Sep 28 2008
Adaptation
I wonder if a city pigeon would be happier living in a more wild/natural environment.
By wild/natural, I mean one that more closely resembles the one in which its species evolved in. For a “rock dove,” that would be a place of cliffs. Of course, to conduct this experiment you’d have to control for as many variables as you could. Availability of food, presence of predators, climate, comfy roost spots with nice views . . . .
And how would one measure a pigeon’s happiness? Lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol? Higher serotonin levels? Could a pigeon be trained to peck out its responses to a “subjective well-being” psychological questionnaire?
Of course, I wonder the same about human beings. Do we have a “natural” environment? Could we be truly human and feel fully satisfied if living out our entire lives on a space station? Just how plastic a species are we?
Time for me to go grab a bottle to quench my thirst. This afternoon I’m going to watch a color-box view of other animals of my kind engaging in a form of inter-group territorial warfare. Or maybe it’s competitive group hunting, with the goal being transporting a pigskin to a zone where it can be counted as a valued resource.
Interesting place, this orb called “Earth.”
