From Maggie Wiśniewska, Shoreline, Washington, US
For decades, scientists searched for a bright line separating human culture from “mere” animal behaviour. The more evidence we get, the fainter that line becomes. When we insist on judging every other species against the single yardstick of human society, we reveal more about our biases than we do about other animals(5 April, p 36).
A good take on the issue is in the 1928 writing of US naturalist Henry Beston, who said that animals “are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth”. Recognising those “other nations” and their diverse cultures isn’t sentimental, but a step towards a fuller, humbler understanding of the living world we all share.
