Sharks And Dolphins

[the_great_she_elephant]

The Shark vs Dolphin Thinking program poses questions to students and asks them to answer based on the different perspectives of Dolphins and Sharks.

I was really intrigued by this concept and the more I thought about it the more I realised just how many areas  it opens up for discussion - apart from the obvious ones regarding the place of both species in the food chain and in the ecology of our planet.

One example: if given the option I suspect an overwhelming majority of girls would choose to be ‘dolphins’ whereas for boys (particularly older boys). the split would probably be closer to 50/50. What does this tell us about the way girls and boys see themselves and the world around them?

Another example: sharks and dolphins are both predators – they eat other living creatures. Why then do humans generally see dolphins as kind and gentle and sharks as cruel and brutal? Is it because 1) dolphins, like us, are social animals, 2) because dolphins don’t eat us and 3) because dolphins are more intelligent (by human standards) than sharks.

[the_great_she_elephant]

Springyzone wrote:  on the whole, we tend to like animals that like us. Dogs, horses, cats etc and have far less concern for creatures that are radically different eg fish, insects.

I can give you a classic example of that. some years ago,  on a visit to Kakadu I did a boat trip on Yellow Waters. This is a broad waterway with many narrow channels running down into it. As we were passing one of these channels, an eagle swooped down into it   and grabbing a big fish dragged it to the bank and started to eat it.

theboat stopped so we could all get a good look and while we were taking potos  a crocodile suddenly shot out of the waterway and up the channel. Luckily for the eagle its mate, perched in a nearby tree called a warning and it escaped in the nick of time leaving it's meal to the croc - much to the relief of everyone on the boat

It was not til some time later that I considered the dichotomy between our  being so concerne over the possible plight of the eagle, wand our total lacjk of emapthy for  the dead fish.