By Dan Wylie
Aristotle characterised the elephant as "the beast which passeth all others in wit and mind" and the animal has lengthy figured in cultural artifacts, even on continents it hasn't ever inhabited. Now Elephant presents an attractive examine the elephant's lengthy legacy.
just like the elephant are available all through international cultures as an emblem of intelligence, power, and loyalty. Wylie attracts on a wealthy array of examples to rfile that symbolic energy, starting from symbols of the Hindu god of knowledge, Ganesh, to the loved children's works Dumbo and Babar the Elephant.
Turning to the elephant's organic historical past, Wylie describes the 3 ultimate species—the African Bush Elephant, African wooded area Elephant, and the Asian Elephant—and the debatable efforts for elephant conservation. With ivory poaching and human encroachment into the animal's typical habitats, Wylie argues that we are facing a uniquely poignant conservation problem during which elephants and people either unsustainably eat restricted traditional resources.
A compelling new access within the Animal sequence, Elephant can be valuable for each animal lover's bookshelf.
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Additional info for Elephant (Animal)
Example text
Romeo offers his gift. What happens next depends on the size and quality of the gift. If the gift insect is palatable and at least nearly the size of a housefly, the female allows her suitor to copulate for twenty minutes or longer. Once finished, the male disengages his genitalia and then wrests what’s left of the insect from her grip. If enough is left over, he’ll offer it to another female. If only a little is left, he’ll finish it himself. What if the gift is puny? Or what if it’s a ladybug or some other nasty-tasting insect?
These fish engage in “egg trading”: an individual gives up eggs to be fertilized in exchange for the opportunity ain’t love grand! to fertilize its partner’s eggs. I use the word “opportunity” because sperm are much cheaper to produce than eggs. Thus, an individual should try to fertilize as many eggs as possible. What this all boils down to is that reproductive success as a male depends on its ability to reproduce as a female. Why? An individual can’t fertilize someone else’s eggs unless it gives up its own eggs to be fertilized.
Costs are real. Caring for offspring requires time and energy, and it can be dangerous to parents. Also, in many cases, caring for existing young reduces further reproduction. Instead of incurring these costs, many animals simply reproduce frequently and/or produce many offspring at once; among the numerous eggs or babies produced, a few beat the odds to survive and reproduce in turn. Other species, though, display extensive and sometimes amazing parental care. We ourselves care for our offspring longer than any other animal known, resulting in a strong parent-offspring bond that’s not easily broken.