(obsolete) Order Pachydermata and Class Aves

(source)

Human propensity to interfere in ecosystems and just generally in any working system has got to be unparalleled. In any past or future history of this galaxy.

I am sure that God in her heaven puts a hand to her forehead (southern belle "I feel faint" style) whenever she peruses the news to see what her creation is up to.

We know enough about elephant behavior to recognize that interfering with elephant family units a.k.a culling has to be a "Sicilean affair" (kill the entire family/generations) because it is true that elephants remember, and theirs are sophisticated family units. I won't get started yet on the Richard Virgin and "Peace Park" ploys to take cultural and natural heritage out the hands of the very people who ensured that it remained extant so it would be protected from their survivalist hands and palates today, local communities. That's bush meat for another day.

Now, because we went crazy with conservation, there are more elephants than the land can hold (read this for a positive spin on elephant overpopulation), and we're now busy trying out birth control on... yep you guessed it, female elephants. First of all, yes, Colbert called it. Second of all, why not do elephant vasectomies? ... and don't give me that 'the female is the easiest one to control mess' - and this as I assiduously stick to my own very female-oriented birth control methods... I can be ornery, can't I?

A pox on these idle scientists!

Imma just sit here on the sidelines, and wait to see what insanity/disaster this "miracle of science" brings. Messing with reproductive cycles, in the wild, is bound to cause chaos (as they learnt the last time they pulled this).

Note to self: do not go within 25 km of wildlife areas.

I totally respect and understand what the Indian and Ethiopian authorities did last year. They said: we don't have money to keep the conservationists happy, so we're cutting our losses.

Why can't we work on Fair Trade, not conservation ad infinetum, as the real way in which to keep this natural heritage for posterity?

Also, please note that I do not for a moment fail to recognize the loss of lives and property resulting from the human-wildlife conflict. I would just like to see an approach that doesn't smack so much of 'protect the poor animals from bad locals', but then again... it's too late for that, just as it's too late to do anything about global warming (she says, in splendid fatalist fettle).

Meanwhile, back on the ranch of indestructible species: sharks, cockroaches, and crows, to name the 3 that are foremost on my mind right now, someone has discovered that crows do a whole lot of thinking for a birdy pox with such a small head (and therefore brain). It appears that it is now a compliment to be referred to as "bird brained".

Given that one of the behaviors used to distinguish human beings as intelligent is our use of tools, crows appear to be great tool users, and may even be better at it than our relatives the great apes. Which is probably why fellow named Henry Ward Beecher is quoted as saying: "If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be crows."

Geez Henry, thanks a lot. Just what I needed to feel better about belonging to Homo sapiens, yes?