Week 3 Reflection
- jiachep
- Apr 19, 2021
- 2 min read
This week I have read the chapter Howls of Wolves from Safina. Some interesting facts that I found from it is that researchers were originally wanting to treat the wolves as they're just animals. Arguments exist between whether or not they should be given human names. At the end, we see the result is that wolves are given unique numbers which are the numbers on their tracking plates, which later become their "names". That is to show that the researchers seem not willing to input too much emotion into them. However, later on in the chapter, there are some remarkable moments, such as when the "super wolf" Twenty-One, died of old age, there clearly is some emotional relations between researchers and wolves, that Rick cried for him. That is to say that they are not seeing them as just animals at that point. They are treating them as human like creatures who can think and live in our way.
At this point, I'm thinking of writing something about crows and parrots' ability to think. The documentary "Bird Brain" is attracting my attention so much. I think the experiments they do are good examples I can use in my own writing, as it includes studies from the 1930's and also present studies with slightly different results. That can prove that we're changing our understanding of animals throughout history, as our technology and theories advances. Crows are very common in the campus of UCI. I see them flying around every day. Parrots are also a common pet kept by people. I think I'm more familiar with these two species, and they are both intelligent birds.
I haven't look up about crows and parrots yet, since I just decided to write about them today. However, I will begin to search about them more, and I think some bird protection accounts I have followed on Twitter can help me with that. I want to search about cognitive intelligence, emotion, language, and so on about them. I will look up on Wikipedia first to get a general idea, and then try to find scholars about these topics and then use Google Scholar to search about reports.
Hello Thomas! I think that it is so interesting how the researchers didn't want to give the wolves names in order to establish a more detached relationship, but ended up developing a connection anyway. It makes me wonder, how do people have the heart to harm animals? Because, in my opinion, it is so hard to not develop a relationship with them and just the thought of any animal getting hurt upset me. Anyway, I think that Twitter is also a great source to find information about animals and the organizations will really help with your research on birds.
Hi Thomas! I saw that you also read the Howls of Wolves chapter. I read that chapter as well. I definitely agree when you say that these researchers don't think of the wolves as simple animals anymore. They have a bond that goes beyond species.
I'm also interested in why you are choosing parrots and crows. You mentioned that past and present studies, as well as "Bird Brain", have caught your interest, but which studies caught your attention exactly? I liked the multi-access box from "Bird Brain" because it showed that crows can really think, based on their ability to adapt to a problem.