If you prick us do we not bleed?

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Totally random thought going through my head as I'm watching Zombieland for like the 10th time... humans are GOREY creatures.

I mean, it seems over the top at times... but then you'll see some true footage from accidents, wars, etc, and we literally are that messy.

But yet why aren't animals? I've seen hunts, and you shoot a deer or something like that and it's got a hole, the end. You watch the Discovery channel, animals ripping into each other... there's no spurtage. Roadkill? Messy... after you've hit it maybe 10 times.

Why do we GUSH so?

[Spiryt]

Well, dogs and killed in road accidents are very messy... Just like humans.

While many gun wounds in hunt and stuff aren't very messy. So I would say it depends on the wound.

Two metal boxes hitting each other at 30 m/s isn't something that occurs in nature too often, and that what's what can produce particulary nasty view.

[paddyfool]

There's a film from West Africa I saw once with a cattle-slaughtering scene that meant I really couldn't eat meat that night...

Wildlife documentaries are typically desired to be kid-friendly, and many tend to skimp on the gushing, blood and gore etc. You see animals killed in real life and it can be very messy indeed.

[valadil]

Wildlife documentaries are typically desired to be kid-friendly, and many tend to skimp on the gushing, blood and gore etc. You see animals killed in real life and it can be very messy indeed.

And on the flip side war footage and car crashes are going to show you the messiest, most over the top material available.

[AtomicKitKat]

I've seen more than one squashed rat, and I once saw a rat getting run over by a double-decker bus while I was sitting in one(a bus, not a rat!) going the other way. That one was particularly splat-tastic. I'd wager part of the "arterial splash" you get from humans is partially due to the need for the heart to pump blood down to the feet, hard enough to force it back up again through the veins. Probably see just as much gore if you shot a giraffe or something.

[thubby]

censorship aside, most animals have tougher hides than people, and dogs in particular have more of it.
also, when people are getting killed with a gun, the shooter is just trying to put a lot of lead in the other guy, where in hunting you have to shoot in particular places, or you're going to have to find the body a few miles away.

[Obrysii]

I'd wager part of the "arterial splash" you get from humans is partially due to the need for the heart to pump blood down to the feet, hard enough to force it back up again through the veins. Probably see just as much gore if you shot a giraffe or something.

This is probably a very good theory. The giraffe actually has valves in its neck to keep its head from suffering damage from excess pressure when it kneels to drink.

Humans do not have a thick layer of outer fat - this is a big part in why we are so gory. However, look at whale slaughters or anything like that - it's pretty brutal, but it doesn't look "as" gory because a lot of it is fat, not just blood and organ tissue.

Even the heaviest human is still mostly organs and blood. And since it's scaled to human, we relate to the gore.

Seeing a mouse smashed is much smaller - there's still plenty of gory, but we're so humancentric that it doesn't seem as staggering to us.

[Maximum Zersk]

Obrysii - Wouldn't the term be Anthrocentric?

But yes, that may be why.

[Jacklu]

As a unblooded human, I find this thread offensive and hurtful! You should be ashamed of- ... oh wait... <.< >.> I think Vorpal is confusing movie biology with real life biology. Contrary to what Hollywood would have us believe, the average human does not contain 30 gallons of blood at held at extreme pressure.

[Winthur]

Animals don't bleed as much because wimpy game hunters these days do not use Force-a-Nature.

[Faulty]

Animals don't bleed as much because wimpy game hunters these days do not use Force-a-Nature.

The use the Lucksman these days. Just wildly fire it into large groups of game.

[blackfox]

The use the Lucksman these days. Just wildly fire it into large groups of game.

Spah sappin' mah sanity.

Also I think it has something to do with how pressurized our blood is. Seems to make sense to me that the higher pressure the blood is under, the more it will spurt/gush when there is a wound.

[Gitman00]

As a unblooded human, I find this thread offensive and hurtful! You should be ashamed of- ... oh wait... <.< >.> I think Vorpal is confusing movie biology with real life biology. Contrary to what Hollywood would have us believe, the average human does not contain 30 gallons of blood at held at extreme pressure.

I don't think Vorpal was insinuating that. Zombieland was actually more or less accurate in its depictions of gore, and often times (Kill Bill excepted) the mess is actually scaled down in Hollywood. Take Shooter, for example. If a human being was shot in the head with a .50 caliber sniper round from over a mile away, the arc of the bullet would be great enough that it would hit the target almost on top of the head, and the head itself would explode, covering everyone around in gore and possibly injuring them with bone fragments. This would be a little too much reality for most people, however.

We do have roughly 5 liters of blood on average, which is more than enough to make a gigantic mess. And a healthy systolic blood pressure of 115 mmHg won't spray it across the room, but it will spurt if an artery is opened. Head wounds are especially messy in humans, because 1/3 of our blood supply is used to run our brains.

I don't know that we're any messier on average than other mammals, though. It's just that when we kill them for food, we deliberately try to minimize the mess, so as to avoid waste and clean-up.

[Thanatos 51-50]

Without putting anything resembling research into it, I'mma have to hypothesize the answer is "Arterial Spray"

[Stormthorn]

Totally random thought going through my head as I'm watching Zombieland for like the 10th time... humans are GOREY creatures.

I mean, it seems over the top at times... but then you'll see some true footage from accidents, wars, etc, and we literally are that messy.

But yet why aren't animals? I've seen hunts, and you shoot a deer or something like that and it's got a hole, the end. You watch the Discovery channel, animals ripping into each other... there's no spurtage. Roadkill? Messy... after you've hit it maybe 10 times.

Why do we GUSH so?

Humans generate forces in excess of what nature usually does. Via cars and bullets and especialy bombs. Also, as fully upright creatures we need a lot of pressure in out blood to feed our oversized (compared to other animals) brain which, you might notice, is located well above our hearts. Ever notice that head wounds bleed a lot?

[RandomNPC]

shot a giraffe or something.

So i've got this idea for an experiment, who wants to go to the zoo?

we need to do some fact checking!

[Dr.Epic]

I think because it's a movie and by showing excessive, unrealistic amounts of blood they can boost up the shock value. But then again, I'm no biologist so maybe that is how humans bleed. I'm pretty sure that humans only have 4 litters of blood though (someone please correct me if I'm wrong. Also, Zombieland is out on DVD? I did not know this. I never saw it and I wanted to check it out. To the video rental store!

[Starfols]

The use the Lucksman these days. Just wildly fire it into large groups of game.

They should change to a class for real men, like spy .

On topic: I have seen somebody crack open their head (she's ok now), and it didn't so much 'spurt everywhere and get on everything' so much as 'make an enormous puddle on the floor'. I've also been told that when an important artery is bleeding out, it resembles a water fountain more than anything.

I think the reason bloodshed in humans is so shocking is:
A) We aren't used to having an important liquid like blood lying around. It's brightly colored, it stains, and it's awkward handling the blood of someone else. We attach a lot of importance to it.
B) We don't immediately comprehend how big of a space a liter takes up when left to it's own devices. A liter looks small in a bottle, but it's quite big. Get a liter of water and dump it in an empty parking lot, and you'll see what I mean .

[PJ the Epic]

Wildlife documentaries are typically desired to be kid-friendly, and many tend to skimp on the gushing, blood and gore etc. You see animals killed in real life and it can be very messy indeed.

Man, once they showed us a video of some guy in ancient clothes ripping the entrails from a live llama. I was in sixth grade. It really bled a lot.

As to why we don't gush blood everywhere as in movies, I'll us a paraphrased sentence from a review of No More Heros. We don't explode like overstuffed blood pinatas. But if the movies didn't have blood gushes, chances are people would not like it as much. Just a guess.

Oh, and are you reading The Merchant of Venice too?

[AtomicKitKat]

So uhh, this morning, I was heading to work, and 2 traffic lights away from my workplace, I spot a pigeon on the sidewalk. Didn't think much about it, light changed, I crossed. Just after I reached the other side(1 crossing from work), I heard something that sounded like when people stomp on empty drink cartons. I figured maybe an empty, partially inflated plastic bag or something just got run over by a car. Then I saw black and white feathers flying by in the slipstream, so I turned my head back to look. That was surprisingly bloodless(although I guess whichever car ran over it first probably had a nasty splatter on the tyre/bumper.).

[Worira]

This is probably a very good theory. The giraffe actually has valves in its neck to keep its head from suffering damage from excess pressure when it kneels to drink.

If you're referring to the veins, then yes, every mammal has those.

For the most part, humans have a pretty similar blood pressure to most mammals. I believe they do have a higher blood pressure in their necks and heads, though.

[Asta Kask]

Animals don't bleed as much because wimpy game hunters these days do not use Force-a-Nature.

Personally I think we should bring out the punt guns once again:

Spoiler

Show

[Ravens_cry]

Personally I think we should bring out the punt guns once again:

Spoiler

Show

Punt Guns:The Gun For Men With Very Small Penises.

As for animal gore, our cat caught a rat and only ate half, leaving the hindquarters and much of the internal organs, such as the liver and intestines. Surprisingly little blood but plenty of gore per gram, or offal per ounce for Imperialists.

[Phase]

I'm going to have to agree and say that humans create far more forceful injuries than other things. Try throwing a grenade at a giraffe and it'll probably be awful too.

[Pyrian]

Then I saw black and white feathers flying by in the slipstream...

When birds get struck hard, they tend to turn into explosions of feathers. You'd almost think there was nothing underneath!

[leafman]

Maybe all that fur animals have soaks up the blood, though I've never seen a lizard bleed so idk how much effect fur has versus no fur.

[Em Blackleaf]

If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die?

Sorry, I've been reading the Merchant of Venice.

Anyways, to answer the OP, I think that when people are depicted as bleeding, we make the blood gush out so that it looks more dramatic. When animals are depicted as bleeding, we don't feel the need to dramatize that, especially on the Discovery channel.

If you prick it, it does bleed.

What leafman said is likely. If you get a cut on your scalp, a significant amount of blood is soaked up by your hair.

[bosssmiley]

Personally I think we should bring out the punt guns once again:

Spoiler

Show

Punt gun: entire flock of ducks ----> job lot of pate in one easy step.

Oh, St John's Ambulance factoid: There's enough blood in an adult human to paint your living room.

[potatocubed]

A) We aren't used to having an important liquid like blood lying around. It's brightly colored, it stains, and it's awkward handling the blood of someone else. We attach a lot of importance to it.

This reminds me of a phrase I coined while spurting blood all over a hospital ward many years ago: "Blood always seems like more when it's coming out of you."

I'm also wondering if the square/cube law has anything to do with it - we're a lot bigger than, say, a mouse when you measure us in any one dimension, but we're exponentially larger when it comes to volume.