The Age of Giants
by T.G. Goh
One of the problems faced when trying to photograph and document the wildlife on campus is that we cannot get close to the animals as they tend to run away. People see this so often that we don't think that it's anything strange. But there is one reason for why animals will run away if we even try to come close to them: They are so terrified of us that they don't even want to risk being near us.
Humans are horrifying giants to most animals. We tend to think that we are small, especially when we compare ourselves to the gigantic structures that we have created. But you have to remember that these things are big because they were created to fit giants. Humans are larger than 99% of animal species. There are only a small number of mammals larger than us, all of which we are able to kill with just primitive tools.
If you think about how easily you could grasp the entire body of a bird with one hand and wring its neck of bird with the other one, you would have a bit of understanding of why birds fly away when you come too close - well, that and our history of eating them or capturing them for fun and entertainment. We tend to think that we are harmless compared with other animals, after all we don't have the sharp fangs or claws of predatory animals.
But like our size, we underestimate our strength. We forget that mass is weapon in itself. A punch carries the mass of the body that swings it. Most animals can be easily smashed by our large size and mass. Even the toughest insects can't stand up to a human stomp, and insects make up more than 70% of all species in the world.
We may fear snakes and their poison, but a single kick is more than enough to mortally injure a snake. Most humans are able to kick, while only a minority of snakes have enough venom to kill a human. There are plenty of snakes on campus, but they are smart enough to spend most of their time hiding from us.
But hiding is not always an option, as only the tallest mountains and deepest oceans are out of reach as we are one of the few animals that is equally good at climbing and swimming - something that people who still hunt for a living demonstrate with ease.
This may not be the case for modern city-dwelling humans, but other species adapt on an evolutionary scale. It takes time for natural selection to create counter adaptations in a species. To another species it has been a blink of an eye since we started to invade their habitats and they are still unable to adapt to the changes that we have made. A lot of animals probably still think we are the nimble hunter gatherers that will eat almost anything that they can get their hands on.
We have changed from that point. Now while almost all of nature cowers before us, we have to be the ones to change our relationship with the animals around us. Not to be preachy about it, but we definitely could try to be nicer to our fellow living beings. Even the snakes and bugs.
T.G. Goh is an entomologist based in the Museum of Zoology. He can frequently be seen walking around campus, ruminating on the state of biodiversity; it is from his shortcuts through untarred territories that he gets the inspiration for his columns. You can contact him at u_loji@yahoo.com.
