Hello all! I'd like to share a podcast, “Animal Minds” (Season 7, Episode 1) from WNYC’s Radiolab. If you have time to listen
it’s a super interesting episode. If you do not have
time I’ll give a brief rundown. There are a few stories in the podcast, all of
them interesting. The one I am going to talk/ask about is the whale story
beginning at around (4:00). A group of divers gets a call that a humpback whale is tangled in crab buoys and traps. On the scene they find fishing devices completely wrapped around the wale, dragging her down, inhibiting her mobility, and impairing her breathing. The divers work for hours, sawing away at the
ropes, until they finally unbind the whale. She disappears for a moment, and
then barrels back to the divers. As she approaches, one diver thinks she will
ram into him, but instead she nudges the diver on the chest several times. She continues to each diver
present, looking each in the eyes, letting the divers touch her, as she nudges them.
The divers “leave the whale” as the whale does not
want to leave them. The team thinks she came back to thank each diver, and even the
boats!
What do you
think is going on here? Is the whale saying thank you? Are we even able to tell what
is going on with this individual? Is this an example
of humans using a whale to elevate their sense of importance? Is it as Animal
Psychologist Clive Wynne says: that attributing this reaction to the whale is
demeaning her by saying that all animals in the world can only have human
emotions? Or is it an instance of authentic connection between human and whale?
For me, as a listener, I want there to be a communion between these creatures.
I want it to be an instance of the removal of the barrier of language; so true
trans-species communication can ensue. But I am inclined to agree with Wynne,
what we “don’t speak whale” and cannot truly know what is happening in the
whale's mind (also, is attributing a mind to the whale human-centric?).
If the
whale is not saying thank you, maybe establishing a connection (even in human
terms) can be a benevolent action in our dealings with other animals. Something not addressed in the podcast, but that is a striking part
of the story, is the human implication in the whale’s entanglement. If we
humans see our fishing activity as detrimental to whales, and if we see whales
as having human-like emotions, we may be motivated to stop polluting the
whale’s habitat. In this way I think something positive can come
from this anthropomorphizing. That said I am sure there are arguments to the
contrary! What do you think?
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