‘Senseless’ and ‘Senseful’ Ways of Being

Speaking about senses, each species has developed the sensory systems they need to live in their natural environment. Evolution takes care of this. Many birds have remarkable eyesight, many predators possess extraordinary sense of smell, and so on. The importance of a given sense to an animal is reflected in the size of the neocortical...

Exploring Umwelt:

The fact is that there is one physical world (we are aware of), and as many ‘sensory perceptual worlds’ as there are different species. How do we all know what is ‘out there’? We know through our senses, of course. It is our senses that ‘deliver the information’ about our environment, and our ‘inner feelings’ to the brain, where this raw information is processed, and ‘our own world’ is created. We then act upon it. This process is very complicated and differs greatly from species to species.

Metaphors & idioms with ‘tiger’

Tiger is powerful and fearless, courageous and ferocious. No wonder we have many similes, metaphors and idioms with ‘tiger’. ..

Tiger – the biggest cat in the world

Tiger is the largest (and the strongest!) of the wild cat family. And these are not the only advantageous features of this majestic creature. With the largest brain compared to other cats, tigers are the most intelligent of all the big cats. They have a very good memory that is times better than other animals, including humans. ..

To Have Or Not to Have? That’s the question.

Have you got pets? I have. (Or, rather, it is my cats who own me.) At present, it’s perfectly legal to keep domesticated animals. However, some ethicists argue that people should not keep pets at all. For example, Dr Corey Wrenn insists that, despite the fact that many owners of birds, cats, dogs, rabbits and...

Who domesticated whom? [Wolves & humans]

It seems obvious that humans domesticated animals. For example, it was believed that about 14,000 years ago humans turned wolves into dogs. However, in her book ‘Animals in Translation’, Temple Grandin quotes recent anthropological research studies which indicate that humans began to associate with wild wolves much earlier – “wolves and people were together at...

What’s wrong with calling your pet a pet?

Newspeak in action: Now we are told not to call pets ‘pets’. Ingrid Newkirk, the president of PETA, says that the word ‘pets’ is derogatory and suggests they are merely a ‘commodity’ or ‘decoration’: “Animals are not pets – they are not your cheap burglar alarm, or something which allows you to go out for...

Dasha’s ‘Wisdoms’ – ‘Dashaisms’ (3)

All you need to know you can learn from your cat. Humans are cats’ pets Among all animals, cats are the best behaviour modification therapists of humans. (T.O. Daria ““Dasha’s Journal: A Cat Reflects on Life, Catness and Autism”  “) *   *   * In his essay “Sermon in Cats”, Aldous Huxley insightfully said: “If you want...