PASCAL GERAGHTY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES - A hybrid black tip shark containing both common and Australian black tip DNA in Australian waters. Scientists said on Tuesday that they had discovered the world's first hybrid sharks, a potential sign the predators were adapting to cope with climate change.
In Dominion, we witness the annual convention of Safari Club International, an organization whose wealthier members will pay up to $20,000 to hunt an elephant, a lion or another animal, either abroad or in American "safari ranches," where the animals are fenced in pens.
Desert Bighorn in Sonora, $60k, The Safari Club Foundation for North American Wild Sheep auctions off bighorn sheep hunts that usually get a quarter of a million (it's a fundraiser but still...). Tanzanian Lions are $60k easy.
I have been an elephant fan all my life. They are incredible creatures. This story exemplifies their intelligence and passion for life. Thanks for posting it. I must get the book!
My son-in-law has a parrot named bobby.He feeds it well,sometimes lets it fly around the house for half an hour and then its back to its large cage.Funny thing is,when he gets company or the boys are around the bird wont even come out of his cage. Wont go near anyone! But for some strange reason when I go over for a visit,and please dont get me wrong,I'm only bragging a little,but the darn bird goes nuts and wants out so it can come directly to me.He sits on my shoulder or on my head,and the bugger sometimes wants to perch on my schnozola which is a no no.It nibbles my ears and can whistle the first few notes of "Danny Boy". Needless to say I want to take him home forever but I'm away to much and besides my wife would kill me.
As I grow older and pay more attention, I wonder more and more why we think we are in any way superior to the other sentient inhabitants of this planet.
I'll send you this book if I can find it. The author doesn't get everything right, IMO but it's a pretty good book.
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."—Genesis 1:24-26
In this crucial passage from the Old Testament, God grants mankind power over animals. But with this privilege comes the grave responsibility to respect life, to treat animals with simple dignity and compassion.
Somewhere along the way, something has gone wrong.
In Dominion, we witness the annual convention of Safari Club International, an organization whose wealthier members will pay up to $20,000 to hunt an elephant, a lion or another animal, either abroad or in American "safari ranches," where the animals are fenced in pens. We attend the annual International Whaling Commission conference, where the skewed politics of the whaling industry come to light, and the focus is on developing more lethal, but not more merciful, methods of harvesting "living marine resources." And we visit a gargantuan American "factory farm," where animals are treated as mere product and raised in conditions of mass confinement, bred for passivity and bulk, inseminated and fed with machines, kept in tightly confined stalls for the entirety of their lives, and slaughtered in a way that maximizes profits and minimizes decency.
Throughout Dominion, Scully counters the hypocritical arguments that attempt to excuse animal abuse: from those who argue that the Bible's message permits mankind to use animals as it pleases, to the hunter's argument that through hunting animal populations are controlled, to the popular and "scientifically proven" notions that animals cannot feel pain, experience no emotions, and are not conscious of their own lives.
The result is eye opening, painful and infuriating, insightful and rewarding. Dominion is a plea for human benevolence and mercy, a scathing attack on those who would dismiss animal activists as mere sentimentalists, and a demand for reform from the government down to the individual. Matthew Scully has created a groundbreaking work, a book of lasting power and importance for all of us.
As I grow older and pay more attention, I wonder more and more why we think we are in any way superior to the other sentient inhabitants of this planet.
I think William Burroughs may have said it best. "Man lives, man dies. And it's all vanity."
I have been an elephant fan all my life. They are incredible creatures. This story exemplifies their intelligence and passion for life. Thanks for posting it. I must get the book!
As I grow older and pay more attention, I wonder more and more why we think we are in any way superior to the other sentient inhabitants of this planet.
For 12 hours, two herds of wild South African elephants slowly made their way through the Zululand bush until they reached the house of late author Lawrence Anthony, the conservationist who had saved their lives.
The formerly violent, rogue elephants, destined to be shot a few years ago as pests, had been rescued and rehabilitated by Anthony, who had grown up in the bush and was known as the “Elephant Whisperer.”
For two days the herds loitered at Anthony’s rural compound on the vast Thula Thula game reserve – to say good-bye to the man they loved. But how did they know he had died March 7?
Such fascinating and amazing creatures.
I have been an elephant fan all my life. They are incredible creatures. This story exemplifies their intelligence and passion for life. Thanks for posting it. I must get the book!
I heard about that on NPR. Apparently the matriarch of the herd had been visiting (raiding) villages, and was destined to be shot. The guy went out there, and quite literally talked with the Boss Momma elephant, telling her if they didn't stay away, they would be shot. After that, the herd stayed away.
But yeah, the whole story is incredible. Makes us humans seem a lot less like the pinnacle of evolution we like to think we are.
I don't understand how anyone could think that animals like this aren't sentient.
For 12 hours, two herds of wild South African elephants slowly made their way through the Zululand bush until they reached the house of late author Lawrence Anthony, the conservationist who had saved their lives.
The formerly violent, rogue elephants, destined to be shot a few years ago as pests, had been rescued and rehabilitated by Anthony, who had grown up in the bush and was known as the “Elephant Whisperer.”
For two days the herds loitered at Anthony’s rural compound on the vast Thula Thula game reserve – to say good-bye to the man they loved. But how did they know he had died March 7?
Such fascinating and amazing creatures.
I heard about that on NPR. Apparently the matriarch of the herd had been visiting (raiding) villages, and was destined to be shot. The guy went out there, and quite literally talked with the Boss Momma elephant, telling her if they didn't stay away, they would be shot. After that, the herd stayed away.
But yeah, the whole story is incredible. Makes us humans seem a lot less like the pinnacle of evolution we like to think we are.
For 12 hours, two herds of wild South African elephants slowly made their way through the Zululand bush until they reached the house of late author Lawrence Anthony, the conservationist who had saved their lives.
The formerly violent, rogue elephants, destined to be shot a few years ago as pests, had been rescued and rehabilitated by Anthony, who had grown up in the bush and was known as the “Elephant Whisperer.”
For two days the herds loitered at Anthony’s rural compound on the vast Thula Thula game reserve – to say good-bye to the man they loved. But how did they know he had died March 7?
Tardigrades have been known to withstand the following extremes while in this state:
Temperature – tardigrades can survive being heated for a few minutes to 151 °C (424 K),<citation needed> or being chilled for days at -200 °C (73 K),<citation needed>or for a few minutes at -272 °C (~1 degree above absolute zero).<9>
Pressure – they can withstand the extremely low pressure of a vacuum and also very high pressures, more than 1,200 times atmospheric pressure. Tardigrades can survive the vacuum of open space and solar radiation combined for at least 10 days.<9> They can also withstand pressure of 6,000 atmospheres, which is nearly six times the pressure of water in the deepest ocean trench, Mariana trench.<13>
Dehydration – tardigrades have been shown to survive nearly 10 years in a dry state.<20> When encountered by extremely low temperatures, their body composition goes from 85% water to only 3%. As water expands upon freezing, dehydration ensures the tardigrades do not get ripped apart by the freezing ice (as waterless tissues cannot freeze).<21>
Radiation – tardigrades can withstand median lethal doses of 5,000 Gy (of gamma-rays) and 6,200 Gy (of heavy ions) in hydrated animals (5 to 10 Gy could be fatal to a human).<22> The only explanation thus far for this ability is that their lowered water state provides fewer reactants for the ionizing radiation.<citation needed> In September 2007, a space launch (Foton-M3) showed that tardigrades can survive the extreme environment of outer space for 10 days. After being rehydrated back on Earth, over 68% of the subjects protected from high-energy UV radiation survived and many of these produced viable embryos, and a handful had survived full exposure to solar radiation.<9>
Environmental toxins – tardigrades can undergo chemobiosis—a cryptobiotic response to high levels of environmental toxins. However, these laboratory results have yet to be verified.<23><24
Desert Bighorn in Sonora, $60k, The 
I don't understand how anyone could think that animals like this aren't sentient.
