I think the only way some of the worlds animals / plants etc will survive is through human interference. IE: Zoo's , Arboretums etc etc. Of course, its our duty to give them as close as possible their natural habitat.

Through this it allows us to get educated about them and give civilization as a whole a broader outlook on the environment around us. Some people don't change their habits until they really see whats being affected by them. (environmental pollution, deforestation etc)

Hopefully they learned something from this baby elephant and are more prepared for the next time.

Just my 2 cents.. :biggrin:

Just saw on the news, the fellow in charge of their breeding program said as soon as they can they want to try again...

Humans are animals. At one time there would have been very little difference to even consider our species seperate from others on this planet. At what point in evolutionary history did humans "decide" they were special? When they could think that they are?

When a territorial animal marks its territory it is saying to the world, "This is me! This is my land! I am important!". Just one example.

I just love nowadays how " tree-huggers " try to put a human element to the animal kingdom as a whole ... elephants dont do anything except by instinct or in this case of raising their young they " ape " the older females ... this is not a thinking rational being.

You can teach a rat to go through a maze to get some cheese ( and that is a learned behaviour ) but he is never going to compose music like Chopin. :lol:

I was conversing with a " tree-hugger " :razz: and she actually had animals higher on the scale than humans in terms of importance :rolleyes: ... now I know most of you in this thread wont go so far but to think of a animal in human terms as far as evolutionary evolving is ludicrous dont you think ?

I know they are animals.. but we have a very different quality from the rest of animals.

and as for marking territory goes this is purely mating instinct. the smell keeps other males away from that area. they don't go out and think "well if I pee on this tree no one will bother me" by instinct they pee on random trees in there area or on rivals already scented trees, in order to attract females. so really he is saying "hey Baaaaaby" :mrgreen:

Steve

For humans to stake a claim to "rational thinking" as a quality only they posess is extremely conceited and narrow-minded. Doesn't take much study in the animal kingdom to see true learning processes develop apart from instinct.

thats a Pablo's dog. it is repetitive conditioning, not true learning. there are some animals that can do true learning but they do not posses rational thought and a self awareness.

Steve

Because we can " decide " to invent things we became special ... when we could rationalize and expand our minds past a primate we became " special "

Oh No ... I have upset another " tree-hugger " :razz:

I used to volunteer at the Vancouver Public Aquarium. I was there when the baby Orca was born & also when it died. That was a very sad day, especially after seeing all the effort everyone put in to try to save it's life. However, like mentioned earlier, captive breeding programs may be the one hope for long-term survival for many endangered species.

I'm sure you're all familiar with PETA and ALF?

This is about as extreme as it gets in terms of animal rights/liberation and I'd hate the play the game against an organization that has millions and millions as its support base, mostly people who are ignorant to the actual concept of PETA.

BLSKBJLKJSAKLJB:LKAJ:LKJELVKJELJ:LVKJLKWAJE:KLJVE. .. I have a six page rant on this if anyone is interested.