Category Archives: Lifeforms

News about various lifeforms.

This Year’s Dose of Horrible Behavior Towards Animals

How would you feel if some dudes would grab somebody dear to you from the comfort and safety of their home, tie that person to a car and drag them around town for a couple of miles? While doing this, of course, they would laugh, because torture is fun:

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/13/us/shark-dragged-video-arrests-trnd/index.html^

And then there’s this horrific way to celebrate students’ achievements: a jungle-themed prom where majestic wild animals are disrespected and psychologically tormented. This sets, of course, a wonderful example for the adults, parents and decision makers of tomorrow:

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/miami-dade/fl-reg-tiger-at-school-prom-20180514-story.html^

There’s a reason why I’ve timed this post to show up exactly after the one detailing how ants take care of their wounded^, which is yet another discovery from a long string of marvelous findings about the creatures living along side us on Earth. I’d like to create contrast between the amazing diversity and complexity of life on Earth and the lack of respect (many) humans show towards it.

My only comfort is that at least society is taking some action against such behavior. It’s a step in the right direction. I await the day when all of our children will respect wildlife and will leave it well enough alone.

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Ants Take Care of Their Wounded

It’s impressive how creatures with a (much) smaller brain than ours are capable of complex behaviors such as taking care of their wounded. Could it be that instinct is smarter than being smart?

This is evolution at its best. As the main author of instinctual behavior refinement, evolution has given these ants an edge. Because they take care of their wounded, they could very well prevail should they get into a contest with other (ant) species:

https://www.i4u.com/2018/02/127173/ants-rescue-their-warriors-licking-their-wounds^

Here’s to more amazing finds about the ecosystem!

…And to less cruelty^ towards^ it^

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No, Eagles Won’t Save Us from Drones

Here’s the latest about the unethical involvement of animals in the puerile affairs of Homo sapiens. France is training eagles to attack terrorist drones. The idea of training animals for the purpose of taking out enemy military hardware isn’t new. Military dolphins^ were around since last century. At least there are some arguably ethical uses for dolphins, such as finding people lost at sea. France seems to think that the eye-sight of eagles is perfect for spotting and taking out “terrorist robots”:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/02/21/terrorists-are-building-drones-france-is-destroying-them-with-eagles^

This will only lead to “the terrorists” creating more dangerous drones (perhaps those that can shoot back), or simply to make them look different. I’m guessing humans can outsmart eagles in camouflage. Even if a nation-state manages to deploy “eagle squads” in every major city, available 24/7, it is still unlikely that much can be done against a well-organized drone attack.

I’d be more concerned regarding a drone-war between nation-states rather than terrorist drones. Nation-states can easily build more drones than France can train eagles, unless everybody starts having a pet eagle (perhaps that’s the plan?). I wonder what happens when one of those eagles confuses somebody’s beret for a drone…

It’s all just another case of senseless exploitation of another species. Just another pointless experiment wasting tax-payer money. It’s not even ground-breaking since training attack birds isn’t exactly a new thing. Sure, these eagles have a better life than creatures involved in intensive animal farming^, but really, can’t they build drones to fight drones? And yes, I think PETA^ are too soft :). But I wouldn’t go as far as calling myself an ALF^.

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Plant Consciousness

In the past few years we’ve learned a lot about how plants communicate with each other. The first such communication to be discovered was through volatile organic compounds that plants secrete in order to notify each other of predators. This is known as hormonal sentience^.

More recently, scientists have discovered that plants communicate even underneath the surface, using fungi:

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/38727/title/Plant-Talk/^

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141111-plants-have-a-hidden-internet^

Things get even more interesting. It appears that trees have a complex social life, being aware to recognize family members and different species. It’s as mind-blowing as it is expected (humanity is slowly but surely waking up to the fact that intelligence comes in many flavors):

https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/09/26/the-hidden-life-of-trees-peter-wohlleben/^

Edit 2018-08-30: check this short video^ about the wood wide web.

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About Those Animals Again

Recent studies show that ducks may be capable of abstract thinking. Scientists have reached this conclusion after hatching about a hundred ducklings and playing shape games with them while they were imprisoned in an enclosure:

www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0714/Ducks-might-be-capable-of-abstract-thought-say-scientists^

The fact that we’re the dominant species on this planet certainly has its perks. I suppose it would also be just fine if a race of curious aliens starts taking our babies away and make them crawl after floating spheres and cubes in order to examine how their curiosity develops.

Oh, did you know we’re able to hatch chicks without eggshells?

http://www.snopes.com/chicks-hatched-without-eggshell/^

Wouldn’t it be great if those aliens would start to populate our planet with babies grown in grocery bags with tubes rather than a mother’s womb? Do you think those children would turn out smarter and perhaps less merciless than we are?

And last but not least, here’s one last bitter pill for the day:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/worlds-saddest-zoo-grandview-aquarium_us_578c8b3be4b03fc3ee514af2^

Congratulations brothers and sisters, both for causing this and for fighting against it. Sarcasm doesn’t go well with optimism, does it?

Sharkasm
Sharkasm

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Superbugs & Antibiotics

Bacteria resistant to last-resort antibiotics are slowly but surely spreading through our world. After almost a century of heavy antibiotic use, many bacteria have started to develop resistance to our methods of treatment. The result could be disastrous. Even routine surgery and minor infections could become life-threatening.

Here’s a very well written piece about the situation:

https://medium.com/@fernnews/imagining-the-post-antibiotics-future-892b57499e77#.ojct9q7xd

As the article above points out, 80% of the antibiotics we use globally are used for farm animals. And by “farm”, I mean those grotesque factories where we shove animals into enclosures and keep them there until the end of their sorry lives, never to walk under the open sky.

But even cutting down on these antibiotics won’t do much other than to slow down the inevitable evolution of bacteria. Life is a perpetually evolving process. It will not stop for us. As the article above also points out, changing ways of farming won’t be easy for the farmers or their customers. But eventually, changes must be done, or we will face some serious consequences sooner or later.

Farms in the third millenium.
Farms in the third millennium.

Last week, the USA grimly realized that an antibiotic-resistant variant of the E. coli bacterium has been found^ within its borders. The infection was discovered in the urine of a 49-year-old woman. This bacterium is still vulnerable to other types of antibiotics, but researchers are afraid that, through genetic exchange, bacteria might share immunities between species.

Perhaps our rapidly evolving technology might be able to save us. The evolution and spread of bacteria could be monitored via electronic records. Additional funds can be directed into finding better, smarter ways of dealing with infections.

I have great hopes in the fields of nanotechnology and bio-engineering. However, such solutions may carry even greater risks. Our attempts to control natural processes at an exponentially increasing scale have as a result an exponential risk to lose our balance altogether.

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Isn’t It Cute When Animals Escape the Zoo?

In the past few weeks the news has been abuzz with several stories coming from zoos around the world. These articles tend to attract quite a few readers it seems, mostly because people seem to think it’s kinda cute when animals prove us they’re smart, or that they can take initiative in a given situation.

There was this octopus^ that managed to escape its prison through some pipe, much to the delight of its human wardens. Then, a bit less funny was this chimp^ who had to be tranquillized while doing what it knew best – having fun above the ground. After the chemical did its job, during some not particularly dignifying minutes, the chimp fell and was skillfully saved from hitting the pavement.

Then, things turned nasty when a tiger killed^ its keeper at yet another location. It is now when humans finally start showing compassion. Of course, its towards their fellow, a keeper, which apparently had a good bond with the tiger. And let’s not forget the deaths at SeaWorld^, a place where patrons used to eat lunch while trainers did tricks with killer whales, one of the most intelligent mammals in the world.

I deeply regret that humans have died while “working” with animals. I think that this can be prevented if we start treating these beings with the respect they deserve. This doesn’t mean that we should stop hunting animals if it is in our nature, but it does mean that we should start treating them with respect.

So then it should be of no surprise when I’m going to write that: no, it’s not cute at all when animals escape the zoo. These creatures do not belong in the zoo. Even though a zoo has the side effect of educating people about animals, it also spreads a terrible message about the way we’re running things on this planet.

Last year I’ve visited a place where they had various animals in a covered enclosure that only had two sets of windows. Three monkeys were gathered in front one of the windows, looking at the world outside. I didn’t have to be an expert in animal body language to understand that those monkeys felt miserable. Maybe I’d feel better if I could unsee that image, but I prefer to have it burned into my brain, because such a memory will help me keep my energy when advocating animal rights on this planet.

Try imagining living your entire life in a space equivalent to a football stadium and perhaps you’ll partially understand what most animals feel like in a zoo. In one place, I’ve seen three different species of felines being crammed between five glass walls. What we’re doing to our fellow life-forms is degrading and unfair.

Education about animals can happen in a myriad of ways. Television has been around for many decades. With the advent of Virtual Reality, we’ll soon be able to visit natural habitats from the comfort of our homes. It’s time to say goodbye to the concept of a prison for animals. Let’s not forget in what period of our civilization these places have been invented.

I’ll close this off with this cute series about how things would look if the roles of humans and animals would be reversed:

http://www.boredpanda.com/satirical-animal-rights-illustrations-parallel-universe^

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Updated on April 30, 2016: no later than three days after publishing this, I’ve learned about this plan to create a dolphin park in the Arizona desert^. The builders fended off criticism with the usual claims of such entrepreneurs – that the animals will be well taken care of and that the place will offer “education” to our young. You can be well taken care of in prison, but it’s still a prison. As for education, what sort of example are we offering children when their parents cage animals for money?

Dolphins Get High Too

We’ve known for many years that several species of animals get drunk by eating fermented fruits. In 2013, biologists have made yet another surprising discovery. Groups of dolphins get high by chewing on puffer fish. After obtaining a sufficient amount of perception-altering neurotoxin from the creature, they pass it to another dolphin in the group.

Here’s the story, more than two years old by now:

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/dolphins-deliberately-get-high-on-puffer-fish-nerve-toxins-by-carefully-chewing-and-passing-them-9030126.html^

Good job, dolphins! Can’t light a cigarette? Fermentation doesn’t work? Then use another creature’s venom. Truly fantastic! This behavior adds to the theory that there is an interesting drive present in all living creatures: an unexplainable desire to change their perception of the surrounding environment. Given some countries’ policies regarding consciousness-altering substances, this is important food for thought.

Nature surely never ceases to amaze. Why am I writing about this in 2016? Simply because I was really fascinated by the method that dolphins use and I want as many people as possible to know about such a wonder – just doing my job when it comes to “sharing is caring”. It’s also something that I need to have on this website.

And because I want this posting to also contain some new information about our fellow lifeforms, here’s a recent (unrelated) discovery about birds and crocodiles. Impressive stuff:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-birds-alligators-study-20160302-story.html^

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Ravens Might Have a Theory of Mind

Another month, another revelation about the intelligence of other beings sharing the ride here with us, on Earth. Especially during the past couple of decades, our understanding of the various creatures inhabiting this planet has advanced formidably, not only as a result of technological progress but also due to our maturing as a species. We’re starting to awaken to the fact that we should perhaps take more care of our ecosystem and the beautiful planet we live on. With this step forward, comes a perpetually-renewing interest in other forms of life.

This recent discovery is about the Theory of Mind^, which is the ability to attribute mental states – beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc. – to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different from one’s own. It’s one of the building blocks of consciousness. And ravens appear to have it.

Here’s the article where you can read more about the discovery:

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0202/Ravens-might-possess-a-Theory-of-Mind-say-scientists^

After reading about various such discoveries in the past decade, I can’t say I’m surprised. We’re slowly waking up to the fact that intelligence cannot be defined or constrained by our anthropomorphic boundaries. Life is an incredibly diverse and complex process. Rather than dominating and abusing it, I hope we will continue on our path towards respect, knowledge and awareness.

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