Aug 27, 2016 at 6:17 PM | TinyCO2

I think your point about cheetahs using the roofs of vehicles is a classic example. The cheetahs have learned over several generations not to be frightened of vehicles. They have got closer to them without any obvious reason to be afraid. They will have noticed in the absence of a tree, that vehicles provide some shade from the sun, and a good vantage point to spot prey, or threat.

In some areas of the world, scuba divers started to feed sharks with fish. This proved a great tourist attraction for some tourists, and most sharks were very happy to go on with the new arrangement. Some sharks learned that humans, whether scuba diving or not, equalled free food. Most humans now think this is not a good idea.

The traditional idea of a cat in a UK household or farm etc, was not to feed it, to encourage it to kill rats and mice. The cat got somewhere warm and dry to live, safe from predators. The cat was free to come and go, and was never caged or fenced in. Cats and dogs do leave the domestic life, especially if abused. Cats and dogs born feral, can be domesticated, but living as a domesticated animal has to be learned.

Martin A
My experiences would confirm that.

ACK, but how does any evolutionary trait work? Creatures more suited to an environment flourish than those that don’t. Some animals are more nervous than others. In a dangerous environment that might be the best survival skill in others the brave or stupid creatures benefit from longer eating or better food. Some fight to the last breath when confined and abandon their young. Some will collapse and die with fear. Others relax if they’re not actually being hurt. You even see this evolutionary feature in different members of the same set of young. You get the bold one that is bigger and stronger than the others and it goes on to be a dominant animal but at other times it’s too brave and doesn’t make it to adulthood.

Mankind isn’t the only animal that has formed a useful relationship with another creature. eg The honey guide bird will attract anyone it thinks will open up a hive, including the honey badger a notoriously nasty animal. It probably tries a number of species until it finds one that co-operates.

In addition to the moose, there are new relationships being forged with mankind now. Eg Cheaters using tourist jeeps as lookout posts or protection from lions. The long tailed tit was almost never seen in the garden 40 years ago and now it’s one of the top 10.

To reassure modern day ocean travellers that anactodote was back in the eones of time in my miss spent youth. Before the Dead Sea was taken sick, when Malcolm Sargent was just a corporal and before Constable joined the force. Things have moved on since then. ;-).

Stewgreen. Lawrence Soloman, who wrote the the column you linked to

http://business.financialpost.com/fp-comment/lawrence-solomon-everyones-a-climate-change-leader-until-their-claims-become-quantifiable

also wrote the book The Deniers. This is one of the best references I know to create suspicion in the minds of students who have an open mind and who suspect that all may not be settled about climate change. I had enormous problems getting UEA's library to get a copy. Then it disappeared from the shelves and was never replaced, even though I know students asked for it year after year.

ottokring
Not to mention the icelandic contributions.

On every occasion I can recall when "testing" the motor lifeboad (excuse of a jount) the engine ground to a halt about half a mile from the ship. So we had to row (or on one occasion sail; ever tried to tack a boat with minimum keel ?) back, this is particularly pertinent since the roll of the only motor lifeboat was to tow the others clear of a sinking ship. The reason of course was that the carbaretta was choked with sediment and addatives out of suspension from the fuel tank. The tank is very difficult to empty but we used to change the fuel at regular intervals after that experience, self preservation !

On Friday (26.8) morning was an Horizon docu on BBC2 about the British Antartctic Survey, showimg withpout irony the monster caterpillar tractors that they use tolug stuff around in their "clean air zone".
An atomospheri chemist came on to give us the usual Global warming spiel ( average tmps in Antractic have gone up 3 deg . no timescale that I recall and like -50 to -47 is going to make a difference ).
But he also said that the rise in CO2 ( from 360ppn to 398 ppm since he started measuring ) can only be explained by man-made causes because "there hadn't been any significant volcanic activity for over a 100 years."
So Mouts St helens and Pinatubo don't count, nor all the undersea volcanoes bubbling away under the Southern Ocean ?