Deer to Deer : A tête-à-tête

The conversation I overheard, between this pair of wild Red Deer, after Valentine's Day, talking about Love, The Nature of Man and their changing environment;)  [Pic taken during their autumn rutting season, in the ancient hunting grounds around London where Kings used to hunt from the 13th century : http://greenwich-times.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/red-deer-in-autumn-rutting-season.html ]

Doe: Chomp Chomp.."Deer, Oh Deer!.. What's all that noise about?"
Stag: Chomp Chomp..chomp.."Mate, that's the pesky humans.. Celebrating.. what is it.. a day for Romance!"
D: "Oh!, aren't they the kind with no season or reason to romance and make love ?!"..
S: "Yehh, They Just Do It! They are a very inefficient lot; Utterly wasteful!"
D: "So, then why all this fuss?! If they don't keep it all to a season? What's the reason to make a fuss now"
S: Chomp Chomp..chomp.. (Silent, thinking: Hmm.. must be to satisfy the females of the species, that DEMAND love!. But I can't tell her that. Better to keep chewing silently)
D: "Hmm.. I wonder Why ?"
S: "Ah that?.. They have too many WANTS than their NEEDS."
D: "But that's not how we live our life! Or the Birds.. Or the Bees"
S: "Yehh..Deplorable, innit ? They seem to have no rhyme or reason for most things they do!. They do whatever they WANT. Whenever they WANT. However they WANT! Come what may!!.. and whether NEEDed or not!"
D: "Do they love Life ? Or do they love themselves more ?!! "
S: "Mm.. You said it right, deer! They don't much care.."
D: "What do they really WANT from LIFE?"
S: "It seems, more than what this earth can offer!"
D: "Mm.. I don't understand! I just need some grass, fresh sweet water, some rain, some shine...may be bit more fur in winter.. Ah.. and Love!.. That is you, my deer.. to nuzzle, neck and lick my back.. and that sorta thing" 
S: "Yeahhhh.. you already understood about life!, if not about humans. At least you understand me. That's enough, deer, Good to hear. But steer clear of that Big Bull. He is such a bully. All brawn; no brain to love. See how he chases the does and chases off other stags. Stay safe, love"
D: "Mmm.. Can we teach humans how to read the signs in nature? Like when to stop taking too much, use too much or waste too much and dump too much ?"

S: "Oh deer, deer.. as much as you've learnt about life, you seem to have a long way to go to learn about humans. My grandfather once warned me: 

' Do what you may with the does, but stay clear of those humans! 

Have you ever looked at them in their eyes?? You can READ them through their eyes; Some seem kind, but most seem blind- with the power of their head and their ego, they don't seem to mind about You.. or your Hind.. they'll take you, mince and grind! Even to their own kind, they don't mind stabbing from behind! 

When Man had bow and arrow, he had more Love, Calmness, Intensity and Intelligence in his eyes; He was more Resourceful, Focused and Unflappable. Quieter, but Quicker and Sharper as well. His body language was smoother, fluent and more in tune with the Elements; He could read Nature's SIGNS. But, after he started bringing guns, he seems to have completely lost his head. He doesn't seem to know how to read the Signs anymore. He doesn't seem to know, when to use, or how much to use his head!.. or whether to use his head or heart to judge!'

D: "Oh what a shame, what a shame! He doesn't know to listen to his heart ?! And how they celebrate LOVE!, so loud and vain"..

S: "Yes, dear!. Well, you asked about reading the Signs. There was more I heard from Grandpa about it:

  'Since we live a quiet life, eat grass and chew the cud, they think we are dumb!. But the wisdom we got from our ancestors, is that the best use of whatever intelligence you have, is to Love, Respect and Protect what is dear to your life, what is NEEDED for you to live.' 

(The Stag, digressing, looking at the Doe, more intensely, straight in the eyes)

S:  "Well, If you can't and don't do that, what is the point in having any intelligence at all, right ? Well, I'd even give my Life for it! Like, to fight for YOU, Me Deer, to win you from that Bully Stag".

(Now the Stag returns to his narration) 

S:  "And he told me:

'What an irony, dear, this stupid man, proud and vainglorious about all his superior intelligence, doesn't seem to get this very simple fact-- that all of us, the birds, the bees and even the blades of grass know almost by instinct. We all know how to read the SIGNS in nature, what the sun and the earth, the wind and the rain tell us; And we can read each other.

But man!. Sometimes, he seems to be ignorant, which is bad enough; But he also seem to be ignoring the signs! Well there's nothing worse, and we all know that's fatal! Fatal for us all on earth! ' 

     So, We might become victims of Man's intelligence!"  :(

D: "Ah! That's so worryingly apocalyptic! It's better, then, that Men are sent to Mars, and Women, to Venus, and leave the Earth for the rest of us, for Good !" ;)

--x--

Prisoner of his own intellect ? 

How many chains of evolution, will man drag into the bottom-less pit of extinction ??!

How Plants Evolved, How they breathe Life into The Planet!, How they Create Food for Animals, & Shaped the Animals

From the incredibly absorbing new 3-part series in Feb2012 (Full Series as a playlist here :
http://bit.ly/BBC-How2GrowAPlanet_FullSeries , see below for some interesting clips) about the evolution of plants- and how they literally shaped the animals, including dinosaurs &humans!..

with the first ever footage of a PLANT BREATHING!

Brilliantly narrated 3-part series(though a lil misleading 'How-to..' title),..by geologist Prof Iain Stewart, reveals how the greatest changes to the Earth have been driven, above all, by plants.

 First episode Life From Light showed, how the earliest forms of life, the green-bacteria created oxygen from light, some 2.5billion yrs ago, and how plants inherited the mechanism of this photosynthesis. 

[The clips below take you to the relevant section within this full episode1, 'Life From Light']
This section show Why leaves came into being, and saved plants from suffocation (from lack of CO2),
and live footage of PLANT BREATHING
(e-microscope,  speeded up 140x) - http://bit.ly/PlantBreathing

This episode showed Why the earth has become green, instead of purple!.. -because of the green bacteria in the oceans that created oxygen from light, some 2.5billion yrs ago

-photosynthesis!..

To see microscopic view of How plants produce Oxygen - by inheriting the Photosynthesis mechanism from the green bacteria: http://bit.ly/o2fromPlants

"Nature's most astonishing achievement" -
How Plants use light &CO2 to make sugars- the source of food for all animals:
http://bit.ly/PlantsSugarFromCo2

.....

"He sees how plants harnessed light from the sun and creating our life-giving atmosphere.  He uncovers the epic battle between the dinosaurs and the tallest trees on the planet. And, using remarkable imagery, he shows plants breathing - and for the first time talking to each other"

How Plants Breathe : Animation


Plant "Breathing" Mechanism Discovered

• Roots appeared 400m yrs ago.. around the time, when first animals started living on land- Horse-shoe crab, one of the first ever to emerge on land.. 

• Leafless plants were surviving then.. but as the plants used up most CO2, its levels plummeted by 90%.. and plants evolved with a strategy to extract as much CO2 as possible, by increasing the surface area 100 times- BY GROWING LEAVES!.., their breathing apparatus!- microscopic holes on leaves called stomata- that is present on every leaf on earth! First, the Ferns evolved leaves.. A small Fern may breath in upto 5litres of CO2 a day!.

•  300m yrs ago, forests emerged.. with huge plants.. and O2 levels in the atmosphere increased manifold..  in turn increasing the size of animals! (even insects like millipedes of 2m long, Dragonflies with 1m wingspan etc..

• 230m years ago, emerged bigger and bigger plant eaters, The Dinosaurs!.. with upto the 12m high Sauropods.. massive vegetarians eating upto 1500kg of plants n leaves.., 

• So 150m yrs ago, plants evolved defense mechanism of thorny leaves, and trunk!- the Cycads.. which made up a quarter of all plants on earth..were born, and 

• 70m years ago, in their survival battle with animals, huge conifer trees, like Giant Sequoias grew so tall, upto 90metres tall.. with leaves out of reach of the largest dinosaurs..  Dinosaurs were no longer the biggest organisms on earth! HOW INTRIGUING!! ( The meteor impact at Yucatan, Mexico that wiped out the Dinosaurs is estimated to be ~65m yrs ago. The Last Day of the Dynosaurs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW9IyDcR3iQ )

+prgm homepage  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01bywvr

The Red Deer in Autumn Rutting Season

FACING THE HEAT.
Autumn is their breeding season, when the Stags are said to be in rut, and 'Hinds'/females in oestrus/heat.
Rut is the recurring sexual excitement and reproductive activity in the breeding season of certain male ruminants such as the deer, goat, sheep.. that corresponds to the period of 'oestrus' in females ('a regularly occurring period of sexual receptivity in most female mammals, except humans, during which ovulation occurs and copulation can take place; heat')

When autumn colours set in, and the chill starts to build, it is also the time when some animals feel they are 'in heat'. For the deer, it is when they are in autumn 'rut', their breeding season. After an unusually warm start of October, I've been waiting for almost a month, to go and watch them at the ancient hunting ground- The Royals used it since the 12th century, but now reduced to around 10 sq.km of National Nature Reserve between Richmond and Wimbledon. But then also had to wait for a decent sunny weekend to capture their mood.

That means getting really lucky in this part of the world. Finally this Sunday, sun smiled; towards the fag end of the season when stags are most interesting to watch, as they are the most 'interested' too! ;).

But when I reached there early afternoon, trekked half an hour and spotted a herd of around 50 red deer lazing around, chewing the cud, there was nothing to suggest other than just another day in the Deer Calendar ;)

There was no sense of planning for the year ahead, the next generation ;). Two possibilities came to my mind- One, that they are done with the rutting season. Two, they might be very resigned to the fact that

with 7billion of those pesky 2-footed creatures taking over the entire planet, there wasn't much they can do to give it a try and compete!. They couldn't even feel proud that there were at least 1.4 million cattle or 1.1million sheep (or even 18 million chicken, if they want to surpass humans by numbers) —That could join for an “Occupy Streets” protests against unfair treatment meted out by humans, and their downright ugly industrial Animal Farming.

They couldn’t feel proud, because these sheer numbers, they know, are all down to the need or greed of that crazily brainy breed, who has the chutzpah- like a country calling itself ‘Great’- to call themselves wise, Homo ‘Sapiens’..

"Ha, Sapient!, my hoof. Who cares a hoot"- one deer seemed to mull as it chewed the cud.

I kept watching the animated thoughts of the deer folk, while I waited to find out the real truth about their state of mind- whether ‘in rut’ or not; the season over or not.

The lighter side of thoughts, of heavy-thinking deer think tank apart,

I wondered whether, like many mammals, there ever was a time in human history when humans had a breeding season!! ;) - when women would have ovulated/menstruated once, or couple of times and hormones spiked only during such season(s). Sounds funny to think about it, but to have a season to think about dating and mating, and to have no such matters in mind outside it would be unthinkable for many of us humanfolk! ;)

Would the world be happier, grumpier or more solemn in such a scenario ? 

Was very lucky to be there at that time.., the sun just right, mild slanting rays before setting.,
I loved this moment, looking through the lense, lost in that frame-
and I almost lost that right moment and pose to click!:)
Loved the frame.. for those rim-lit antlers with a gleam on it..nicely highlighting..,
its wispy beard almost visible with side-lighting..,
it has that 'steeped-in-its-natural-habitat' feel;
camouflaged, &emerging from the brown ferns.,
With the vestiges of autumn glory, shining back-lit yellow leaves decorating the background of the frame..,
Giving it a sense of time &space- of season &habitat;
of beauty &peace!,
To me, it is a dreamy moment.. I can touch and feel and smell and merge into!..,
To fall back into that frame and be lost in that time and space..,
in that moment when dream came true!

Finally, after 2 hours of waiting,when starting to feel rather unlucky,

I was getting distracted and attracted more to a flock of very raucous parakeets that I had been hearing in the background much of the time. Followed their noisy chatter for a few minutes.

Ring-necked Parakeet.
Most of the Parakeets in the wild in Britain originated in India, were kept as pets and later a wild population grew from the escaped &released birds, with latest estimate around 6000 birds- mostly in the South-East (Even though Greater London and surrounding areas is still its stronghold, the species has been recorded in almost every county in England, and has reached Wales and the Scottish borders.
Interestingly, though frugivorous and vegetarian in its natural habitat in South Asia, in Britain they are omnivorous- at times eating even meat! )
http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/r/ringneckedparakeet/history.aspx

Slowly I became aware of the changing dynamics of the herd, the tension in the air, the nervous females, the intimidated and side-lined stags, the bullying alpha-male.

Clearly, in that herd there was no challenger who could take on the alpha-male with the most formidable sized antlers that others fad in comparison. So there was not so much of a fight- of the horny males locking horns! ;)

There was more of chasing off other stags and harassing to keep the harem to itself .

Then chasing behind females going in rounds, giving up dodging female after a round of chase..

Sometimes bellowing at the end of it. It was for the first time that I was watching this 'rut' happening live.

When going behind the hinds, the alpha male was often sticking its tongue out as if sensing something in the air,

may be for secretions to see if the female was 'ready', and for some, it would try to touch the tongue as if 'marking' the checked-out females!

While being shutter-happy in the midst, could sense a bit tense ambience at times, especially when the stags were chased off - with rather distinguished expansive antlers, that Alpha-male seemed to hold a harem and keep away some 15+ adult stags from the herd of around 50 ;)

Though after couple of hours of hanging around the herd without intruding their space, they seemed to

take less notice of me than earlier, I remained alert of movements around me. Especially of the Alpha-male.

There was a moment I was stumped, as to which way to go, when a

tall stag with long sleek antlers appreared to come straight at me when being chased off by the

alpha male- 
That's when the warning signs I read elsewhere really struck home: "During the rutting season, it can be dangerous to approach deer".

The red deer(Cervus elaphus) inhabits most of Europe, parts of western Asia, and central Asia. It also inhabits the Atlas Mountains region between Morocco and Tunisia in northwestern Africa, being the only species of deer to inhabit Africa.[wiki]

The Kashmir stag (Cervus elaphus hanglu), also called hangul, is a subspecies [Endangered] of Red Deer native to northern Pakistan and India, especially in Jammu and Kashmir where it is the state animal, and Chamba in northern Himachal Pradesh. Only around 150 of them are left in the wild!!.

+++

 As an interesting coincidence,  3 days before this deer-outing, attended an event @London School of Economics [ @LSE's Department of Management, a  BBC Radio 4 public conversation ], where  economist Robert Frank, talked about his new book The Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition, and the Common Good  (He is Cornell University professor of economics and management, Author of  'The Economic Naturalist', and a text book 'Principles of Economics' co-authored with Fed Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. The other books include Winner-Take-All Society, Luxury Fever, What Price the Moral High Ground?. He is also New York Times economics columnist. His books have been translated into 22 languages). It was a BBC Radio4 interview & public conversation hosted by LSE Dept of Management, conducted by BBC economics editor Paul Mason.. There was an audience of around 800 @LSE.

In the opening stages of the conversation, Paul Mason asked an interesting question: "It is rare to read an economics book and come away with such a startling image, as one comes away with from the beginning of your book, of an elk (the large deer, called moose in the US) with giant antlers. Explain to us, what you mean by that metaphor/analogy", and Frank goes on to talk about antlers in elk  : About balancing evolutionary advantage and disadvantage of having bigger and bigger antlers as the species evolved. The advantage of bigger antlers, is the reproductive advantage of getting to mate with as many females as it can get, by fighting off those with smaller antlers; disadvantage of it being the bigger risk of getting easily hunted down by wolves. The antlers grew bigger and reached an equilibrium [This equilibrium may not be good for 'the elk males as a group': Having to carry antlers weighing upto 40pounds]. The point being, individual gains/interests does not coincide with group interest in this case.

I've added more about this event at this other blog post-

http://greenwich-times.blogspot.com/2011/11/darwin-economy-liberty-competition-and.html

It has some excerpted text of the talk, edited audio podcast to fit into 30min slot of BBC Radio4, and the full 1 hr video from LSE. It also has links to videos of his talks at other places, including that uploaded by Princeton University Press, in which he reveals what propelled him to write this book: Fed-up and frustrated by hearing all the rhetoric of the libertarian American right wing, he sat and started typing his response, whic over a period of time evolved into this book!

Here is sneak peak-  a 7min video highlight, of Rober Frank talking about the themes in the book at some other place.



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The Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition, and the Common Good

 It was an interesting coincidence, that 3 days before my deer-photo-outing, attended an event @LSE, (part of  'LSE IDEAS series- Ideas that can change the world!')  where economist Robert Frank, talked about his new book The Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition, and the Common Good  (He is Cornell University professor of economics and management, Author of  'The Economic Naturalist', and a text book 'Principles of Economics' co-authored with Fed Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke. His text books are followed at LSE as well. The other books include Winner-Take-All Society, Luxury Fever, What Price the Moral High Ground?. He is also New York Times economics columnist. His books have been translated into 22 languages). It was a BBC Radio4 interview & public conversation hosted by LSE Dept of Management, conducted by BBC economics editor Paul Mason.. There was full audience of around 800 @LSE.

I attended the event as I quite liked his other book,  'The Economic Naturalist' (2008), a different approach to economics; His radical/refreshing approach to teaching economics to his students, starting from simple questions of the everyday things that can be linked to economic justification, as mentioned in that book. I was more drawn to his linking of 2 topics-- finding simple analogies in nature, for economic theories!. Also, felt he has a certain humbleness about him, and as The Guardian noted in its review of his book 'The Winner-Take-All Society', "he has lucid writing style and a willingness NOT TO TAKE HIMSELF TOO SERIOUSLY"
The media intro's to this new book The Darwin Economy said, it looks more extensively  into Economics and Natural History!- 2 subjects that fascinate me, as they surround us in our daily lives, with so many mysteries to unravel! ;), esp in Natural History.

The new book also tells about the parallels in economics and evolution- about competition and consequences of risk-taking behaviour, which are so central to econimics today. The book sets out to answer a strange-sounding question: ‘Who was the greater economist--Adam Smith or Charles Darwin?!’ Frank predicts that within the next century Darwin will unseat Smith as the intellectual founder of economics. The reason, Frank argues, is that Darwin's understanding of competition describes economic reality far more accurately than Smith's. 
It is said, 'To be an economist without having read The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, is like being a priest without having read the Bible.'

The talk starts by asking Frank, "We've built 200years of economic theories based on the achievements of Adam Smith. What did we do 'wrong' ?".
He replies: "I am not against Adam Smith--rather, a huge admirer of Smith myself, but against the Modern caricature of Adam Smith as put forward by the free market enthusiasts, esp in the US, and American Right wing, who are Smith's biggest disciples.. They have a wrong notion of what Adam Smith wrote (in The Wealth of Nations)".. Frank says about the de facto bible of economics and the libertarians who interpret it wrongly;  Their notion, for instance, like that of a typical invesment banker, is  that in pursuing self-interest, they are pursuing the good of all.. and in free markets, whatever survives and prospers is to be morally celebrated.. while also wanting competition without regulation. This, Frank argues, is NOT for the common good.

 Darwin has more general view of the competitive process-  he says, Darwin's GREAT INSIGHT was that sometimes individual gains/interests coincide with group interest, but OFTEN they DON'T-- Whenever there is such a conflict, it's often the individual interest that triumph, often to the great cost to the group.
Much of the competition in the business world, is against its own kind.

But according to Darwin, whatever survives in Nature is not always of the kind to be 'morally celebrated'.
 Competitive imperatives led animals to do things that were brutal in terms of the well-being of other members of the group- like killing the offsprings of other dominant males, as in lions.
Sometimes, what benefits the individual, puts so much more risks on the the group-- nowhere more than the Financial insdustry! (And that eventually led to economic catastrophy, global recession)

In the opening stages of the conversation, he is also asked an interesting question: "It is rare to read an economics book and come away with such a startling image, as one comes away with from the beginning of your book, of an elk (the large deer, called moose in the US) with giant antlers. Explain to us, what you mean by that metaphor/analogy", and Frank goes on to talk about antlers in elk  : About balancing evolutionary advantage and disadvantage of having bigger and bigger antlers as the species evolved. The advantage of bigger antlers, is the reproductive advantage of getting to mate with as many females as it can get, by fighting off those with smaller antlers; disadvantage of it being the bigger risk of getting easily hunted down by wolves. The antlers grew bigger and reached an equilibrium [This equilibrium may not be good for 'the elk males as a group': Having to carry antlers weighing upto 40pounds]. The point being, individual gains/interests does not coincide with group interest in this case.

Another interesting point he raises towards the end, is that Modern Economics so much ignores "context" in the models, and focuses too much on mathematics.

[The Audio podcast of the event is available here on BBC Radio 4: Edited version, fitted into 30min for the radio. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0174f06/Analysis_The_Darwin_Economy/  ]

The full event video @LSE, ~1hr:






More about the book here:  http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9509.html

Here is also a 7min video highlight, of Rober Frank talking about the themes in the book



Other full length video of talks available..
from Princeton University Press: [ At the start of this talk, he also tells what propelled him to write this book- Fed-up and frustrated by hearing all the rhetoric of the libertarian American right wing, he sat and started typing his response, whic over a period of time evolved into this book! ]
http://www.youtube.com/embed/HJUoHkGYsOA

and talk at New America Foundation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6dpdITsPOg
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