GlendaleViper
Yep, words.
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2006
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I'm a weird guy, so I think about weird things. I thought it might be fun to post some of the more bizarre things that capture our imagination. Some, I'm sure, simply don't have an answer; others might and they just haven't been found yet.
For those uninterested in reading my not atypical novella of a post, a singular summary sentence: What questions do you ponder, perhaps stay up at night thinking about, but (at least as yet) cannot answer?
Here's one of mine:
Watching Planet Earth the other day, there was a scene in the freshwater episode about the Smooth-Coated Otter of Southeast Asia. Curious to this sub-species is that their environment accommodates for group living; Otters are normally solitary once they mature. At one point in the sequence, the filmmakers managed to capture some fascinating behaviour: When threatened by a freshwater crocodile, the otters ganged up on the would-be predator and successfully deterred it's attack!
This dug up an old question of mine: Why don't prey species fight back? I'm thinking specifically of herd grazers here, where not only are the individuals themselves typically larger than their predators, but also vastly outnumber them?
Take for instance the Caribou, which has the Arctic Wolf as an enemy. Caribou, like other hoofed mammals, engage in one of the most dramatic displays of raw power in the animal kingdom via their bullfights. We're talking about an animal which, in the case of a male, weighs an average of 350-400 pounds, has a massive pair of horns and a set of legs that could send a human being flying (likely with a caved-in ribcage). Now consider that a group of these nomadic grazers will often herd in the hundreds of thousands.
The Arctic Wolf is no slouch. It knows it's overpowered and outnumbered and as such has adapted its strategies to hunt successfully. Against a Caribou, it attacks head on, knowing the herd will flee, and then singles out a weak or juvenile individual once they break away from the main group for a better chance at a meal.
But why do the Caribou flee? A charging individual would make for one hell of a threat to the wolf, let alone a stampede! Instinct is a powerful thing indeed, but surely after thousands of generations - and constant adaptations to ever changing surroundings, they could have figured out that they can take this thing?
This has led my thoughts to the idea of pacifism in diet. The defiant Otters are, of course, voracious carnivores - fish-eaters, mainly. But this doesn't hold up. Also shown in the Planet Earth series is another bizarre bit of behaviour: A herd of Walrus under attack from a desperate Polar Bear. Walrus are also carnivores; their diet consists mainly of clams and other invertebrates, but they've been known to eat Seal and even scavenge on Whale carcasses. Their immediate response was to flee into the water. This is an animal which, while not exactly predatory, is indeed a flesh-eater (to be fair, they did take a few jabs at the bear with their tusks although I expect they wouldn't have even done this much if they weren't so immobile on land), so this thought holds no water. On the other end, primates like Gorillas, while classified as omnivores - insects can make up 1-2% of their diet, are fiercely territorial. Hell, I've seen vegans handily pound the steak and potatoes out of an opponent!
I could go on and on with conflicting examples (more so than I already have), but what it comes down to is a question without an answer. I don't know that I even care to find one - the idea of sentience, group mentality and individualism among species is enough to capture my imagination, whatever the tactic or behaviour. But there are infinite questions like these. I have a million of them, we all have them, whatever they may be.
So what are yours? A song's effect on an individual's "soul"? What came before the Big Bang? Why is a rice cake, impossibly dry and tasteless, still tasty?
Let's keep in mind the forum rules.
For those uninterested in reading my not atypical novella of a post, a singular summary sentence: What questions do you ponder, perhaps stay up at night thinking about, but (at least as yet) cannot answer?
Here's one of mine:
Watching Planet Earth the other day, there was a scene in the freshwater episode about the Smooth-Coated Otter of Southeast Asia. Curious to this sub-species is that their environment accommodates for group living; Otters are normally solitary once they mature. At one point in the sequence, the filmmakers managed to capture some fascinating behaviour: When threatened by a freshwater crocodile, the otters ganged up on the would-be predator and successfully deterred it's attack!
This dug up an old question of mine: Why don't prey species fight back? I'm thinking specifically of herd grazers here, where not only are the individuals themselves typically larger than their predators, but also vastly outnumber them?
Take for instance the Caribou, which has the Arctic Wolf as an enemy. Caribou, like other hoofed mammals, engage in one of the most dramatic displays of raw power in the animal kingdom via their bullfights. We're talking about an animal which, in the case of a male, weighs an average of 350-400 pounds, has a massive pair of horns and a set of legs that could send a human being flying (likely with a caved-in ribcage). Now consider that a group of these nomadic grazers will often herd in the hundreds of thousands.
The Arctic Wolf is no slouch. It knows it's overpowered and outnumbered and as such has adapted its strategies to hunt successfully. Against a Caribou, it attacks head on, knowing the herd will flee, and then singles out a weak or juvenile individual once they break away from the main group for a better chance at a meal.
But why do the Caribou flee? A charging individual would make for one hell of a threat to the wolf, let alone a stampede! Instinct is a powerful thing indeed, but surely after thousands of generations - and constant adaptations to ever changing surroundings, they could have figured out that they can take this thing?
This has led my thoughts to the idea of pacifism in diet. The defiant Otters are, of course, voracious carnivores - fish-eaters, mainly. But this doesn't hold up. Also shown in the Planet Earth series is another bizarre bit of behaviour: A herd of Walrus under attack from a desperate Polar Bear. Walrus are also carnivores; their diet consists mainly of clams and other invertebrates, but they've been known to eat Seal and even scavenge on Whale carcasses. Their immediate response was to flee into the water. This is an animal which, while not exactly predatory, is indeed a flesh-eater (to be fair, they did take a few jabs at the bear with their tusks although I expect they wouldn't have even done this much if they weren't so immobile on land), so this thought holds no water. On the other end, primates like Gorillas, while classified as omnivores - insects can make up 1-2% of their diet, are fiercely territorial. Hell, I've seen vegans handily pound the steak and potatoes out of an opponent!
I could go on and on with conflicting examples (more so than I already have), but what it comes down to is a question without an answer. I don't know that I even care to find one - the idea of sentience, group mentality and individualism among species is enough to capture my imagination, whatever the tactic or behaviour. But there are infinite questions like these. I have a million of them, we all have them, whatever they may be.
So what are yours? A song's effect on an individual's "soul"? What came before the Big Bang? Why is a rice cake, impossibly dry and tasteless, still tasty?
Let's keep in mind the forum rules.