>OK, this is getting off topic, but for an alternative view of animal >"virtues" consider: > >"Unless forcibly reminded of nature's cruelty, people tend to romanticize >wildlife, seeing benevolence, and overlooking viciousness. ... Crimes at >least equivalent in their effects (if not their motives) to murder, rape, >cannibalism, infanticide, deception, theft, torture, and genocie are not >just committed by animals, but are almost ways of life. Ground squirrels >routinely eat baby ground squirrels, mallard drakes routinely drown ducks >suring gang rape; parasitic wasps routinely eat their victims alive the >inside; chimpanzees -- our nearest relatives 00 routinely pursue gang >warfare. Yet, as supposedly objective television programmes about nature >demonstrate, human beings just do not want to know these facts." (p. 215, >"Ecology as Religion" in _The Origins of Virtue" Human Insticts and the >Evolution of Cooperation_ by Matt Ridley) > I can add soemthing to the cannibalism: I once watch a nature show in which male lions would kill cubs. The narrator said this was because the females would not go into heat, and therefore not mate, if they had cubs. I find this odd, since aside from cruely, it does not seem to benefit the species. -Rob _______________________________________________________________ Get Free Email and Do More On The Web. Visit http://www.msn.com