Sam Harris

Rod, have a fantastic trip. No doubt we’ll miss you more than you’ll miss us.

Mia, a couple of months ago, Anthro posted this link:
boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/12/08/team_of_
scientists_maps_out_99_of_dog_genome/
Here’s an excerpt from the article:

Looking for the genetic causes of human diseases in dogs makes sense only if humans and dogs are close evolutionary relatives that share a common ancestor—a fact that is strongly supported by the genetic map Lander and his colleagues found.

All animals could be said to be related of course, but birds are more genetically distant than dogs, so maybe that explains things. But it’s always been fascinating to me that certain birds can mimic the human voice, and that lots of birds are able to sing. Maybe Anthro, if he’s watching this thread, can comment on the role of singing in birds. It must be a communication system. What do they communicate? Emotional stories?—such as those humans communicate via song? After all, Homo sapiens inherits the emotion centers of the brain from other animals. What connects music with emotion?

[quote author=“Mia”]-Interesting, H. . . although with all the talk of pet chickens, roosters, ducks, etc.—not all of those have been likewise engineered over centuries to favor personality traits, and yet most, when caught young enough, seem to bond to humans. Would most of these creatures take to any caregiver, regardless of species? We’ve seen all sorts of funky friendships—dog and rat, gorilla and kitten, cat and bird. . . The key seems to be that amazing lack of ego._

I don’t have a reference to hand, nor time to dig one out at this moment, but from what I recall there are at least several animal species (especially predators) that even if brought up from birth by humans, become “wild” they get older. There’s a wonderful old Indian book I inherited a few years back called “Tips on Tiger-shooting” (though I’ve never shot any animals myself before I get flamed) which describes several unsuccessful attempts to domestic tiger cubs.