If you’re attacked by a large predator your chances of survival will be limited, and your organs, tissues and bones will become part of the animal that ate you. But what about the chances of survival for your clothes?
Well, that depends on the nature of your attacker and your fashion choices. Lions, tigers and other big cats, in common with the bear family and predatory sharks, tear lumps off their prey. In the process they will shred the outer covering to get at the meaty stuff inside. Anyone investigating the site of your demise is likely to find plenty of ripped fabric and empty shoes, with only some bits of shirt or trousers missing.
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Crocodiles and snakes such as reticulated pythons or anacondas, swallow their prey whole, so if that unfortunate meal happens to be a human, into the stomach goes the body and all its protective covering.
What happens next is very dependent on the strength of the animal’s stomach acids and digestive enzymes. Which is also where your choice of clothing and accessories comes in. If you like to wear natural materials close to your skin – cotton, linen, wool, hemp, silk or leather – these may be broken down in the predator’s stomach if the animal has a slow enough digestive process.
Synthetic materials – polyester, nylon, elastane/spandex, acrylic or plastic – and metals are more problematic as they are much more difficult, to impossible, to break down into digestible components and they may even be poisonous.
However, it’s reasonable to suppose that any aspect of a human victim that isn’t flesh, blood and bone will pass through most animals and be excreted, or possibly vomited back out once the juicy stuff has been absorbed. Indeed, researchers (or attempted rescuers – whoever got there first) have occasionally found the regurgitated remains of a meal or faecal matter containing wads of undigested fabric, jewellery and the like, which can be an aid to identification of both prey and predator.
Sometimes, clothing can be the victim’s only means of revenge. A large accumulation of stretchy material can cause a blockage in the predator’s digestive tract that can inhibit further eating and fester to eventually result in the animal’s death. Small comfort to anyone facing the gaping jaws of a hungry carnivore!
It has to be said, though, that such occurrences are relatively rare, and most people attacked by a large predator will escape actual death, although they may suffer grievous injuries and perhaps lose an amount of clothing in the process…
