Soon after I
wrote my post on “Unforgotten” an interesting synchronicity took me by surprise:
I came across the book Second Nature: The inner Lives of Animals, by animal behaviorist Jonathan Balcombe, in which he points out that referring to animals to insult humans is
rooted in deep-seated prejudices and lack of knowledge. It is also an act that debases
both humans and non-human beings.
With clear evidence, Balcombe shatters the prejudices that have dominated the minds of people
for centuries, and this makes me wonder why this book did not get the attention
it deserves.
Are you aware, for example, of the altruistic behaviors of vampire bats? Balcombe’s book details how vampire bats share and help each other in times of need. You will probably be astonished to learn that rats restrain themselves when they know their actions would cause pain to another individual.
“Research
has shown that rats would stop pressing a bar to obtain food if doing so
delivered an electric shock to a rat next to them. Another experiment
confronted rats with a fellow rat who was strapped tightly into a suspended
harness. By pressing a lever, the witnessing rat could lower the other to the
floor. This is what the witnessing rats did.”
The facts he shares afford us the chance to reflect.
It is not uncommon to hear stories that vilify sharks. Yet there are less than ten attacks on humans by sharks worldwide per year, whereas humans kill between 26 million and 73 million sharks per year.
You may have been told that
animal groups are autocracies. Evidence is mounting to prove the opposite; animal
societies tend to function as democracies. Studies by Tim Roper and Larissa
Conradt from the University of Sussex found that when a group of animals makes
a decision to move somewhere, they respond to the “vote” of a majority (about
60%). In deer, the individual vote is expressed by standing up. African buffalo
vote with the direction of the gaze. Whooper swans use head movements.
Democracy
also guides actions in social insects. For instance, when honeybees decide they
need to move, the decision is democratic in nature.
The mainstay of the survival of species is
based on cooperation, not competition. When Jane Goodall discovered the
behavior of sharing among chimpanzees, she awakened a new perception in
scientists, who, from that point on, began to acknowledge sharing behaviors in
other animals. You can learn more about this from Jonathan Balcombe’s book Second Nature.
Balcombe sheds light on the ways animals cooperate with each other, express gratitude and are prone to choose peace over violence. He gives examples of compassion among animals and on how they do selfless acts for no tangible benefit to themselves. Their individual experiences, emotions and feelings play a role in their lives and in the ways they interact with each other.
It has
always been convenient for human beings to consider animals as irrational and savage to excuse the exploitation and abusive treatment of them. (Indeed, people may
choose to believe what they want to believe, but this does not make humans morally superior).
If you encounter people who think that
cruelty against animals has nothing to do with societal human violence, you can
let them know that various studies have shown there is a link between the
two. Research done at Yale University has shown that there are strong
associations between adult criminal behavior and childhood histories of animal
cruelty. Secondly, when cultural
anthropologist David Levinson surveyed violence against women in ninety
different human societies around the world, he found that victims were
significantly more likely to be permanently injured, scarred, or killed by their
husbands in societies in which animals were treated cruelly.
Last but not least, “an extensive analysis of 581 American counties with and without
slaughterhouses found that, compared to other industries, slaughterhouse employment
increases arrest rates for violent crimes, rape, and other sexual offenses,
presumably because the worker is desensitized to violence and cruelty.”
Are humans morally superior? Jonathan Balcombe, animal behaviorist, does not think so.
Second Nature offers research and
entertaining anecdotes that illuminate the inner lives of animals and inspire
human beings to open their minds and hearts to the paths of wisdom, empathy and
curiosity, and to become humble in this process of discovery.
“When
we make compassionate personal choices according to how they affect another, we
are practicing Second Nature. The distinguished American biologist Edward
O.Wilson coined the term biophilia to describe the connections that human
beings unconsciously seek with the rest of life. Biophilia is the natural
affinity—literally the love for life—that we may feel for a forest, the sound
of ocean waves rolling onto a beach, the open sky or a butterfly.”
Second Nature is a conscientious form of
biophilia that happens when we extend this affinity to all individuals,
recognizing that they have lives of value and that they want to live as much as
we do. In Balcombe’s own words:
“Extending
our empathy and concern toward all who experience the ups and downs of life is
neither strange nor radical. It is, after all, Second Nature.”
This is the kind of book that leaves you
thinking long after you finish it.
I am horrified by the atrocities Vladimir Putin is causing in Ukraine. I stand with the people of Ukraine in their fight for freedom, life and liberty.
