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Why we should be more like animals...
Submitted by btchakir on Fri, 06/25/2010 - 2:11pm.
I think the oil spill is getting us to think more about about what humankind has done to the other living creatures that make up the Gulf's biosphere. As I was searching for something completely different (the source of the joke "Death or Moobli" which I laughed heartily over as a read a book on conversation that I picked up at the Shepherdstown Library... I'll repeat it further down the post), I discovered this small video entitled "Tortoise helps tortoise":
We see that in its slow-motion way, a tortoise actually rescues one of its kind... evaluates the situation, gets into position and pulls off a turnover.
I'm not sure what the human response would be in the same situation. I mean, after all, we can talk and evaluate things...
"Are you drunk?"
"What's it worth to you?"
"Look... if I have time...I'll send someone."
Is this an opportunity to take someone's territory? Steal their wallet? Laugh at their situation?
And so the joke (thanks to Daniel Menaker in "A Good Talk"):
Two missionaries are captured by a tribe of natives deep in the heart of the jungle. They are tied up to poles and surrounded by dancing tribe members and it doesn't look too good for them. Finally, the Chief stops the dancing, faces the two missionaries and says:
"You have a choice. Death or Moobli?" (Why the Chief speaks English, I don't know.)
One missionary, thinking that death has got to be the worst choice, asks for Moobli. The Chief raises his hand and the tribal members untie the missionary from the post and proceed to beat him, strip him of his clothes, yell insults at him, urinate and defecate on him, make him run through a double line of the tribe's children who pelt him with stones and finally they leave him sobbing in a pile of garbage. He is shattered, a broken man, and goes insane.
The second missionary, seeing what has happened to the first, decides that it would be better to be dead than go through the horrible and unbearable punishment that his associate had, looks at the Chief and says;
"I choose Death!"
The Chief raises his arms and says: "Death!.... But first, Moobli!"
Hopefully, I haven't ruined it in the retelling. This tells me a lot about what life is like among people.
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Beautiful. Sweet. Sacred Precious Kindness.
thx 4 share'n ;)
Altruism in animals
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altruism_in_animals
Good book-- "When Elephants Weep"
Animals have complex emotional lives.
(As the tortoise displays, he/she cared about the other tortoise.)
http://www.jeffreymasson.com/animal-books/when-elephants-weep.html
Questions (as usual)
It is beautiful to see without question that animals are capable of aiding each other. (But I don't assume other animals do not help each other. Many (most?) animal parents nurture and help their young.)
I'm hoping the videographer merely stumbled across this situation and allowed nature to take its course. But, since my tendency is worry and wondering (and I don't like pathological curiosity in the form of animal experimentation), I ask my questions (also a form pathological curiosity perhaps?!):
1. Was that a natural situation or did humans set it up as an experiment? And how long would the human have allowed the upside down tortoise to struggle?
2. Could those tortoises have moved faster to get away from that videocameraperson? Did they want anything to do with the human?
I apologize. Don't mean to always be so serious. Can't help it.
Dear Nora ... that book has been out and talked about for MANY
A Moon ...
... decades ago even up here (Northern CA) near a Native American Tribe but in a certain White Man area - a cow stood over its dead {hit by a car-I was told} baby "cry-mooing" into the night (and I heard also for days - she stood).
(There were Native Americans also, that didn't give a damn, yet there were some Native Americans that cared...)
I also read similar accounts decades ago & groups I was with {moons ago} talked & "lectured" about similar ANIMAL PROOF WORLDWIDE - within the Southern L.A., CA areas.
/|\)0(
BTW Nora, if that was staged, please know when I was also a
wee one, we kids also had turtles and I have seen similar situations...but our turtles were younger and much smaller.
I BELIEVE.
btw, I am going out to meditate on a "sacred" large "stump"...
I can only go out for a bit ATT... :):(
Tea Cheers ;)
Nope ... so glad I checked... cuz MONK is on...
"It's a Jungle Out There..."
{...this is why I never say when I
"come & go".} I have never seen this one.
:)
HI, Ms_A!
I'm wondering if perhaps you might be misunderstanding me...so just in case, I'll clarify:
If this video were part of a human-initiated experiment, the turtle was put on his back on purpose.
But there is NO way the human experimenter could make the other tortoise rescue the desperate tortoise.
The only "staged" part would be setting up the experiment; if that is what actually happened or not I do not know.
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The observations of native Americans -- that's very interesting.
Yes, naturalists' observations (as opposed to possibly harmful experiments) are much more appropriate, sane, and "humane".