Chimpanzees and the Gangland Strategy

A recent article in the journal Nature looked at the question of whether groups of chimpanzees, who have been known to gang-up and kill each other, do this as a result of some adaptive strategies that cause them to “gain fitness benefits by increasing their access to resources” or is it the result of some “non-adaptive result of human impacts”. I was more struck by the fact that they gang-up in the first place. I know they live in tight knit family groups, but forming gangs for, as it turns out, personal gain – well, that hits a bit close to home, don’t you think?

Human beings take great comfort in being included in a group. It is, I suspect deep-seated in our nature, perhaps related to kinship groups and some instinctive genetic survival strategy. When we consider the number of ways we group ourselves, it is rather astonishing. We divide ourselves by race, by nationality, by state or province, and by city. We join churches, gangs, lodges, and associations. We love our own team and hate another, we judge people by their appearance alone, and we somehow decide that God favors our side against another. We divide ourselves to such an extent that we must pass laws to prevent us from discriminating against those who are not like us. We even show hatred toward other groups to the point of war and, in extreme cases, extermination. Think “ethnic cleansing”.

In most cases, we consider our group to be superior to all other groups, so it is not surprising that humans, as a species, can also act as a group. There are humans, and then there are living things that are not human – the animals.

According Merriam-Webster, a tribe is a large family or a group of people who have the same job or interest. We all belong to multiple tribes. For me there is, of course, my main tribe – my family. After family, there is this important tribe:          

And then there are all of these:

       

                                                     

Some tribes are not so good. When I was growing up, it was the Mafia Families that were rumored to spend the winters in our Florida cities. Then it was the street gangs that still plague us today. And next, maybe that is what we see emerging in the terrorists of the Middle East. If you refuse to join their gang, they will blow you up or cut your head off. Wow – not even chimpanzees do that to their enemies!

All Dogs Go to Heaven

My son, Ian, with Chelsea & Bexley

For those of us who love animals, our feelings for a dog that lives inside the house and shares our daily life is special. The connection is powerful. Now that our kids are grown, our dog Chelsea is like an only child. When she is not dragging things out of the garbage can or waking us up in the middle of the night barking at the deer that wander into our yard, she brings us endless comfort and enjoyment. We groaned when she caught a frog in our kitchen, scattering the contents of her food bowl in the process and chuckle every evening when she begins to follow me around the house, giving me the stink-eye until I take her leash off the peg by the door. And we will cry buckets of tears when, in the not too distant future, her life comes to an end. Author Roger Caras said, “Dogs are not our whole lives, but they make our lives whole”.

A recent article on the BBC.com asked Are Dolphins Cleverer than Dogs? Ask most people, according to the article, which of the two species is the most intelligent and the answer would most likely be Dolphins - with their sociability, communication skills, playfulness and ability to understand the complex commands of trainers. They are widely considered to be the second most intelligent of all animals after humans.

But, not so fast my friends. People who study canine behavior are concluding that there is far more going on in the mind of a dog than we previously thought. A dog can use pointing as well as eye-direction cues to locate objects in the distance. Even our nearest animal cousins the chimpanzees don’t look at something when we point to it.

We humans have a habit of judging intelligence by how animal responses compare to ours, but we are almost exclusively a visual species while dogs also live in a world of smells. Their understanding of objects in the world partly involves chemical trails that linger for hours or days. Dolphins are not only visual, but they also have an extra sense that allows them to see through some materials by penetrating them with sonar sound waves. Once subjective, human-centric value judgments are stripped out of the concept of intelligence, the article continues, it makes about as much sense to ask which animal is cleverer as it does to ask whether a hammer or a screwdriver is the better tool. The answer is – it depends on the task at hand.

For me, there is just something about having a dog in the room. I can feel her presence as I write this even though, as I glance her way, she is sound asleep. When I get up in the night, she is there in the dark. I can’t see her but I know she is watchful. When I get home from work she is at least as happy to see me as my wife – maybe more.

A couple of my Facebook friends recently mourned the death of beloved dogs, and I felt their pain. Earlier this year, my wife and I had to have one of our dogs euthanized because of incurable and painful arthritis. Bexley was a big, lovable, shaggy dog. Our friends at the kennel where we boarded Bexley from time to time called her “a clown in a dog’s suit”. I still miss her terribly. Living with her memory makes me appreciate Will Rogers’ comment that if there are no dogs in heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.

SeaWorld - Is it worthy of rescue?

I haven’t seen the movie Dolphin Tale but I am familiar with the Clearwater Marine Aquarium from my years working nearby at Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo. According to a September 3^rd story in telegram.com, the Aquarium is building a new, 68 million dollar aquatic center in downtown Clearwater to accommodate the star of Dolphin Tale, a rescued dolphin named Winter with a prosthetic tail, and the star of the soon-to-be-released sequel, another dolphin calf named Hope.

This new aquatic facility will be remarkable because designers are saving nearly 100 million dollars by eliminating all entertainment facilities. The focus will be “rehabilitation and marine rescues, not entertainment” and, according to the article, they have videotaped celebrity endorsements to support their project.

This is in stark contrast to last month’s announcement by SeaWorld, who unveiled its plans to open a flashy, new orca environment in 2018. The naturalistic area will cover 1.5 acres and its 10 million gallon pool will be up to fifty feet deep and have an underwater current to provide exercise for the orcas. They are even taking the extraordinary steps of pledging 10 million dollars to research and establishing “an independent advisory committee” to oversee the orca program. All of this, and no celebrity endorsements. In fact, according to the LATimes.com, critics called this a desperate move, suggesting that “a bigger prison is still a prison”. As if to punctuate their predicament, SeaWorld stock is plummeting, their profits dwindling, and the State of California is considering legislation to outlaw the shows that are a staple of SeaWorld’s livelihood.

Such is the power of two movies featuring marine mammals, one an upbeat tale with a happy ending and the other a dark exposé that alleges mistreatment and worse. Even famed primatologist, Jane Goodall has been drawn into the fray. Her recent letter to the Vancouver Parks Board in opposition to the Vancouver Aquarium’s cetacean program suggests that the scientific community and society at large are having second thoughts about programs that keep “highly cognitive species like primates, elephants, and cetaceans in entertainment and research” settings.

There can be little doubt that public views are evolving and that, if zoos and aquariums are to survive, they must evolve as well. But when we talk about marine rescue and wildlife rehabilitation, SeaWorld Parks have been in the field for nearly fifty years. So to suggest that a small facility in Clearwater Florida is doing good work while SeaWorld is not seems a bit disingenuous. SeaWorld may have its questionable practices, but providing quality care for rescued wildlife shouldn’t be in the discussion. I wonder if anyone will stand up for SeaWorld. Maybe they are the ones that need to be rescued.