Author. Thinker. Other things.
A viral story about a man killed by a hippo leads to ancient fables of scorpions, lions, and instinct. These tales reveal less about animals than about human fears, cultural distance from nature, and the myths modern societies still use to navigate uncertainty.
Annie Lennox's song "Keep Young and Beautiful" reflects the irony of beauty as a persuasion strategy rooted in evolutionary biology. Various species, from cleaner wrasses to dung beetles, demonstrate deliberate manipulation of appearance and behavior to enhance mating success, revealing shared evolutionary patterns in beauty and attraction across species.
Corvids, particularly crows and magpies, exhibit cognitive abilities comparable to human toddlers, including tool use, self-recognition, and social inference. Their intelligence prompts reconsideration of evolutionary assumptions about cognition. Recognizing these advanced mental processes highlights the need for conservation efforts to protect these remarkable birds amidst human threats to their habitats.
ERIC DORFMAN 