Six Animals I Couldn’t Eat
by I’ll eat just about anything once. There are, however, some beasties that I draw the line at. It’s not because they’re gross; give me fried locusts! Or because they’re cute; mmmmm, rabbit. No, no, none of the usual reasons apply here. Some animals are just too intelligent for me to consider nomming on their corpses… at least as long as I’m not starving.
Cetaceans
There have been a variety of experiments into the intellect of dolphins, orcas and porpoises, with diverse results; though it is quite rare that they fail at any given experiment. With some experiments they positively astound their captures and the researchers.
In the 1960’s two rough-toothed dolphins were tested to see if they had any creative abilities. Not only did they prove they had some, but they did it in the same time period as their human counterparts, and with far more vim.
One trick would be rewarded on one day. However, on the next day the dolphins had to do something different to get a treat, then again on the next and the next. When normal behaviour and tricks they had already been taught were exhausted the dolphins because a little upset. However, in time they worked out that it was NEW behaviour that was being rewarded and started inventing flips and tricks that the researchers had never seen before.
Check out the 9 page article; The Creative Porpoise: Training for Novel Behaviour
I don’t think I could eat something that can INVENT… even if it’s so far only invented new and interesting ways to entertain the audience at Sea World. Give ‘em time.
Canines
Yeah, yeah; they’re cute and a lot of people say they’re pretty dumb (my mother’s Shih Tzu barely knows her head from her butt). However, they have something in common with us hom saps that no other species has – an ability to choose someone else’s life over their own.
Just throw “dog rescues human” into google and you’ll be inundated by stories of dogs saving human lives. Some people put this down to instinct; dogs are natural pack animals and will protect the pack. However, most animals would rather save themselves than put their lives at risk to save even a family member. Dogs, even those closer to their wild relatives than your average family pooch, will often show far greater compassion and bravery than… well, than I could.
Just one of the thousands of tales of doggy bravery; last year, Shana put her own life on the line to save her elderly owners (who themselves had saved her little life seven years previous). When Mr and Mrs Fertig became trapped in the woods by falling trees during a storm, Shana dug for hours in the snow to get them to the safety. Read the full story here.
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