Have a think. What would you say?
Here's a list of possible answers:
Humans:
- are intelligent
- have opposable thumbs
- can use tools
- stand upright
- speak
- are nearly hairless
- control fire
- make war
- murder
- love
- have empathy
- have a soul
Maybe you can add to this list?
Let's compare this list to the humble, if ginormous, elephant.
Are they intelligent? Absolutely. Their IQ may not be as high as ours (arguably) but, with a brain six times the volume of ours, they are high on the list of those species waiting to take over once we bugger up our future. Anyway, every time they've been asked to sit an IQ test, they've proven too intelligent to even bother.
Next, opposable thumbs and tool using. Ok, you've got me there, no opposable thumbs. On the other hand (trunk) their nasal proboscis is soooooo much more flexible than our bone ridden hand.
Controlled by up to 100,000 muscles, this can take a little learning to control.
Can they use their trunks for tools? Yes they can, and they do, albeit rarely. They prefer line dancing...
Standing upright allows us to free up our hands. Jumbo has gone one better, it keeps its four limbs firmly on the ground, and uses its nose instead of hands. Winner: the elephant.
Humans can love. And some humans seem to think that only humans can love. All the emotions we have, evolved from our ancestors. They must have felt love too. The evidence is strong that many species feel love. Not all (spiders may be an exception) but many do. Elephants? Absolutely. They do not live in marital bliss like, er, humans or more accurately maybe, swans, but their family structure is strong and bound by bonds every bit as strong as in humans.
The fact that women control the families should not be seen as a negative. I'd say it was pretty normal.
Elephants seem deficient on the language front, but they communicate using very low frequency sounds, sensing these sounds through their giant feet. They can communicate over many kilometres, whereas I often cannot here the wife talking to me in the same room.
As for being mostly hairless, elephants win here too. Although born with hair, it soon disappears.
In making fire, humans are a clear winner, although why elephants would want to cook their grass is a little uncertain.
Humans make war? Ok, elephants lose on this one. No wars. But other species do. It has, for instance, recently been seen in chimps.
Murder? Nah, not elephants. Chimps however... oh yes, and spiders...
Empathy? Absolutely. Elephants have been shown to have empathy. In fact, empathy is a great evolutionary power, seen in many species.
Trees don't have empathy however, but this gives me a good excuse to use this picture...
And then there is the soul. Exactly what is the soul? Well, it is a totally human construct, something that doesn't actually exist in any way shape or form, but gets more books written about it than, well, elephants. Have elephants invented the soul? Heck, I don't know, but why not?
So overall, elephants score pretty highly on the 'human' scale, except for the bad things like murder and war...
But, and it's a big but, there is one human characteristic that we haven't mentioned. Humans have the ability kill off entire species. Elephants don't. Elephants are, however, high on the list of species we are successfully exterminating. Why? Because elephants have big teeth. Read that out loud. It sounds a little silly doesn't it?
I hope that the story of Eric the Gnu in the last blog tugged a little at the heart strings. Humans can relate to individual deaths, but when it comes to large numbers, it bizarrely become more remote, more difficult.
Don't let that fool you, these big guys need our help.
Now. Otherwise my grandkids may never get to see them in the wild.
The elephants may not be too happy about it either.
No comments:
Post a Comment