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.