# the human animal **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 26, 2000, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-animal/20591 "2000-05-26T12:04:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Jois](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ea666f/32.png) [@Jois](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jois)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2000, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-animal/20591/21 "2000-05-28T03:36:48Z")
While I’m sticking with adaptability I want to add inventiveness. ---
**Author:** ![Wood\_Thrush](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b38774/32.png) [@Wood\_Thrush](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wood_Thrush)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2000, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-animal/20591/22 "2000-05-28T05:45:41Z")
Although many birds do raise chicks as a pair, in many species whose chicks have been genetically tested, some eggs were not those of the male that raises them. Attenborrough’s _The Life of Birds_ documents this. But many are also faithful. Also, many things mentioned, such as nuclear technology, are made not by humans, but by **tools**. I don’t know where exactly we will draw the line. It gets down to the point that most animals can’t physically make certain tools. **Lance Turbo** said: > [@](#): > > Humans are the only species of animal that lives in my house and do not freak out when there’s a thunderstoem outside. How do you know the dust mites freak out? 😃 **matt\_mcl** said: > [@](#): > > Children acquire a language instinctively, not because they are taught by their parents or others. If kids instinctively know a language, why are there different languages? Also, why, if a child with an ancestry of Japanese speaking people is raised by a family of Dutch speaking people, does it speak Dutch and not Japanese? The main difference is humans are the only animals to be able to mate with humans and produce fertile offspring. ---
**Author:** ![chique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@chique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chique)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2000, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-animal/20591/23 "2000-05-28T08:11:30Z")
Ozone’s description of hunting bothers me. ``` We, on the other hand, load up our campers with beer and bullets, just to watch a buck drop, so we can hang it's head on our wall ``` Nope, I’m not a gun nut, and other than a couple of trips with a 12 gauge through our corn fields I’m not a hunter (although I can beat bottles with a .22 any day of the week). My parents are heavily involved in an organization called Pheasants Forever, which is similar in scope to Ducks Unlimited. My parents also own a 400 acre family dairy farm, which gave me an up-close-and-personal view of the cycle of life in all its glory and horrors. Every member in Dad’s local chapter of PH is an avid hunter. To hunt pheasants you have to have them available. To have them available you have to have the habitat. In the past 10 years dad’s chapter (150 members) has purchased/maintained 2800 acres of land. This land is protected from pesticides/herbicides, mowing (pheasants need long grass to nest, and mowing ditches destroys their habitat), and the greatest threat of all - human development. Besides game birds, this land supports all things wild - rabbits, moles, voles, gophers, groundhogs (scylla), bugs, foxes… Yeah, there are plenty of “great white hunters” who go out and shoot for the racks, and there are plenty of “game farms” that keep wild animals inside a fence for the purpose of shooting. I detest them both. But I also detest people who, while deer are dying by the hundreds due to starvation and overpopulation and disease, protest hunting Bambi. Natural predators - foxes and wolves, e.g., - have long since left populated areas. SOMETHING has to do something about the 1,000+ deer-related auto wrecks that occurred in Prince William County, VA, in 1994. Again, I apologize for the hijack…am very sorry…but am also very happy to get that off my chest. As for organized religion amongst animals… Every dog I’ve ever had the pleasure of caring for has worshipped me. That means I’m God in someone’s eyes, right? 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-human-animal/20591.md?page=1)