What Can We Learn From Animals...?

Question

With the news that approval has been given for the production of human/animal embryos for medical research purposes, I am wondering why are constantly striving to interfere with nature. No other animal does this, so I am wondering what we can learn from animals and the way they live? I don't mean from a research or scientific point of view, more in how they live each day as it comes as God and nature intended. Is the human race too arrogant in how we treat the World around us and the way we constantly move away from nature, unlike every other animal on the planet?

Answer 1

Ethology is the study of animal behavior and this is mainly done to understand animals. But I would say that it is very difficult to study animal behavior without simultaneously thinking of humans. That is, a "what would humans do in the same situation" question will arise inevitably. This is clearly the case when studying other primates, but the same question crosses entomological studies as well. So I would say scientists have learned a lot from animals and part of that knowledge has been used by non scientists in order to better understand humans.

But your questions seems to refer more to a "Should we learn from animals on how to deal with nature". That's a different problem and implies a different answer.

Feral animals are characterized by their low impact on the environment (unless their natural conditions have been modified by humans, as happens with domestic animals). This is a habit we should acquire, but we don't need their example to understand that. We already now we should, but still we don't. So the questions becomes "Why can't we behave in a manner that has a lower impact on the environment?". Back to square one.

Answer 2

To poo in garden and then cover it up....saves on water helps the planet and reduces my carbon footprint.

Answer 3

Continued success of a species is dependent on successful reproduction. In this aspect, cattle and sheep have the same biological imperative as we have – reproduce or die, and, in modern agriculture, this threat can be as immediate for individuals as for entire breeds and species. Reproductive failure is a potential problem for us all.

Answer 4

No other animal fights sickness

No other animal document history

No other animal assign rights to others

And the lists go on and on...

If you are unhappy with where progress is taking you, you are fully within your rights to remove yourselves from society and live out in the wilderness.

Answer 5

Yes we can learn from their instincts and their behaviors.

Answer 6

Apes make "war" on each other and use tools. Ant's have crops, war and keep domesticated insects. Locusts devastate many square miles of vegetation.

Depending on where you live, you owe at least something to "arrogant" humans. Either those that first came there and developed the land from wilderness to where you now shop, eat and play. Do you own leather? Wool/ Drink milk, eat meat or vegetables? Then you've contributed to changing nature.

Had we not "interfered" with nature, we'd never have had corn, electricity, Ipods, cell phones, or fast food and computers. We'd still be dying from smallpox and be crippled by polio. However, too many people simply think the current situation is part of the 'natural world."