Why do animals spook when they see or smell us? I understand common species like whitetail, but say, dalls sheep that have never seen or smelled a human..

Ive never had a Dall sheep spook from seeing me or smelling me.

Its an evolutionary advantage to fear the unknown. They don't have to know what it is, to know it's not something they've seen or experienced before.

Prey animals that run away at the unknown instead of being curious tend to live longer.

(I've never seen a dall sheep, just speaking generically.)

I do think your body language and the way you move can somewhat id u as a predator and I would wonder if the smell of a predator that eats meat isnt different than say a prey animal that is more of a vegetarian. I know working with cattle and horses they can read very slight cues in my body language and react differently to them.

I’ve never seen aliens or Bigfoot, but if I do, I’m Runnin’!!

Slim Peterson
Wote a really cool story about this and it was published in FFG it was well written and very interesting.
It may have been in one of his books but I think it was FFG.

Prey animals have fear built into their genetic code. Eyes on the side is a prey animal, eyes facing forward is a predator. Both designed to look for the other. Deer see horizontal movement alot better than vertical, because their prey mainly come horizontal. Same as other ungalats ( i know my spellings terrible.)