Thanks for the recommendations.

Clearly intelligence has survival value. However, I’m guessing what Clarke actually meant was, having a degree in something like astrophysics has little to no survival value in, say, a seething hot jungle, or a wind-swept frozen tundra.

What we see in the animal kingdom is a predisposition amongst certain creatures to adapt rapidly to very unusual environments, which I find amazing.

The reasons to me at least are obvious; rapid adaptation to hostile / new environments means a much higher chance of species survivability.

I firmly believe that our ultimate role will be that of custodians of this Earth and not its masters.

No, I hadn’t seen those stories. Very intriguing.

The problem I had with this article was keeping it concise. Most of the examples mentioned were plucked from recollection, but then I did some research (to find credible sources) and I quickly realized I’d only scratched the surface.

I’d intended having another category for Society, but I felt that most people were at least familiar with insect eusocialism and matriarchal / patriarchal systems for mammals etc.

Did you see the story about baby chicks that can count and do basic arithmetic in today’s news?

Emily

Maybe the animals have it right. It’s pure arrogance that puts “man” at the top of the food chain, because on equal ground a tiger could kill a man as easily as a virus could. But because we have guns we believe that places us in control.

But we forget our past so quickly, for it is the beauty of nature and the instinct of the animals that helped man evolve. Planes were inspired by birds, and we still today use the term Horsepower. An apple tree inspired the theory of gravity, and so on and so forth.

We take the animal kingdom for granted because of our own arrogance. Set aside those domineering thoughts and look at the animal kingdom with a new sense of respect and you’ll see a whole new world out there.

Thanks Wayne!