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Young Gorillas Observed Dismantling Poacher Snares

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Re: Young Gorillas Observed Dismantling Poacher Snares

#3
In what can only be described as an impassioned effort to save their own kind from the hand of poachers

There are ways to describe it that don't attribute human motivations to gorillas. I don't really believe this is a reputable source.

This is a bit more reliable: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120719-young...

Re: Young Gorillas Observed Dismantling Poacher Snares

#4
Interesting the part about non-interference:

"But Vecellio said it would go against Karisoke center policies and ethos to actively instruct the apes. 'We try as much as we can to not interfere with the gorillas. We don’t want to affect their natural behavior.'"

It's the Prime Directive in the 21st century.

Re: Young Gorillas Observed Dismantling Poacher Snares

#5
post #4

Interesting the part about non-interference: "But Vecellio said it would go against Karisoke center policies and ethos to actively instruct the apes. 'We try as much as we can to not interfere with the gorillas. We don’t want to affect their natural behavior.'" It's the Prime Directive in the 21st century.

Actually that analogy doesn't hold up all that well. In Star Trek, the Prime Directive applies to populations which have not yet invented the warp drive. Since the gorillas have already shown themselves capable of dismantling snares on their own, they've essentially demonstrated a development level that would make it OK to share "snare dismantling technology" with them.

(Wohoo, Star Trek discussion! On a completely unrelated note: Today sees the US release of Star Trek: TNG season 1 on Blu-ray, which is the result of a remastering effort of unprecedented scale, going back to the original film negatives of live action and VFX elements and essentially repeating most of the post-production process using modern technology - compositing, editing, the works. They've spent a double-digit amount of millions of US dollars remastering season 1 alone, and have dozens of people working in three shifts 24/7 to complete two seasons per year, including several veterans of the original crew. The effect is something as if you had to watch the show through a sheet of smoked, colored glass up to now, when someone has finally taken it away.)

Re: Young Gorillas Observed Dismantling Poacher Snares

#8

In what can only be described as an impassioned effort to save their own kind from the hand of poachers There are ways to describe it that don't attribute human motivations to gorillas. I don't really believe this is a reputable source. This is a bit more reliable: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120719-young...

Desire to save members of your own kind is pretty universal among "social animals". Nothing particularly human about it.

Re: Young Gorillas Observed Dismantling Poacher Snares

#9

In what can only be described as an impassioned effort to save their own kind from the hand of poachers There are ways to describe it that don't attribute human motivations to gorillas. I don't really believe this is a reputable source. This is a bit more reliable: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/07/120719-young...

Desire to save members of your own kind is pretty universal among "social animals". Nothing particularly human about it.

I think what he meant is the "humanizing" and a bit cliché language of that article -

you can't say that animals are "impassionate" about anything because you have no clue how they actually think, or what they think, or what their motivations are.

Re: Young Gorillas Observed Dismantling Poacher Snares

#10
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Desire to save members of your own kind is pretty universal among "social animals". Nothing particularly human about it.

I think what he meant is the "humanizing" and a bit cliché language of that article - you can't say that animals are "impassionate" about anything because you have no clue how they actually think, or what they think, or what their motivations are.

Indeed, but they cry and mourn like humans... Do you really know what your fellow humans think and what their motivations are? The thing that separates us is structured language. I tend to trust the display of emotions more than a long discourse.

I'd also like to point that in the case of great apes and some other mammalians, the brain structure is not very different than a human brain. We can reasonably expect that a similar emotional state is acheived when a similar external display is observed. I mean that for instance, when they cry, we can assume that they are sad, because their brain is quite similar to ours.

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