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A mostly bipedal animalistic humanoid that is rather large compared to regular humans and stands at about 13ft, and has a furry aesthetic. With bioengineering, what is a plausible level of resistance to physical damage you could have with the look and feel of the body still being very mammalian?

I assume that you could increase the durability of skin, muscle, and bone as well as the fur, although the fur isn't too long. The goal is to be able to take fire from small to medium caliber firearms without receiving any fatal or near fatal damage, for example firing the entire magazine of an AR-15 into it would only result in minor injuries. It would also be capable of absorbing the damage of shark bites and stabbing weapons without serious injury.

Additional information is that this being would have a very muscular physique and extreme levels of strength and speed, as well as human intelligence and speech.

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    $\begingroup$ Kind of implausible, IMO. Silk can be used as bullet-resistant armor (see for example culture.pl/en/article/…) but that was a 1 cm thick vest made of tightly woven silk fabric against a pistol round; the energy of an AR round is much higher and you are asking for something that resists a magazine's worth. Your creature would probably look more like a suit of armor than a furry. $\endgroup$
    – GrumpyYoungMan
    Nov 13, 2020 at 16:28
  • $\begingroup$ (cont.) Beyond that, bullet resistant clothing is structured differently than stab (i.e. shark bite) resistant clothing, so you'd need another layer on top of that plus massive biological changes to resist organs and bones from being crushed even though the skin or armor layer isn't penetrated. Some animals exert around 1000 psi pressure when biting and some sharks have been estimated to exert 4000 psi for their bites. $\endgroup$
    – GrumpyYoungMan
    Nov 13, 2020 at 16:30
  • $\begingroup$ I'm no biologist but I think you might have better luck with an insanely armored creature that can make a ball with the armor on the outside. Less armor overall, which means lighter body, and optimal shape to deflect bullets. Maybe it would be better. Just maybe and just better. But even then a 556 NATO round is no joke. And 30 of them fired from an automatic rifle is even less funy $\endgroup$
    – Seallussus
    Nov 14, 2020 at 23:45
  • $\begingroup$ Commonly used AR-15 magazines are 10-30 rounds. I know I've seen 5 rounds as well as 50 or 100 round drum versions too. Makes a difference when you are considering armor degradation from multiple shots. $\endgroup$
    – Gary Walker
    Nov 15, 2020 at 20:18

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Think real-world ursine/grizzlies, as this would allow a large skull for intelligent thought.

They are extremely muscular and weather resistant, and can grow extremely tall (8 feet or more standing: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.livescience.com/amp/54453-grizzly-bear.html)

Small caliber weapons only annoy them, which is why we have the phrase “loaded for bear”.

(https://www.outdoorlife.com/photos/gallery/hunting/2012/12/best-grizzly-guns-9-great-guns-brown-bear-hunting-and-defense/)

There are also even more sturdy silverback gorillas to consider, as they are extremely easy to anthropormophize such as in David Brain’s “Uplift War” — not to mention the real life Koko of “Koko’s Kitten” who knew sign language.

Then there are real life big felines (think Sigfried and Roy’s menagerie as well as others, anthropomorphized throughout recent times) also resistant to small arms.

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    $\begingroup$ This large animals are not that resistant to small arms. It just kills them very slowly (by blood loss and infections). Too slow for shooter to survive, but wounds still can be fatal. And full magazine of AR-15 would most probably kill a bear. Poor animal would just be diying for days. $\endgroup$
    – ksbes
    Nov 13, 2020 at 9:42
  • $\begingroup$ All of the bear killing guns in the link provided in this answer fall under "small to medium caliber firearms" that the OP mentions, including the very common 12 ga. shotgun. Even .50 BMG probably falls under "medium caliber firearms" and nothing short of armor is going to be resistant to that. $\endgroup$
    – GrumpyYoungMan
    Nov 13, 2020 at 23:10
  • $\begingroup$ @ksbes Resistant to small arms just means it will die sometime after it's bitten your head off which means small arms really isn't going to help you that much...... $\endgroup$
    – Thorne
    Nov 16, 2020 at 4:36
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Your creature is almost all hair.

sheep w much wool

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2841775/Rescued-sheep-immobilized-50-pounds-wool.html

The hair is matted like this sheep. Perhaps even compacted in places to the point it is like rhino horn. The meat and bone creature underneath is very skinny.

Playing the odds, a bullet hitting this creature will hit hair and probably pass right through. The hair is dense enough to slow down low velocity rounds so they do less damage. A high velocity bullet that actually hits the meat under all that hair will still do damage.

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Honest answer? Not very.

Your basic problem is that no complex biological life form (13 ft tall, hairy, fast or otherwise) is going to be 'resistant' to physical impacts/penetration wounds of the kind generated by modern ballistic weapons.

The only complicating factor from the point of view of a human opponent is how large a caliber (or high a velocity) is needed before you have a high probability of killing/disabling the target with one shot.

Example; Rabbits are commonly hunted with .22 caliber rounds. Bears are regularly hunted today with .44 caliber (or similar) pistol/rifle rounds no problem. (Note: When I say 'no problem' I mean from the human's perspective. If asked and capable of answering the bears would undoubtedly express a different opinion.)

Point is, based on the the only example available (Earth) biological species simply can't evolve or otherwise generate the kind of ballistic resilience needed to prevent injury from bullet wounds - given a specific size of animal and a specific size/mass/velocity of projectile.

Put another way? Humans probably wouldn't be here today if cave lions/bears etc were resistant to fire hardened or stone tipped spears. So bullets?

Your best bet would be dressing Yogi and Boo Boo up in high tech ballistic armor.

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