Things We Share In Common With Other Species

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

I caught Goliath trying to steal a bag of potato chips. Now the worst thing was not the stealing, the last thing his big ass needed was the chips and all that salt.

But he got me to thinking, I didn't need those chips and definitely I did not need all that salt, so which of us was more wrong, me or him?

I am blessed to be in an area where I have regular contact with a wide variety of flora and fauna. Many of what we call human characteristics may be the result of our egotistical psyche.

About the net your will hear and see people criticizing others for anthropomorphizing animal behaviors, but what if they have it backwards?

We like to think if they do something cute, funny or endearing, that they are imitating humans, and when we do something mean, brutal, or deadly, we are imitating animals.

What if we got it wrong?

Let us take a look at human and animal behavior and see which is really which.

Stealing, and "knowing" it is something you should hide.

This is common among many animals, my dogs and my neighbor's dogs are master of this. I have even seen birds do it.

Is taking something you want while trying to stop your actions from being discovered, a human thing or an animal thing?

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

I am sure that @"FlyingClayDisk", and many others has more than one story to tell when it comes to one of the other species displaying behavior that we thought was ours alone.

A like for alcohol seems to be another thing we share. And it is not just the monkeys that seem to have a like for the fermented juice.

[Rodinus]

I will come back as a Bonobo.

Google Bonobo .

Peace.

[Snarl]

A like for alcohol seems to be another thing we share. And it is not just the monkeys that seem to have a like for the fermented juice.

Had a horse who favored the taste (and effect) of whiskey.

Used to trick the pet cows: bread, bread, bread, hamburger. The look they'd give me was priceless.

Had a dog who would drink beer so hard her hind legs would give out.  Had to carry her outside so she could pee when she got that lit.

Fish in the lake would get to know you too. They know your step and can't be fooled by a friend.

[Snarl]

I will come back as a Bonobo.

Google Bonobo .

Peace.

Those are pretty scary critters. Stoopid strong.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

A like for alcohol seems to be another thing we share. And it is not just the monkeys that seem to have a like for the fermented juice.

Had a horse who favored the taste (and effect) of whiskey.

Used to trick the pet cows: bread, bread, bread, hamburger. The look they'd give me was priceless.

Had a dog who would drink beer so hard her hind legs would give out.  Had to carry her outside so she could pee when she got that lit.

Fish in the lake would get to know you too. They know your step and can't be fooled by a friend.

The fish in my pond taught us another thing we share.

You are right that the fish know when you are coming. When I walked to the pond you could watch the ripples on water, coming towards you like a heat seeking missile. I had to stop feeding them though, because they started to prefer the junk food over their natural food. One day as I was walking to the pond I was sure something was wrong. The pond was black. The whole pond was black. As I got close to the pond I could see the whole thing was full of tadpoles. My picky fish would not eat them. But they were fighting each other over the junk food I was feeding them. So I stopped, and before the week was out almost all the tadpoles were gone. I only give a treat every once in a while now.

[Snarl]

The whole pond was black.

I bet that was a sight. I've never seen tadpoles in that kind kind of volume.

My old man would buy a trunkload of day-old bread, and we'd throw it out to the fish when we walked down to the shoreline.  We probably wound up with more fish as a result.  The bass would eat the little ones and get bigger.

But ... sooner or later ... a gator would get into the lake and set everything back to the way it was.  Gators and turtles are Hell on fish populations.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

The whole pond was black.

I bet that was a sight. I've never seen tadpoles in that kind kind of volume.

My old man would buy a trunkload of day-old bread, and we'd throw it out to the fish when we walked down to the shoreline.  We probably wound up with more fish as a result.  The bass would eat the little ones and get bigger.

But ... sooner or later ... a gator would get into the lake and set everything back to the way it was.  Gators and turtles are Hell on fish populations.

Add gar and catfish to that list.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

Another thief.