Poll: "Would earth's animals survive?"

Would earth animals survive against Xen animals?

  • Total voters
    134
I've learned through trial and error that "Post" threads never remain long. But in response, I think that I'll give a big "Who knows?" to this one. Although, if you've read any fantasy/sci-fi at all, you know the small but plucky earth races will always win out in the end. Sigh.
 
its not about "who could win" guys, it's more about competition for food sources. If the food chain is screwed up by say, antlions coming in, and like the giant insects they are, swarming across the land and picking off the lower ends of the food chain, then every thing above their food source would be wiped out, which means that antlions would eventually die off too, unless thier food source is resiliant and abundant. None of the xen creatures have natural predators except for other xen creatures, and it is the same for xen plants. Most likely, a spread of xenian plants would result first, and since none of them would be eaten by earth's herbavores, they would quickly drown out earth's plant life, killing off all animal life, and allowing for the xen creatures to populate earth freely. In short, Earth would slowly turn into xen.
 
How can you say that xen plats would be competitive against earth plants? The soil on eath and xen is completely different, xen plants just wouldnt grow!
 
rpgprog said:
am i the only one that thinks earth would own. I mean just think of the vast diff in numbers. A few xen vs many many more earth. I put my money on earth. Go 3rd rock from the sun
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We haven't seen all of Xen's lifeforms. If we were to judge only from the game alone then Xen would have more since only the only terrestrial beings that appeared are pigeons, ravens, seagulls and cockroaches in the games.

Though a cat was mentioned.
 
Wait, about air, aren't we forgetting the mantas? Okay, they proably wouldn't mind the smaller birdsies but still...
 
AJ Rimmer said:
Wait, about air, aren't we forgetting the mantas? Okay, they proably wouldn't mind the smaller birdsies but still...
Click to expand...

The Combine would probably try to shoot all of them down since they're apparently rouge without the influence of the Nihilanth.
 
hey who ever wins were ****ed! I think bill paxton said it best in aliens:

"GAME OVER MAN! GAME OVER!!" lol

PEACE

Mike :LOL:
 
as a man who's got some ecology training under his belt, i can safetly say that Earth's ecosystem will be turned to shit by xen animals. We've done plenty of damage ourselves, xen would finish it off.

The only kind of critters you'd have left are the types that live off human settlements, pidgeons, rats, roaches, ants, etc, and the kind that are not outcompeted by the xen lifeforms

Its not a matter of what animal could kick what other animal's ass, its more of a matter of what animal drives the other species into extintion.

The antlion for example. It dwells in sandy areas and attacks in masse anything large enough to make vibrations in the sand. Judging by how fast these things reproduce it can be assumed that these bugs exist on a great many number of coasts and deserts. Judging from that, animals that rely on shores will be driven to extintion since they would have no place to rest or raise their young. Animals like sea turtles, walruses, seals, etc.

Any animals that share space with a garg would also be history.



A good example of how this works can be seen with common everyday fire ant. Fire ants originated in south america where they have lots of natural predators. Then they got accidently transported into the American south probably by cargo boat. Lacking any significant natural predators the ants spread and multiplied. When they infest an area they kill off or drive out most other native bugs that live in the dirt. The more they spread, the more other bugs they remove from an area. Eventually you end up with an entire area where almost all the bugs are fire ants with the exeption of a few species that can ignore or feed off the ants. I see this sort of stuff happening in my backyard.

"Eventually you end up with an entire area where almost all the bugs are fire ants with the exeption of a few species that can ignore or feed off the ants."

this holds true with many invasive species, including humans
 
Flyingdebris said:
as a man who's got some ecology training under his belt, i can safetly say that Earth's ecosystem will be turned to shit by xen animals. We've done plenty of damage ourselves, xen would finish it off.

The only kind of critters you'd have left are the types that live off human settlements, pidgeons, rats, roaches, ants, etc, and the kind that are not outcompeted by the xen lifeforms

Its not a matter of what animal could kick what other animal's ass, its more of a matter of what animal drives the other species into extintion.

The antlion for example. It dwells in sandy areas and attacks in masse anything large enough to make vibrations in the sand. Judging by how fast these things reproduce it can be assumed that these bugs exist on a great many number of coasts and deserts. Judging from that, animals that rely on shores will be driven to extintion since they would have no place to rest or raise their young. Animals like sea turtles, walruses, seals, etc.

Any animals that share space with a garg would also be history.



A good example of how this works can be seen with common everyday fire ant. Fire ants originated in south america where they have lots of natural predators. Then they got accidently transported into the American south probably by cargo boat. Lacking any significant natural predators the ants spread and multiplied. When they infest an area they kill off or drive out most other native bugs that live in the dirt. The more they spread, the more other bugs they remove from an area. Eventually you end up with an entire area where almost all the bugs are fire ants with the exeption of a few species that can ignore or feed off the ants. I see this sort of stuff happening in my backyard.

"Eventually you end up with an entire area where almost all the bugs are fire ants with the exeption of a few species that can ignore or feed off the ants."

this holds true with many invasive species, including humans
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In an exhibit in the California Academy of Sciences, an entire colony of fire-ants(Or were they leaf cutting) was killed off when a small number of North American beetles got in their terrerium. Not to show that earth can win, but it was just a funny story that happened here in Frisco.

I'll try to find a link.
 
Flyingdebris said:
The antlion for example. It dwells in sandy areas and attacks in masse anything large enough to make vibrations in the sand. Judging by how fast these things reproduce it can be assumed that these bugs exist on a great many number of coasts and deserts. Judging from that, animals that rely on shores will be driven to extintion since they would have no place to rest or raise their young. Animals like sea turtles, walruses, seals, etc.
Click to expand...
Dont forgot for some reason they also like prisons ;o)
 
Eatrth would win, the animals would probably not fight, earth animals would run away most of the times. But survival doesn't only depend ion who wins in a fight, it depends on who can find food the best, and I doubt xen animals can eath earth food, and even if teh ydo it would take them a long time to figure out what to eat or how to catch that particular animal.

And lets not forget that earth animals have the speed, I mean you're scrwed if a cheate is coming at you at 160 kmh or a tiger at 60. Thus far I haven't seen any xen animal that is that fast.
 
I think the Combine whould like to do some research on earth animals, like capture some of them instead of slaughtering them all. They whould maeby take their DNA samples or something like that to know more about them. I dont expect that the Combine just take over races and kill all other things left there...
 
You'd probably end up with a lifeless wasteland.
Xen animals would outcompete our own, their population would grow to alarmingly high numbers, overhunt the other species to extinction, then either starve off, or simply die to basic germs. There'd be nothing left.

-Angry Lawyer
 
Earth animals appear to be much faster (in general) that is a huge advantage, except agains the antlions, which can burrow out of the ground in huge numbers and make short fast leaps through the air, if there where no antlions, a lot of animals might just make it, but once again, antlions screw everything up :)
 
2 speices will cross-breed to create a "Super" specie. Just like Alien 4, then we (human, combine, xen) are ALL screwed. :frog:
 
Xen creatures would definately win. 1 garg could pwn all of the earth's landlife. You need 10 rockets to kill him, why would you think ANY earth creature could evne be able to leave a scratch on him. Xen will own.
 
Antlions live only on the baeaches though, and not alot of earth animals live there.

Gargs are probably all gone seeing as they were some sort of bio-engineerd lifeform.
 
I'm sure many earth animals would survive, though certain animals may drop drastically in numbers or become extinct.

I'm thinking most insects would have no problem, in fact they would actually be helped by all those walking corpses and chaos...
(zombies would soon become walking maggot bags, haha - bet they didn't have flies back at Zen :LOL: )

The Antlions have already established colonies, though you don't see them attack anything other than humans/combine in the game. I guess they would attack any other creature that came too close, but they prefer to stay near the sand so they wouldn't be a problem in forests, the ocean (can't swim), etc.

In Hl2 you sometimes see crows being eaten by those barnacle things. Most birds are quite intelligent (in comparison to other animals and certain people) and would find out soon that those sticky tentacles are trouble.

Icythosaurs might be trouble for all the marine life, but we don't really know anything about their reproductive cycle or lifestyle so I doubt anyone could say for sure what the impacts would be. I reckon a great white could take 'em. Those little leech things (that stop you from swimming out to see on the coast levels) would be more of a problem I think.

Houndeyes are kinda dumb too, wolves or lions could probably fight them off. I doubt Houndeyes can climb either...

Bullsquids attack zombies and headcrabs so they might balance each other's population out.
 
If given enough time,the earth creatures migh develoup a way to defend themselves from the Xens.
 
Black Ops4 said:
Those little leech things (that stop you from swimming out to see on the coast levels) would be more of a problem I think.
Click to expand...

I reckon those leeches were just put there so u couldn't swim out to the ocean. I wouldn't look goo it they just had a giant fence or something.
:cheers:
 
FireCrack said:
Antlions live only on the baeaches though, and not alot of earth animals live there.
Click to expand...
Dont forget prisons :D

Maybe some predator fish will find out how to feed on the leeches, might even help the whale population quite a bit if the leeches doesnt stick to the shores. :)
 
Well, i suppose with all this ****ing up of the earth's systems animals are bound to evolve. As they are, they don't stand a chance.

GIGANTIC LAND SQUIDS!

Uh... let me think...

WOLF ELEPHANTS!

wonder how that would work?

The combine, though, would grab the whales and turn them into gunships. Look at the gunships... they remind me of whales with fans in their butts.
 
Xen animals has more "powers" also stronger, Earth animals have no "powers" only its physical condition, (claws and muscles etc).

But yet, i wonder how the Xen Animals will respond to our gravity and air etc.
 
Jintor said:
Well, i suppose with all this ****ing up of the earth's systems animals are bound to evolve. As they are, they don't stand a chance.

GIGANTIC LAND SQUIDS!

Uh... let me think...

WOLF ELEPHANTS!

wonder how that would work?

The combine, though, would grab the whales and turn them into gunships. Look at the gunships... they remind me of whales with fans in their butts.
Click to expand...


Reminds me of the Sam Keith comic, The Maxx, where they have flying whales and grass that talk and feel.
 
antlions live on beaches. This keeps sea turtles and many species of marine mammmals from reproducing. Without the marine mammals many species of shark will become endangered or exinct due to dramatically decreased food supply.

headcrabs are highly aggressive and the size of basketballs, they also are a very invasive, and very common species. Expect lots of zombie animals. These things could easily overrun areas. Furthermore gonach queens would have no natural predators. These guys could easily get out of control and damage many eco systems

bullsquids, about as powerful as an alligator but ridiculously aggressive and territorial. I could see animals like alligators, crocs, and many other large swamp animals going extinct due to being killed off by bullsquids.

leeches-These little suckers saturate shorelines and kill off many species of fish. Migratory fish are screwed as well as other fish that have to at some point go into the shallows

garg- There isn't a single earth animal that could do anything to this guy. They are like armored carnivorous flame shooting elephants. However since they are rather slow compared to most other animals they'd probably have to scavenge for food or eat the slow and stupid. Despite its ridiculous size and power, its probably the least invasive animal. Since its so big, its ability to reproduce would be slow if even possible (since in was probably vat born like the alien grunts in hl1)

In short, the addition of countless invasive species into the environment will very much result in many species going out of business.



My god this is such a geeky debate
 
True, it is rather geeky, but very interesting.

I think there are too many unknown factors to make a good guess. The one thing that always bothers me with things like this is that we just see these huge agressive predators from Xen. The antlions wouldn't last, they would just need too much food. A single adult tiger might need a hunting territory of over one hundred square mile just to feed itself. Some lone bullsquids might make it, but nothing as large and prolific as the antlions.

In the end, I think there would be a mix of species. I imagine there must be some sort of non-predatory animals on Xen, though. Wonder where they ended up?
 
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