Maria Fatima R. Vitug
2012-63127
Reaction Paper on the Life of
Mammals: A BBC Documentary
We owe
everything we have to Mother Earth. She sustains life for every living thing in
the planet. We would not be present if it will be destroyed. The BBC
documentary about the Life of Mammals is
an eye opener to us that neglecting our responsibilities to the environment can
lead to extinction. The Life of Mammals has
two parts, Social Climber and Food for Thought.
The first part
of the documentary is entitled Social
Climbers. David Attenborough, the speaker in the documentary, travelled to different
parts of the world in order to observe the surviving species of monkeys. This
part of the documentary focused on the apes. Despite of living in the wild,
these animals have a lot of similarities to humans. First, they have a bright
mind. These monkeys were able to form methods to survive the environment they
live in. It was shown that an ape was able to crack nuts. He places them in a
trunk with fissure and pounds it using an improvised hammer out of wood. This ape that successfully cracks open the
nuts was seen by others as an expert and carefully watches him. The observing
apes imitate him. Some were successful while others try and fail. According to
David Attenborough, these new methods can be passed on to young generations.
Even if it was a failure to some apes to learn the method, their young
generations would be able put it into practice and perfect it. Just like
humans, these monkeys have a brain that perfectly adapts to what it sees and
process it into action. As an evidence, the speaker left two set of leaves on
the ground, one of them is used by humans as insect repellant, and the monkey
grabbed the insect repellant leaves.
Second, the monkeys can form families, communities and allies. They have
a lot of types (e.g. baboons, capuchins, gorillas). Just like humans, they find
their soul mate to form families with. Eventually they form communities. In the
documentary, one group of monkeys had a hunting team of males. These males form
allies in order to gain benefits. It was evident that when they got their kill,
the male monkeys offer their kill to their allies. The monkeys of the same kind
huddle together. In the wild, there are a lot of threats from bigger animals.
Travelling in a large group can prevent them from being attacked by other
animals. One scene shows gorillas
travelling in packs to find food. They spotted a group of flamingoes in the
waters. It seemed easier because they are big and at the same time, they are in
a pack and that makes them extra stronger.
In relation to this, third, the apes were able to form a social
system. There is a hierarchy to power. In their world, the fittest survives or
they will be eaten by the animals bigger and stronger than them. This explains how that the gorillas are the
most powerful in the ape community. They are like the top of the social system.
Male monkeys in particular have the upper hand in power in its respective group.
Usually, males are the ones who hunt food for the group. They are very
particular who joins them. In one scene, a male newcomer intends to join the
group and being a male he had to join the hunting team. However, when they got
their first kill, they did not share some to him at all. He was isolated
because he was just a newbie and it seems that they did not regard him to be at
the hunting team’s level. These similarities make the monkeys and humans very
alike. There are theories that we may have as well been part of them as if we
are the very young generation of apes that have perfected their methods in
surviving the wild. As to this first part of the documentary, it highlighted the
connection of humans to the animal world. It implies that they are our
responsibility as well as our responsibility to our families and the
environment.
The second part
is Food for Thought. This part of the
documentary highlighted the evolution of the world from the wild to the city. There
has been a lot of evident change in the society. According to David
Attenborough, the changes in the environment were “a mere blink in the eye of
evolution.” Humans are the brightest among mammals. There are a lot of
advancements in technology that made life easier for humans. It made our
workload lighter. Going to places are easier because there are vehicles
available. The heat would not scorch our skins because we have a house to live
in. We are able to produce our own food and not be troubled on hunting animals.
We were able to create aircrafts that could explore other planets. Satellites
are made to connect the whole world in computers. People have also put into research
on cloning living things. In the documentary, the Mayans emerged as a great
civilization but in a way that they manipulate things they do to suit the
environment, unlike in our generation. As David Attenborough said, “Perhaps the
time has now come to put that process into reverse, instead of controlling the
environment for the benefit of the population perhaps it’s now time to control
the population to allow the survival of the environment.” Through technology,
the world has achieved a lot of things in great lengths. We were able to
create, produce and duplicate. We now have the upper hand in the animal
kingdom. However, we still seem not contented in what we have achieved. We are
curious in things we are not yet been able to discover. All these time we have
just thought of surviving as a human race. We have been selfish and it slipped
our minds that the planet is equally ours just as to the other living things. After all these advancements of humans, what
the future holds seemed clear, a withering future, if we do not start caring
for our environment now.
Reference:
“Life of Mammals Pt. 9: Social Climbers.” Walrusvideo. WordPress, n.d. Web. 11 May 2014.
“Life of Mammals Pt. 10: Food for Thought.” Walrusvideo. WordPress, n.d. Web. 11 May 2014.
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