I responded!

My favorite kinda cow!

Territory, but they certainly don't bomb each other. And how does someone come to the conclusion that dolphins rape? We can barely keep our own people from raping, much less look at an animal and go "oh, yeah, he rapes too"...

Chimpanzees have killed each other before. I watched it on a channel where scientists where observing the behaviors of these animals and saw how they killed one of its kind without a reason.

Well at least the reason was unknown to those who where observing this group of monkeys.

All I can say is the world is one big weird place to live on. All kinds of crazy crap going on here

Ummm, humans didn't originally bomb each other. They used simple weapons like cudgels, and spears, and atlatls, and slingshots to fight, then later swords, trebuchets, cannons, etc. We've only gotten more advanced in weaponry over the centuries... and we went from territory and food to ideals and religion... which technically is still territory if you think about it. Believe in my god, or I'll kill you and take your land.

And if you google dolphin and rapes, there's plenty of scientific literature on them.

I loved it, just didn't see anything I could add.

Uhh thats an easy one. If one party is trying to get away and a gang boxes the opposite gender in preventing escape then using violence has sex with the other gender . .. well that is the very definition bud.

This happens. Ignorance of the topic is the only thing that allows humans to not see the amazing similarities with many of the other mammals we share the earth with.


I can think of no human behavior that we have not found in one of the following animals, no single one has all of them or they would be humans.

Elephants
Dolphins
Chimps
Orangutans
Monkeys
Spiders
Ants
Orca
Whales
Sharks
Many kinds of birds.
Hippos
Rats
Pigs

The list could go on but the behaviors start to become redundant. If you don't understand this list and how nearly every human behavior can be found in a similar fashion in the animal kingdom then you should watch more of Sir Arthur Eddington's and other wildlife material.

We have more in common with other species of animals then we have differences.

I have 9 of these babies (Holsteins). My own personal Rorsarch (sp) test depending on the day and the cow that comes to bother me. LOL!

Level upon level our language has enabled us to grow in thought and has layered our understandings of it.

Our physiological construct(s) and the knowledge of the world around us has effectively allowed humans to better adapt the environment itself to our will.

The differences are products of our individual species specific evolution, the similarities are it's remnants.

Well said.

The biggest difference is probably abstract thought, however I am often disappointed with the lack of this ability in many people so I guess its all relative to the individual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5Cts7nRm68

That birds got more rhythm than I do!

HAHAHAH, loved it!

It would seem a completely contradictory notion for a dog to deliberately go into traffic to save another dog ... yet it happens ... why? That would seem to go against instinct no?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5OEKA47xFI

Voluntary suicide presupposes that an animal knows the consequences for it's action are certain death. While I previously stood corrected on this earlier mistake in wording, I will not rule it out once again...Voluntary suicide in animals may be possible through a rudimentary form of understanding cause and effect.

I still find no evidence whatsoever that an animal can even be able to think in abstract ways, therefore the possibility to give one's own life for abstract reasons is nonexistent without complex language which is required for such complex notions to exist in thought...

I heard a few times of how a police dog would save a police officer's life.

If they were simply trained to do it or if they actually grow feelings for their owner that they instinctingly try to save their partner in crime?

Whatever the answer is, I find it truly unique and can understand why the term "dogs are man's best friend."

Dogs are pack animals and they maintain a strict hierarchy which can be observed in the wild in wolf packs. It would make sense that a dog that is considered an underling to the alpha, represented by the police officer, would become very loyal and defensive. They would take their cues from the alpha as they would in a pack environment.

I sometimes want to hold a dolphins brain, and see how it fits together and works. Dolphins have a way of talking to eachother, and have been known to have a few human words when trained. I thnk that it is amazing that they can get our language to some extent, but that we still don't have a clue about how to crack even a syllable of their language. It's almost like humans are just to specific and sylized to get any general idea besides their own. Doplhins have been also known to wrap weeds around their noses where foraging around rocks to help protect their skin, and this is a skill taught to youngins after birth, i.e., it is social. Some even adorn reeds as a part of a male flaunting act during mating season. But dolphins are also an animal that engages in self sexual acts and sex for recreation. So they display many human or at least intelligent characteristics.

Brain size is not what makes humans unique. Think of a whales brain. It is the brain volume to mass ratio that we rock, meaning big brains for our size, which may increase now becasue the birth canal no longer limits successful births of big brained babies due to c. sections. Whales, by the way, have songs which last for very long periods of time. The information was accounted for in somebodies figuring once, by counting so much frequency change as a bit of information, or by some other way, and it was comparable to a Homer Odyssey, if not exceeding that. So I often think that there environment has no need from them to develop in the way that humans do and did. With out hands and the like, I don't see what good anything but great memories and social interaction remain for putting a brain demand on such animals.

And this question lies on a bias that we are the only very intelligent animal about that nature created, but from the little I know about species from watching youtube videos about human geneology, it appears that there were more human like creatures than just homo sapiens around. So we killed anything that had a chance for competing, or that were suceptable like natives to new diseases are, which would include more intelligent animals and animals that perhaps would pass for a human at a distance today. That's part of nature that isn't talked about much. It kind of puts a bad light on arguments that beging with 'humans are the only...'