My 11-year old daughter and I are on vacation in the San Francisco area. Today we visited Muir Woods, an enchanted grove of coastal redwood trees less than an hour north of San Francisco. Thank you, Teddy Roosevelt, for saving this natural treasure.
Today, I worked hard to try to capture the immensity of these trees in a photo. Here's the best I could do:
I visited the St. Louis Zoo today with a camera. Upon arrival, I headed to the exhibits of the great apes. After watching the gorillas for awhile, three of these magnificent animals assumed this configuration:
As you can see, A was checking out B, who was checkout out C, who was checking out A. It seemed to be the gorilla version of Sartre's No Exit for about 20 seconds. And then it was back to romping across the grounds or sitting in a shady spot.
In this TED talk, primatologist Frans de Waal asserts that human morality has evolved, and that the existence of morality doesn’t depend on religion. He observes that “humans are far more cooperative and empathic than they are given credit for,” and that they are, in many ways similar to other primates. From de Waal’s experiments, one can learn that chimpanzees (who have no religion) often reconcile with one another after fights. The principle “is that you have a valuable relationship that is damaged by conflict so you need to do something about it.” What are the “pillars of morality,” that which morality is based on? Reciprocity (fairness) and Empathy (compassion) are two constants. He indicates that human morality includes more than these two factors, but not much more. Check out the beautiful 1935 video of chimpanzees at the 3:35 min mark; they cooperate in synchronized fashion to pull in a heavy box of fruit. Then check out at 4:20 what happens when one of the two chimps is not hungry, thus not motivated to work hard. This is incredible footage that will remind you of a species you often see in the mirror. What makes the uninterested chimp to work at all, according to de Waal, is receipt of a past or a future favor, i.e., reciprocity. [More . . . ]
Science Daily confirms that some chimpanzees assume the role of peace-makers in their communities.
In the NYT, Diane Ackerman asks why human animals flock to zoos.
More than 150 million people a year visit zoos and aquariums in the United States. Why do we flock to them? It’s not just a pleasant outing with family or friends, or to introduce children (whose lives are a cavalcade of animal images) to real animals, though those are still big reasons. I think people are also drawn to a special stripe of innocence they hope to find there.