We have a lot of knowledge about predators and how they behave, but not as much about how they entered this planet or evolved into the creatures they are today.
As enigmatic as the plots of the majority of Christopher Nolan movies are their biology and reproduction. However, we are here to dispel any misconceptions regarding Predator anatomy and reproduction. We will also look at their evolutionary history and how they evolved into mammals. Shall we get started?
How did the Predators become Mammals?
The Predators are creatures that hunt at the top of their game and search the cosmos for the most dangerous and deserving prey. They originate from the planet Yautja Prime. But very little is understood about their evolutionary background. Were they even the first inhabitants of the hot, humid world they now call home? Dark Horse Comics released a book titled Predator Homeworld in 1999.
The fourth issue of the comic series explores the possibility that Predators were once inhabitants of Earth but left long ago. Although the comics were about naturalist Maya Bergstrom and former combat journalist George Maxwell becoming involved with an older Predator hunting down three bad-blood Predators, this possibility is also explored in the comic series. Science-minded Maya spent a lot of time researching and analysing the Predators, so it is only natural that she came up with a lot of theories on how they came to be — theories that might even surprise some of you.
Dr. Maya Bergstrom started to think that the Predators had a connection to Earth because of how frequently they visited. It was almost as if Earth had served as their spawning ground. She used a variety of migratory creatures as an example to offer a plausible foundation for this argument. I mean, animals like sea turtles and salmon use Earth’s magnetic field to find their birthplace.
So, it could have been possible for Predators as well to follow some kind of physical force or energy instinctively. It’s almost like Predators come back to Earth because they are of a pilgrimage of sorts, driven by instinct, forced by their very nature. Furthermore, Dr. Maya theorised that the Predators originated from primitive mammals called therapsids. These are a class of extinct animals that had tusks with frontal incisors and lateral canines.
These organisms evolved around 275 million years ago and became extinct 100 million years ago in the Early Cretaceous period. These organisms had both reptilian and mammalian traits, and in fact, the last of the therapsids to go extinct were mammals, and likewise, the Predators are mammals with reptilian traits.
This could explain why the Predators could breathe in Earth’s atmosphere, albeit with a bit of difficulty. And as far as the question of Yautja Prime is concerned, an intelligent race may have taken these animals from Earth and placed them on Yautja Prime, where they could evolve into the ferocious killing machines that they are, hence achieving their evolutionary potential.
How Do Yautjas Pro-Create?
Although males dominate the live-action world of Predators, any decent Predator fan knows that female predator are as ferocious, elegant, and brutal as their male counterparts, if not more. And that’s precisely why some female Predators are known to be bulkier and stronger than many male Predators. They also possess a few extra features; for instance, the female Predator Hashori had spikes on her back and elbows.
While a few female Predators do possess mammary glands for their sucklings, some, like Big Mama, do not have any protrusions on chests. I mean, in the comics, she was practically topless, and there was little distinction between her and any other male Predator. By the way, we have explored the entire history of Big Mama, do check it out; you’ll find a link in the description.
However, as far as the male Predators are concerned, their anatomy is pretty close to that of human males. This is most prominent in the similar reproductive systems of the two species, both having a phallic organ which serves as the primary reproductive organ. Furthermore, the gonads in human and Predator males are placed on the exterior, which is just another piece of similarity between the two. You know, all these things truly make me wonder if the Predators and humans are actually related in some way, or if this is just a coincidence.
I mean, humans are a fairly younger race compared to these hulking beasts, but maybe we have a few of their genes? I mean, fictionally speaking, of course! Both male and female Predators signify aggression by giving off a strong musk; however, females give it off also when they are in estrus. The musk is like a mating call of sorts, and the males get attracted to the female.
But lucky for us, humans cannot smell this musk. I mean, some of the comics have described that Predators smell terrible, I can only imagine what this musk must smell like. Nevertheless, all Predators join clans because that’s how they go on hunts unless someone has gone rogue or just wants to be a lone ranger, like the Predator named Djinn, who worked in Afghanistan, and killed the Taliban.
So, a Predator clan may have one or many Females. But there have been clans such as the Widow Clan, which consisted of only female members. Furthermore, there are certain differences between the males and the females as far as their behaviour is concerned. I mean, the female Predator Big Mama developed a maternal feeling for a trophy wife called Caryn Delacroix, going as far as teaching Caryn the Predator way of life.
However, younger Yautjas are known to be seriously overzealous, violent, and impulsive. And, they can go to almost any extent to prove their mettle, including going against their clan leader. But such stunts do not bring them any good results, and death becomes imminent and sudden. Now that we have understood the male and female anatomy of the Predators, I believe it’s time to know how they do it and what happens when they have done it.
So, although the actual doing it has never been shown in the comics, let alone the live-action films, it is no rocket science to figure out that the process is pretty much similar to that of most mammals and even humans. The length of a Yautja’s Dee (note: here, I would request the voiceover artist to pretend like he was going to say dick), I mean dreadlocks, plays a vital role in appearance, and by extension, finding a mating partner.
I guess, even in the Yautja world, size does matter. Yautjas with shorter dreadlocks are often considered unattractive and unworthy of fathering children. But how does a female choose her counterpart? Well, they have a mating season of sorts, when all the Yautjas get their fair share of action. The females completely ignore the younger Yautjas, such as youngbloods and unbloods, but it makes sense because the blooding ritual is the coming-of-age ceremony for the Yautjas, and only after that do they become adults, worthy of siring children.
So, it is important to note that the female Yautjas prefer a badass guy, someone who has a lot of trophies under his belt. Interestingly enough, some of the male predators are known to have many mating patterns, but as far as the females are concerned, they are largely monogamous. We can say this because there is an entire clan of female Predators called the Widow Clan. Clearly, they did not go for another male after their former partners passed away.
So, once a female and a male Yautja do it under the sheets, or whatever it is they do it under, the female Yautja gives birth to a baby hunter, which is called a youngling, pup, or suckling. One more interesting aspect of the Yautja way of life is that apart from striving for glory and honor, the male Predators strive to bolster their bloodlines. Furthermore, hunting and mating go hand in hand.
What I mean is, the more successful hunts a Predator has under his name, the more females he can get, and by extension, the more sucklings he can father. Now, in the Yautja society, someone who has fathered close to a hundred children is respected by all, but someone who fathers anywhere close to 200 children is feared as well as respected. All this makes me feel that I should have been born a Yautja, honestly!
But then I tend to change my mind when I hear that strong and mighty Predators like Dachande were tossed across the room by their mating partners during the course of coitus. Yautja girls do like to play it rough, no wonder they are such great hunters!
Can humans and Yautjas breed?
To begin with, we share fifty percent DNA with a banana, and we cannot mate with it, right? Anyway, of course, there has been no real evidence which suggests that humans and Yautjas have had offspring together. However, we have had instances where a human named Hunter Borgia tried to become a Yautja by splicing his DNA with Yautja DNA. Although the process did not reach its desired end, he was the closest that a human-yautja hybrid could be.
Nevertheless, it is highly unlikely that humans and Yautjas can make a baby by the natural process of reproduction, or even through artificial means. I mean, even if by chance such an attempt was made, the offspring would die as a foetus or live very little after birth. We have learned how humans and Yautjas have several similarities, both being bipedal mammals, etc. Yet, such reproduction would be impossible for the same reasons humans cannot make a baby with other animals.
For instance, chimps share some 98% of the human DNA, but we cannot make babies with them because we do not belong to the same species. In fact, we are not even in the same genus. While chimps belong to the Pan genus, we humans belong to the homo genus. (May wanna include the scene from Friends where joey says ‘he said homo.’ It was in the episode where they all go to Barbados for Ross’s conference.)
Jokes apart, cats from the Panthera genus and even horses and donkeys can produce offspring with zebras or with each other. However, the health of such offspring is often a matter of chance. It’s almost like God flips a coin every time humans try such stunts and play God. But then there’s another class of animals that bears healthy offspring even when they mate with organisms of other species.
I am talking about canines like wolves and coyotes, that can interbreed. However, the offspring may turn out to be more violent than when compared to their pure breed parents. This is why some vets suggest that dogs should not be crossbred. As far as humans are concerned, our ancestors often mated with other hominids, such as the Neanderthals, but then the genus remained the same.
So, from this little anthropology and biology lesson, it is evident that Predators and humans cannot really breed because the two of them belong to extremely different species. Having similar physical attributes is not a parameter for making babies.
The Predators followed an entirely different evolutionary path than humans, and they are essentially superior beings with superior DNA, something that we learned from the game Predator: Concrete jungle, which featured Hunter Borgia, the human Predator. Again, you can learn everything about Hunter Borgia and his tragic backstory in our video titled Hunter Borgia Origin – The Unholy Crossbreed Of Yautja And Human, The Monstrous Predator Form. We’ll leave a link in the description.
How Would Yautja Treat A Human Child?
Before we answer that question, it is important to learn why the Predators hunt and who do they hunt. Well, these creatures from Yautja Prime may be the most ruthless of hunters, but they do not kill for pleasure. They only hunt those who they deem worthy prey, someone who can successfully defend themselves.
Now, their code of honour is something that’s truly impressive, and they would go to any extent to protect their honour, even if that means siding with their possible victims. Predators do not hunt Unarmed civilians, elderly people, sick people, pregnant women, and children. However, a bad blood Predator or a young blood on a hunt would not give it a second thought. Youngbloods are usually a huge bundle of rage and bloodlust with a thirst to prove themselves at all costs.
They care little about the code of honour and are more than willing to let it go if a violent and dishonourable act brings them recognition. However, such acts do not bring them much glory, and they invite death. For instance, in the comic series Alien vs. Predator, a group of young hunters led by their leader Dachande arrive at the hot and arid planet of Ryushi. But Dachande was not aware that a human colony was residing there. He unleashed Xenomorphs for the hunt, and there was utter chaos and bloodshed post that.
One thing led to another, and humans captured Dachande. This enraged the young blood predator named Tichinde, who took command and ordered a manslaughter of the humans in Ryushi. He wanted his leader free, and to achieve that he could have gone to any extent. Tichinde and his mates attacked the parents of a little boy named Bobby, and would have killed Bobby, had he not escaped with his hoverbike.
Bobby was brought into the med centre for first aid, and when he saw Dachande, he revealed in horror that it was one that killed his parents. Later, Dachande joined hands with the humans because he felt that the massacre of humans was his doing, and he wanted to redeem himself. He killed Tichinde for his disobedience and uncalled the carnage of innocent humans on Ryushi. He got especially enraged because of seeing the skull of a human child that Tichinde had kept as a trophy.
In one of the very recent Predator comics released by Marvel, we see a young and ruthless Predator hunter named Theta. As a child, Theta’s parents were snatched away by a Predator, who not only killed her but her entire colony. When the Predator killed her mother, Francesca, Theta was present there, and she held a blade that her mother had used to attack the Predator.
Although Theta was carrying a weapon, the Predator did not attack her because she said ‘please.’ So, it is important to note that Predators do not attack prey who request mercy. This was also explained in the crossover comic Judge Dredd vs Predator. So, all in all, a Predator with a moral code would let a human child live, and may even protect it, but a young blood Predator or a bad blood Predator would not think twice before slaughtering a child in cold blood.