Philosophy
Their loud and guttural roars can send chills up and down your spine, even from great distances. If they're running for you, and you're not protected by some sort of fence, you're dinner. If giraffes, crocodiles, zebras, wildebeests and elephants all succumb to these cats' strong jaws and sharp teeth and claws, you don't stand a chance.
Lions and tigers are the largest felines in the world, and becoming top predators has required the development of some impressive adaptations.
Continuing with the Inside Nature's Giants series, the team dissects a lion and a tiger to understand the details of the anatomy and physiology of the hunt, starting with a dissection of the larynx (which produces those frightening roars), and making their way to understand their retractable claws, their muscular bodies and their powerful jaws and sharp teeth.
And while dissecting a tiger is basically enough to get a decent understanding of their evolutionary success, lions are a different story, particularly because their survival depends upon social cohesion and cooperation, since it is not unusual for them to have to take down some massive pray that no single lion could do on his/her own. But their strict social hierarchies also have some disturbing consequences...
Watching these documentaries helps me realize that I would not survive in the wild...
- My Favorite Martyr
For an introduction to Comedism, the new religion; passages from our holy skriptures, The Comedist Manifesto; Comedist support for evolution and gay marriage; how Comedism was founded; and a note on the War on Comedy, see these links. This weekend's...
- Inside Nature's Giants - Giant Squid
It wasn't uncommon just a few centuries ago for sailors to tell tales of gigantic sea monsters whose tentacles would crush entire ships. Jules Verne's version of this monster as it attacked Captain Nemo's Nautilus is probably a good example...
- Inside Nature's Giants - The Whale
In the previous episodes of the Inside Nature's Giants documentary series, you've seen the dissection of an elephant, a crocodile and a giraffe, but this series couldn't be complete without an exploration of the largest animal of all: the...
- Inside Nature's Giants - Crocodiles
Crocodiles have been around virtually unchanged (externally at least) for a very long time, at least since the time of the dinosaurs. We mammals may think of ourselves as the present culmination of the evolutionary process, but crocodiles achieved the...
- Inside Nature's Giants - Giraffe
When it comes to uniqueness in animals, giraffes really seem to stand out on a category all their own. The striking thing, though, is that their anatomy, odd as it may seem to us, is simply a modification of the same basic body plan all mammals, humans...
Philosophy
Inside Nature's Giants - The Big Cats
Lions and tigers are the largest felines in the world, and becoming top predators has required the development of some impressive adaptations.
And while dissecting a tiger is basically enough to get a decent understanding of their evolutionary success, lions are a different story, particularly because their survival depends upon social cohesion and cooperation, since it is not unusual for them to have to take down some massive pray that no single lion could do on his/her own. But their strict social hierarchies also have some disturbing consequences...
Watching these documentaries helps me realize that I would not survive in the wild...
- My Favorite Martyr
For an introduction to Comedism, the new religion; passages from our holy skriptures, The Comedist Manifesto; Comedist support for evolution and gay marriage; how Comedism was founded; and a note on the War on Comedy, see these links. This weekend's...
- Inside Nature's Giants - Giant Squid
It wasn't uncommon just a few centuries ago for sailors to tell tales of gigantic sea monsters whose tentacles would crush entire ships. Jules Verne's version of this monster as it attacked Captain Nemo's Nautilus is probably a good example...
- Inside Nature's Giants - The Whale
In the previous episodes of the Inside Nature's Giants documentary series, you've seen the dissection of an elephant, a crocodile and a giraffe, but this series couldn't be complete without an exploration of the largest animal of all: the...
- Inside Nature's Giants - Crocodiles
Crocodiles have been around virtually unchanged (externally at least) for a very long time, at least since the time of the dinosaurs. We mammals may think of ourselves as the present culmination of the evolutionary process, but crocodiles achieved the...
- Inside Nature's Giants - Giraffe
When it comes to uniqueness in animals, giraffes really seem to stand out on a category all their own. The striking thing, though, is that their anatomy, odd as it may seem to us, is simply a modification of the same basic body plan all mammals, humans...