"When the first beam of sunshine strikes on African grassland every morning, all animals will wake up and strive to run its fastest to survive : predators have to outrun preys to hunt for life, and preys have to outrun predators to escape death... " I told Jeff that I would begin an article like this, when I found it perplexing that some Americans furiously resist globalization because, for one, cheap Chinese labors take "their" jobs. "Why do Americans think that they deserve a better life than their Chinese peers if they cannot produce more at a lower cost?" I felt a bit angry. As a privileged and spoiled species, humans often forget that all beings have to fight and compete for a living, or using the civilized wording, work hard for a living. Survival is not supposed to be easy for anybody, any species. Living only on what ancestors created can be a short-term privilege for humans, but surely a slow suicide after all.
Just finished watching a documentary on DVD "Nature's most amazing events" by Discovery Channel. Most amazing and touching, indeed. It includes three episodes : The Great Melt, The Great Salmon Run, and The Great Migration. The first in Arctic, second in Northern Pacific (British Columbia and Alaska), and the last in East Africa.
East Africa, Serengeti, the short-grass plains attract 3 million of grazing animals to migrate in December and out in May. This herd of grazers, such as wildebeest, zebra, antelope, often stretching 25 miles long, travels for more than 1000 miles, following the rumbling storms to find fertile grassland to feed and calve. During their journey, there are lurking threats everywhere from top predators such as lions, cheetah, crocodiles, who pretty much rely on the herd to survive and raise cubs.
You think it's cool to be a lion, no? You'll be surprised that the king of animals actually suffers most and the survival rate of cubs is very low. The movie followed the fortune of an Ndutu pride (i.e. a group of lions) for seven months from the dry season to the most prosperous one. It is in fact appalling to witness the conditions those cubs were in during a dry season when there were few preys around. They were little more than skin and bones, waiting on the bare ground ravaged by fire and scorched by sun. They got mange, and their skins were falling apart. Some of them were limping. There seemed to be little chance for them to survive. The litter of 7 cubs dwindled to only 4, and then 2 in the end. It was shocking. And then they all disappeared. When eventually the lioness and the surviving cubs marched into the horizon on the again-green grassland near the herd, I felt the triumphant excitement too, resonating the feeling of the cameraman - yes, they survived an eventful year of sickness, drought, fire, and volcanic eruption
At an equally stunning scale, every May to July, half a billion salmon will return home in British Columbia and Alaska, even Cali, after 4 years in sea, to lay eggs in fresh waters 2000 miles away! I never imagined laying eggs would be a big deal for fishes. Now I am filled with admiration. Their journey is no less dramatic and arduous than described in one of the four greatest ancient Chinese literature "Journey to the West". Long distance travel, upstream swimming, clearing the falls (like human jumping over a 4-story building); when it's too dry they get stuck in shallow water or stuck in a pool without able to move forward and, in turn, plague; when there's too much rain they have to battle strong torrents; as their kidney and other organs adjust to sudden change of water, they stop eating and even drinking., so they are eventually killed by the very water that draw them home, after swimming up stream and spawn; not to mention a full spectrum of coastal predators relying on Salmon Run to survive : grizzly bears, wolves, bald-headed eagles, steller sea lions, killer whales, salmon sharks, so on and so forth. In the end the toll of this long journey is that for a thousand hatched, only 4 make it back to home.
A digression : why Pacific salmon take this epic run still remains a mystery. Atlantic salmon come back to spawn every year and do not die after that. Also how they find way home is largely unclear. Only recently scientists found small particles of Iron in their brain, which are like compass and help it steer the magnetic lines of earth, showing them exactly where to go.
Salmon have to take such an ordeal to reproduce, well, it's definitely not easy for a grizzly bear to make it through either : half of the grizzly cubs do not even survive the first year. Every year the grizzly will be hungry for more than half of the year, either hibernating or feeding on grass and berries. By the end of the hunger, its head appears funnily sadly too big and body too small.
Every summer the Arctic will welcome many migrants who come to feed and reproduce, most of which travel more than 600 miles one way, such as Narwhal whales (a.k.a. the arctic unicorn, named after its strange spiral tusk, the most secretive and elusive animals in the world's oceans), Beluga whales, sea birds such as guillemot, etc. Also there are locals such as polar bears and polar foxes. The challenges that polar bears facing are well known. Even for polar foxes, often 2 out of 8 cubs will get fatten enough from the abundance that a short summer can offer to survive the winter.
These are fascinating stories to learn. What's more, I was reminded once again that nothing should be taken for granted, including survival. One may argue that it's their instinct, nothing lofty. True. Food, shelter, survival, and reproduction are just an instinct. But since when we lost our very basic instinct, and got reduced to a bitter and sour and cynic whiner?
Just finished watching a documentary on DVD "Nature's most amazing events" by Discovery Channel. Most amazing and touching, indeed. It includes three episodes : The Great Melt, The Great Salmon Run, and The Great Migration. The first in Arctic, second in Northern Pacific (British Columbia and Alaska), and the last in East Africa.
East Africa, Serengeti, the short-grass plains attract 3 million of grazing animals to migrate in December and out in May. This herd of grazers, such as wildebeest, zebra, antelope, often stretching 25 miles long, travels for more than 1000 miles, following the rumbling storms to find fertile grassland to feed and calve. During their journey, there are lurking threats everywhere from top predators such as lions, cheetah, crocodiles, who pretty much rely on the herd to survive and raise cubs.
You think it's cool to be a lion, no? You'll be surprised that the king of animals actually suffers most and the survival rate of cubs is very low. The movie followed the fortune of an Ndutu pride (i.e. a group of lions) for seven months from the dry season to the most prosperous one. It is in fact appalling to witness the conditions those cubs were in during a dry season when there were few preys around. They were little more than skin and bones, waiting on the bare ground ravaged by fire and scorched by sun. They got mange, and their skins were falling apart. Some of them were limping. There seemed to be little chance for them to survive. The litter of 7 cubs dwindled to only 4, and then 2 in the end. It was shocking. And then they all disappeared. When eventually the lioness and the surviving cubs marched into the horizon on the again-green grassland near the herd, I felt the triumphant excitement too, resonating the feeling of the cameraman - yes, they survived an eventful year of sickness, drought, fire, and volcanic eruption
At an equally stunning scale, every May to July, half a billion salmon will return home in British Columbia and Alaska, even Cali, after 4 years in sea, to lay eggs in fresh waters 2000 miles away! I never imagined laying eggs would be a big deal for fishes. Now I am filled with admiration. Their journey is no less dramatic and arduous than described in one of the four greatest ancient Chinese literature "Journey to the West". Long distance travel, upstream swimming, clearing the falls (like human jumping over a 4-story building); when it's too dry they get stuck in shallow water or stuck in a pool without able to move forward and, in turn, plague; when there's too much rain they have to battle strong torrents; as their kidney and other organs adjust to sudden change of water, they stop eating and even drinking., so they are eventually killed by the very water that draw them home, after swimming up stream and spawn; not to mention a full spectrum of coastal predators relying on Salmon Run to survive : grizzly bears, wolves, bald-headed eagles, steller sea lions, killer whales, salmon sharks, so on and so forth. In the end the toll of this long journey is that for a thousand hatched, only 4 make it back to home.
A digression : why Pacific salmon take this epic run still remains a mystery. Atlantic salmon come back to spawn every year and do not die after that. Also how they find way home is largely unclear. Only recently scientists found small particles of Iron in their brain, which are like compass and help it steer the magnetic lines of earth, showing them exactly where to go.
Salmon have to take such an ordeal to reproduce, well, it's definitely not easy for a grizzly bear to make it through either : half of the grizzly cubs do not even survive the first year. Every year the grizzly will be hungry for more than half of the year, either hibernating or feeding on grass and berries. By the end of the hunger, its head appears funnily sadly too big and body too small.
Every summer the Arctic will welcome many migrants who come to feed and reproduce, most of which travel more than 600 miles one way, such as Narwhal whales (a.k.a. the arctic unicorn, named after its strange spiral tusk, the most secretive and elusive animals in the world's oceans), Beluga whales, sea birds such as guillemot, etc. Also there are locals such as polar bears and polar foxes. The challenges that polar bears facing are well known. Even for polar foxes, often 2 out of 8 cubs will get fatten enough from the abundance that a short summer can offer to survive the winter.
These are fascinating stories to learn. What's more, I was reminded once again that nothing should be taken for granted, including survival. One may argue that it's their instinct, nothing lofty. True. Food, shelter, survival, and reproduction are just an instinct. But since when we lost our very basic instinct, and got reduced to a bitter and sour and cynic whiner?
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