Cool story.
An Orangutan escaped from her confinement in an Adelaide zoo by first short circuiting an electric fence and then using a makeshift latter to climb out of her pen.
The intelligence of this Orangutan goes without saying. However, I think it raises an important ethical question as to whether or not it is aceptable to confine a creature capable of comprehending its own imprisonment?
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All creatures can comprehend their own imprisonment if they have at one point experienced or imagined higher degrees of freedom. It's just Orengutans are more capable of dealing with it. Dogs are also surprisingly capable, despite their low intelligence behavior.
ReplyDeleteI suppose you are right. Although many inhabitants at the zoo have never experienced 'higher degrees of freedom'; they are born and mature in a zoo setting. I am unsure if this applies to this particular orangutan, but I have read of monkeys with no prior exposure to 'freedom' capable of pre-meditative planning and subsequent escape. Some animals lack such forethought and simply go through the motions (although it is impossible to directly observe what goes on in anythings head, we must infer from actions).
ReplyDeleteJon is absolutely right. Sadly, Brody is wrong.
ReplyDeleteCharles Darwin, Ph.D (father of modern biology)
Author of 'Origin of Species'
King of Evolution
Actually Brody is completely right in this situation. The tigers in the zoo can see through the bars of their cage, just the same as an office worker can see through the glass window of their own cage.
ReplyDeleteCarol Emery is a witch. Burn her!
ReplyDelete