Aldo Leopold was ahead of his time with his realization about ecosystems. Leopold realized that to survive, all things must live in a perfect balance. People often did not realize what taking out one organism could do, or how it could ruin a symbiotic relationship.
In the article, "Think Like a Mountain"a man is describing his thoughts and experiences about killing wolves. Leopold writes about how wolves were being executed to keep them from eating live stock. With the execution of all the wolves the population of the deer skyrocketed. Slowly the deer began eat all of the vegetation. With all of the plants missing the deer began to starve and die. In the end all the wolves, deer, and plants were dead, just from killing the wolves.
My response to this article is that I am surprised how much or world is in balance. Even if just one part of our ecosystem goes missing, it will have a huge impact on the rest of our world. with this idea in mind, it showed me just how much we need to respect each life form because we all have a place in this world.
Monday, November 11, 2013
For the start of the evolution project, we listened to the story was of Lucy, the modern day chimpanzee, on Radiolab.
Lucy was a chimpanzee that was taken away from her mother two days after birth. She went to live with Maurice Temerlin and his wife Jane where she was raised like a human girl. Lucy would dress herself, make tea, lye, use silverware, look through magazines, and drink gin. The goal of this experiment was to see how much chimpanzees could be like humans. With the complete socialization that Lucy was a human girl, the experiment was extremely successful. She learned over 140 words in American sign language. Lucy was able to fully comprehend and communicate to people, as well as having the ability combine words, to convey what she was feeling. The other social boundary that was crossed was Lucy's sexual attraction to human men. When Lucy was put with a male of her species, she refused to hold his hand and would not communicate to him. Instead Lucy preferred to look at the magazine "Playgirl"showing her sexual attraction to humans. Although Lucy had been raised as a human girl, her body was still one of an apes, which meant that at age 12, she was extremely strong. She began destroying the house, and eventually the Temerlins had to send her to a rehabilitation center, located in Gambia. Lucy became very depressed. She would not eat or sleep and she began to loose her hair. After a few weeks, the Temerlins left Lucy in the care of a woman named Janis Carter. Because Lucy was depressed in the center, Carter took her and a few other socialized chimps to in island in the middle of a river, where she let them run free. She taught them what to eat and how to survive while living in a metal cage. At first all the chimp would stay with her but eventually they all left to do their own thing. Lucy was the last to leave the cage, staying signing that she was hurt, but eventually she left and so did Carter. A year later Carter returned to check on the chimps, she hugged Lucy and gave her a few of her old belongings. Lucy looked at the items for a small amount of time then returned to the wild with the other chimps. A year after that, Carter returned to find Lucy's skeleton. The hands were missing, the head was separated from the body, and there were no signs of skin and fur. Unfortunately all signs added up to the fact that Lucy had been poached, though the matter of how she died is still questioned by the people who loved her.
Because of Lucy we learned that the boundary between species, if genetically close enough, can be broken. Lucky also taught us that being human does not only have to do with what we look like, but how we act and are socialized. Though I knew that chimpanzees and humans were closely related, I never realized how much they could be like humans. I think that even though Lucy's life was full of tragedy, the experiment to see how much a chimp could be like a human was extremely successful. Though Lucy taught us a great deal about the species boundary, I think it is horrible the way her life ended. Though the Temerlins meant well, because of the way they had socialized Lucy, it was like putting a teenage girl alone in the wild, to fend for herself. Though she had the body of a chimp, Lucy still thought and acted like a human girl, and I think it was horrible to get rid of her.
Lucy was a chimpanzee that was taken away from her mother two days after birth. She went to live with Maurice Temerlin and his wife Jane where she was raised like a human girl. Lucy would dress herself, make tea, lye, use silverware, look through magazines, and drink gin. The goal of this experiment was to see how much chimpanzees could be like humans. With the complete socialization that Lucy was a human girl, the experiment was extremely successful. She learned over 140 words in American sign language. Lucy was able to fully comprehend and communicate to people, as well as having the ability combine words, to convey what she was feeling. The other social boundary that was crossed was Lucy's sexual attraction to human men. When Lucy was put with a male of her species, she refused to hold his hand and would not communicate to him. Instead Lucy preferred to look at the magazine "Playgirl"showing her sexual attraction to humans. Although Lucy had been raised as a human girl, her body was still one of an apes, which meant that at age 12, she was extremely strong. She began destroying the house, and eventually the Temerlins had to send her to a rehabilitation center, located in Gambia. Lucy became very depressed. She would not eat or sleep and she began to loose her hair. After a few weeks, the Temerlins left Lucy in the care of a woman named Janis Carter. Because Lucy was depressed in the center, Carter took her and a few other socialized chimps to in island in the middle of a river, where she let them run free. She taught them what to eat and how to survive while living in a metal cage. At first all the chimp would stay with her but eventually they all left to do their own thing. Lucy was the last to leave the cage, staying signing that she was hurt, but eventually she left and so did Carter. A year later Carter returned to check on the chimps, she hugged Lucy and gave her a few of her old belongings. Lucy looked at the items for a small amount of time then returned to the wild with the other chimps. A year after that, Carter returned to find Lucy's skeleton. The hands were missing, the head was separated from the body, and there were no signs of skin and fur. Unfortunately all signs added up to the fact that Lucy had been poached, though the matter of how she died is still questioned by the people who loved her.
Because of Lucy we learned that the boundary between species, if genetically close enough, can be broken. Lucky also taught us that being human does not only have to do with what we look like, but how we act and are socialized. Though I knew that chimpanzees and humans were closely related, I never realized how much they could be like humans. I think that even though Lucy's life was full of tragedy, the experiment to see how much a chimp could be like a human was extremely successful. Though Lucy taught us a great deal about the species boundary, I think it is horrible the way her life ended. Though the Temerlins meant well, because of the way they had socialized Lucy, it was like putting a teenage girl alone in the wild, to fend for herself. Though she had the body of a chimp, Lucy still thought and acted like a human girl, and I think it was horrible to get rid of her.
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