape response has already been suppressed, but the attack response is still possible. Hall described the following example: a lion tamer who knows the critical distance may toy with it by moving into the critical space to trick the lion to move forward, then by moving out, making the lion pause. By doing so with a sufficient skill the tamer may make the lion, climb a chair or create a humorous effect.
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