Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: interview with professional, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 1 of 1
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: interview with professional in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
To wrap up all things furry and feathered week, I have a special treat, my interview with Ethologist and author of Second Nature - Jonathan Balcombe. Check it out below.
Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
I am an Ethologist—a biologist who specializes in the study of animal behavior. I am also an advocate of animals to the fullest degree. I support efforts to protect animals and their living spaces, and I repudiate all activities that unnecessarily or gratuitously harm animals, including their use as sources of meat and dairy products, in harmful research and testing, and where they are harmed as forms of entertainment or recreation. Among my personal pleasures are painting, playing the piano, bird/nature-watching, vegan baking, and trying to understand the cats (and, I confess, the humans) I live with.
How did you become interested in animals and their behaviour?
From my earliest memories I've been fascinated by animals and what they do. How do they perceive the world? What are they thinking? How do they solve the challenges that their living environments present them with? What are their particular sources of pleasure? Etc.
How long have you been in this field?
Professionally, I've been an Ethologist since around 1978, when I decided to major in biology as an undergraduate student. Unofficially, I've been studying animal behavior since around age five, when I first began venturing into the garden to find insects and making my elbows raw by watching ants for hours on end.
Does it just become more fascinating?
The more I learn about animals and their ways, the more fascinating it becomes. The closer one looks, the more there is to discover. As much as I notice animals, I notice people often failing to notice them. I sit at an outdoor cafe and surreptitiously drop crumbs to watch the house sparrows who come foraging for them. I admire the quickness and accuracy with which they pluck tiny tidbits from the ground. I notice them glancing up at me every second or so—monitoring that big, lumbering fleshy creature up there. I can't resist twitching a foot and noticing that they flinch briefly before continuing. I notice the rusty tones on the male's neck and two ochre patches on the back and marvel at the beautiful job that that million year old artist we call “nature” did. I notice that I'm the only one watching and I think how much people are missing right at their feet.
In your opinion, if people who hunt for sport realized "the inner lives of animals" would they still be hunting?
I think that hunting, like all forms of animal abuse, requires a switching off of empathy. I suspect that few hunters lack empathy; it is just culturally and socially suppressed. I like to think that many hunters who realized the inner lives of animals would soon be hunting for a new pastime.
Most people who are intune to their pets know and believe they posse![]()
To wrap up all things furry and feathered week, I have a special treat, my interview with Ethologist and author of Second Nature - Jonathan Balcombe. Check it out below.
Professionally, I've been an Ethologist since around 1978, when I decided to major in biology as an undergraduate student. Unofficially, I've been studying animal behavior since around age five, when I first began venturing into the garden to find insects and making my elbows raw by watching ants for hours on end.