I heard a dog barking frantically in the back of my property and went to investigate. The dog belonged to a nearby family, and had gotten tangled in barbed wire. I freed it and brought it home and was thinking out loud to the dog "it's a good thing a well fed human was the first to hear your cries, because most anything else around here would have eaten you."
Pain & fear. Almost all the creatures that I can think of that make vocalizations, make unique ones for pain & fear. This seems a counter-productive evolutionary adaptation. Why did all the creatures that evolved "speech" evolve a "I'm hurt / trapped / vulnerable, please come eat me now" announcement?
I can understand for pack animals, an alert to danger might preserve the pack at the expense of the individual, but that isn't really what I'm talking about. And even that, as it seems to me, often does more harm than good. Ever heard the term "fox in a hen house?" When a fox or other predator happens upon a treasure trove like a chicken coop, it is often whipped up into murderous frenzy by the excited cries of "I'm vulnerable, eat me now" from all the chickens, and kills every single one of them for no good reason. Several times its own weight in food that it can't eat.
No I'm not talking about the alert to danger, I'm talking about the "I'm hurt, come eat me" signal. Even if this is related to pack animals, what purpose does it serve to creatures other than humans? When a calf has a broken leg and lays out in the middle of the pasture bleating itself hoarse, what does it expect the other cows to do for it? Fashion a sled from branches and drag it to the vet? It seems almost like a placeholder in genetic programming with a comment line " # TO DO: Evolve thumbs and empathy, enable dragging to shaman" that all the creatures received but so far only humans have evolved into being able to benefit from it.
What's the deal here? Seems for almost all creatures the better response would be to shut up and work tirelessly to free yourself, or shut up and die alone. But in either case, shut up.
Pain & fear. Almost all the creatures that I can think of that make vocalizations, make unique ones for pain & fear. This seems a counter-productive evolutionary adaptation. Why did all the creatures that evolved "speech" evolve a "I'm hurt / trapped / vulnerable, please come eat me now" announcement?
I can understand for pack animals, an alert to danger might preserve the pack at the expense of the individual, but that isn't really what I'm talking about. And even that, as it seems to me, often does more harm than good. Ever heard the term "fox in a hen house?" When a fox or other predator happens upon a treasure trove like a chicken coop, it is often whipped up into murderous frenzy by the excited cries of "I'm vulnerable, eat me now" from all the chickens, and kills every single one of them for no good reason. Several times its own weight in food that it can't eat.
No I'm not talking about the alert to danger, I'm talking about the "I'm hurt, come eat me" signal. Even if this is related to pack animals, what purpose does it serve to creatures other than humans? When a calf has a broken leg and lays out in the middle of the pasture bleating itself hoarse, what does it expect the other cows to do for it? Fashion a sled from branches and drag it to the vet? It seems almost like a placeholder in genetic programming with a comment line " # TO DO: Evolve thumbs and empathy, enable dragging to shaman" that all the creatures received but so far only humans have evolved into being able to benefit from it.
What's the deal here? Seems for almost all creatures the better response would be to shut up and work tirelessly to free yourself, or shut up and die alone. But in either case, shut up.