Accepting a Hippo
My family and I watched the first episode of the BBC Earth series entitled "Life" a few days back. If the first episode is any guide of those that follow it will be a truly amazing and inspiring series. We have enjoyed the "Blue Planet" and "Planet Earth" series by BBC Earth as well and have often gone back to view them a second and, in the case of some episodes, a fifth or sixth time.
This is the kind of educational television that I do not mind my children watching. They get a glimpse of the beauty, power, indifference, struggle, delicacy and variety of nature. I imagine that from the amazing video footage and narrative they get a sense of the balance that is so important and that they may also grow to appreciate that, while humans may currently be the dominant animal, we are part of a larger system that could not care less about this dominance.
Tonight we saw an introduction to some of the amazing and creative ways that animals have adapted to their world in the struggle for survival, food and procreation. The amazing tongues of lizards, the fight between male hippos, the courtship of birds, the use of tools by monkeys.
The idea for this entry came from two comments that my daughter uttered while we were watching. They were "Men like fighting" and "Can't they just accept another hippo?".
The words came at a point where the viewer sees a lone male hippo walking in an arid landscape towards the last pools of a river where many female hippos are lounging along with the dominant male. The lone male arrives and has a decision to make. Submit to the dominant male or fight him. He chooses to fight, does not succeed, and saunters away towards another patch of land - alone.
A lesson for my daughter in human nature. Yes, many male animals fight. We may find it a despicable behaviour in humans yet it is a simple fact that we accept in all other animals. Humans are likely one of the only animals that try and suppress instincts that lie just below our social surface. Luckily humans also partake in courtship and not just the raw power of a male struggle to determine who gets to procreate. Having said that we continue to solve to many of our disputes by fighting.
We are an animal that happens to have evolved differently. It can all change.
Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!
This is the kind of educational television that I do not mind my children watching. They get a glimpse of the beauty, power, indifference, struggle, delicacy and variety of nature. I imagine that from the amazing video footage and narrative they get a sense of the balance that is so important and that they may also grow to appreciate that, while humans may currently be the dominant animal, we are part of a larger system that could not care less about this dominance.
Tonight we saw an introduction to some of the amazing and creative ways that animals have adapted to their world in the struggle for survival, food and procreation. The amazing tongues of lizards, the fight between male hippos, the courtship of birds, the use of tools by monkeys.
The idea for this entry came from two comments that my daughter uttered while we were watching. They were "Men like fighting" and "Can't they just accept another hippo?".
The words came at a point where the viewer sees a lone male hippo walking in an arid landscape towards the last pools of a river where many female hippos are lounging along with the dominant male. The lone male arrives and has a decision to make. Submit to the dominant male or fight him. He chooses to fight, does not succeed, and saunters away towards another patch of land - alone.
A lesson for my daughter in human nature. Yes, many male animals fight. We may find it a despicable behaviour in humans yet it is a simple fact that we accept in all other animals. Humans are likely one of the only animals that try and suppress instincts that lie just below our social surface. Luckily humans also partake in courtship and not just the raw power of a male struggle to determine who gets to procreate. Having said that we continue to solve to many of our disputes by fighting.
We are an animal that happens to have evolved differently. It can all change.
Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!
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