Saturday, July 15, 2006
Survival Of The Fittest
Some minutes after filling up the tank at Tesco (yes, Tesco does petrol here in the UK) Alex and I were on our way back to Scotland. It must have been 8 hours and something minutes since starting our journey at 4:00 p.m. in Kent. I was snoozing when Alex suddenly shrieked, “Aiyoh! Got a bunny!” ”What?” “You know the thud you heard just now?” Alex asked. I nodded my head. Ahead of us was Venus. The planet named after the goddess of love resembled a beautiful blue white light due south. Everything was blurry because Alex was driving at a maddening speed. “That was a bunny,” Alex said. “I ran over a bunny.” There was a moment of silence before I exclaimed, “You killed a bunny, ar? You killed a bunny? YOU killed a bunny? You KILLED a bunny? You FUCKING killed a bunny?” Alex tried to console me. Perhaps he was consoling himself even. He said that bunnies had eyes on their sides and therefore could not estimate the distance of an object or the speed at which the object travelled. In this case, the object was a car at a high speed and the result was a bloody death. “How about frogs?” I asked, seeing we Malaysians seem to flatten so many frogs like raindrops on a rainy day. “Frogs definitely got eyes on their sides,” the wise hairy boy said. "Birds? I knocked a pigeon once," I asked. "Pigeons too," "What about dogs and cats?" "Them lot too," Alex replied. "Although they get splattered because they are stupid, not because they have eyes on their sides." I sat in my seat, quiet for some minutes. Some moment of thinking later I quipped, “Oh well. That’s survival of the fittest, ain’t it? If it was stupid enough to stand in front of a moving vehicle, it deserves to die. It is evolution. Only the smartest and the best will survive to pass on their genes, less we get stupid bunnies.” The car zoomed on. We arrived. My tummy’s full of roast lamb and 24 hours later, I laughed reading the Jolene vs Skyler fiasco at the related posts listed below. *** Related posts: Tags Jolene Skyler Minishorts Kimberlycun flamers blog+war ugly beauty beautiful maturity mature immaturity Labels: Etc |
Your hairy boy is very wise indeed but...
Cats and dogs are carnivores (even though you sometimes might catch cats eating grass when they're sick and being domesticated has changed their diet somewhat). Carnivores are primarily predators. Bunnies and pigeons are herbivores. Herbivores are primarily prey.
In most cases, predators have stereoscopic vision (meaning eyes on the front of their faces) to help guage the distance of an object i.e. prey. On the other hand, prey animals would usually have eyes at the sides of their faces (binocular/panoramic vision) whereby the depth of sight is compromised for the ability to have a wider view of the surroundings.
Hence, while the bunny and pigeon might have seen you driving at them, it's easy for them to misjudge the distance of your moving vehicle. Concurrently, cats and dogs didn't have mama and papa to tell them to look left and right then left again before crossing a road, they're too busy looking straight ahead. Therefore, although they might be able to tell the distance of your car to avoid impact, they usually don't bother looking - which gets them killed.
Lastly, frogs actually have stereoscopic vision albeit with the additional near-panoramic vision because they have eyes on the top of their heads. (Think crocodile) This means that, it MIGHT see you, and it MIGHT be able to tell how far your vehicle is, but with a brain that's only 0.5% of its total body mass, not much thinking gets done.
Lost In Translation
I could not have explained this better. Well said, babe.
I wonder if you are also a Discovery baby.
While other kids had fun watching cartoons, reading comic books and playing fun games with lots of friends, the most fun I ever got during my childhood was watching documentaries, reading anything from the non-fiction at the local state library and playing chess and scrabble with some old folk at the park nearby. Hehe... deprived childhood.
Well, be glad that your car is fitter than the bunny...
okay okay...i just watched "Wallace and Gromit Curse of the Were-Rabbit"..... :P
Ever rammed into a koala before?