The photo (2002) of an elephant calf being eaten alive comes from wildlife photographer Michael Poliza. The photographer's comments are worth quoting: Hyenas and Baby Elephant
"UPDATE: I have decided to make the image much smaller, to blur it and to take most of the color out of it. I am basically taking it out. This should not offend anyone anymore. I just dont want to risk to shock people that are unprepared. I hope you understand. 7 July 06 1830 UTCIt is hard to imagine an experience more horrific than being eaten alive. Most of us would prefer not to imagine what it must feel like. Note that the photographer here had to persuade the park ranger to violate the park rules and put the baby elephant out of his misery.First let me say how much I love nature and how many amazing and wonderful moments it has given me in the last years. I am an optimist and believe in the good, and I hope my portfolio proofs that...
Some time ago i posted a somewhat bloody image of a Hyena with a young Impala lamb in his jaws and asked you whether i should post this and even more brutally honest pictures about the "Survival of the fittest" and a clear majority of you said yes it should be shown.
This scene is probably the most shocking and emotionally difficult scene i have ever witnessed in nature. This young elephant got stuck in mud and was abondoned by his parents. Hyenas found it and started to eat it alive. The calf could obviously not move and the hyens started at the trunk and ate it and most of the head skin and meat, before we finally convinced a ranger to put the calf to sleep, obviously against all rules and regulations not to intervene. It suffered for many hours before it was finally released of his tragic fate.
We only found the elephant at a time when the trunk was already eaten and I could only "handle" to take a few photographs. At this stage it was already too late for the calf. But it did not let go.... About 2 hours later the elephant was still alive and at that time the hyenas had already eaten the eyes and skinned his skull completely. The calf kept fighting and continously called for help...If you think this should not be shown, I am happy to take it off. But it is nature in its true honesty. The hyenas are just fighting for their own survival and feel no wrong doing..."
By analogy, suppose it were lawful to visit Third World countries for photoshoots but illegal to "interfere" and help a stricken human baby. Is there a fundamental difference between "ethical" intervention to help humans and "sentimental" pleas to "interfere" and help non-humans? Should we encourage the preservation of life-forms such as the hyena in their current guise? Or do the value judgements underlying the "science" of conservation biology need to be re-examined?
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Darwinian Life
Conservation Biology
The Abolitionist Project
Giant Killers: Lions as Macropredators
Finally: big cat kills uncensored and uncut
Snuff movies On TV: Lions eat elephant alive
Alternatives: cheetahs play affectionately with baby impala
Reprogramming Predators
‘I’ll find an answer that’s good enough for them,’ he said to himself, as he slipped the letter into his post-box.{246} THE FERRY-BOAT. THE FERRY-BOAT. "Why, I thought it was on a hill, or something of the sort; I had no reason to think so, of course, but I had formed that picture of it." The Clockwork man shook his head. "We have houses, but they are not full of things like yours are, and we don't live in them. They are simply places where we go when we take ourselves to pieces or overhaul ourselves. They are—" his mouth opened very wide, "the nearest approach to fixed objects that we have, and we regard them as jumping-off places for successive excursions into various dimensions. Streets are of course unnecessary, since the only object of a street is to lead from one place to another, and we do that sort of thing in other ways. Again, our houses are[Pg 146] not placed together in the absurd fashion of yours. They are anywhere and everywhere, and nowhere and nowhen. For instance, I live in the day before yesterday and my friend in the day after to-morrow." This principle is somewhat obscure, and the nature of percussive forces not generally considered—a matter which may be illustrated by considering the action of a simple hand-hammer. Few [103] people, in witnessing the use of a hammer, or in using one themselves, ever think of it as an engine giving out tons of force, concentrating and applying power by functions which, if performed by other mechanism, would involve trains of gearing, levers, or screws; and that such mechanism, if employed instead of a hammer, must lack that important function of applying force in any direction as the will and hands may direct. A simple hand-hammer is in the abstract one of the most intricate of mechanical agents—that is, its action is more difficult to analyse than that of many complex machines involving trains of mechanism; yet our familiarity with hammers causes this fact to be overlooked, and the hammer has even been denied a place among those mechanical contrivances to which there has been applied the name of "mechanical powers." ‘When anyone prefers beauty to virtue, what is this but the real and utter dishonour of the soul? For such a preference implies that the body is more honourable than the soul; and this is false, for there is nothing of earthly birth which is more honourable than the heavenly, and he who thinks otherwise of the soul has no idea how greatly he undervalues this wonderful possession.’47 Monday, 3rd hour That is the truth. We left the caravan far behind. In the gorge with its rosy-pink soil the silence was exquisite, the air had the freshness of a mountain height, and quite inexplicably amid these barren rocks, where there was not a sign of vegetation, there was a scent of honey and almonds. Life went on very much the same at the post when there was only the infantry left in possession. As there was nothing to do at any time, there was nothing the less for that. On the principle that loneliness is greatest in a crowd, Stanton was more isolated now[Pg 183] than Grant had been in the days when there had been no railroad west of Kansas. The railroad was through the southwest now, but it was a hundred miles away. It was unsafe to ride outside the reservation, there was no one for hops, the only excitement was the daily addition to the list of slaughtered settlers. Felipa spent most of her time with the Ellton baby. Miss McLane had been married to Landor's second lieutenant for a year and a half, and they were very happy. But Felipa in the knowledge of the strength of her own love, which gained new might each time that she wrestled with it and threw it back upon the solid ground of duty, found their affection decidedly insipid. Like the majority of marital attachments, it had no especial dignity. It was neither the steadfast friendship she felt for her husband, nor the absolute devotion she would have given Cairness. Si strode over to the group, snatched the bat from Harry's hand, spanked him with it, and started for the others of the group. HoME日本1级:A片 ENTER NUMBET 0018www.jhcme.net.cn
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