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Humankind’s fierce nature revealed in narrow-minded views of animal kingdom
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IT was reported recently that Shanghai Customs officers seized 3 tons of endangered pangolin scales in one find. This was described as “the largest smuggling case of pangolin scales,” though this discovery might be just “a tip of an iceberg.”
Pangolin meat is considered a delicacy and the scales are often used in traditional medicines.
It is estimated that between 5,000 to 7,500 pangolins were killed to produce the scales found in the shipment coming from Africa.
This blatant case set me thinking about how our view of other species used to be heavily tinged by utilitarianism.
When we speak of tigers, we are often put in mind of the legendary hero Wu Song, who single-handedly killed a tiger. His courage, prowess and feats of strength have since been immortalized in “The Water Margins” (also known as “Outlaws of the Marshes”), one of the four classic Chinese novels.
I looked in a Chinese dictionary on my desk and found hu (“tiger”) defined as, among others, “preying on birds and beasts at night, occasionally harming human beings, whose fur can be made into blankets and chair cushions, while its bones, blood and internal organs can be used in medicine.”
This entry is from 1979; at that time the accumulated press run of this dictionary amounted to 1.8 million.
When we hear about tian’er (swan), we immediately think of the Chinese idiom “a toad lusting after a swan’s flesh,” which can mean aspiring after something one is not worthy of.
I do not know if any toad lusts after a swan’s flesh, but clearly quite a few of our compatriots entertain such desires.
It was reported in October that 233 swans were found dead around a lake in Xilinguolemeng, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, 300 kms from Beijing. In November, police managed to track down and apprehend seven persons suspected of having killed the swans.
Our ancient men of letters used to regard zhuhe fenqin (“cook a crane for food and burn a lute for fuel”) as an extreme offence against good taste.
But is there anything we would consider too sacred to put on our table today?
I, for one, was brought up on the notion of dividing animals into the useful and not useful.
As a preschooler one of my most memorable experiences was to go nesting by climbing into the eaves.
We engaged in this sport in spite of the warnings that there might be serpents lurking in some of the nests.
When we reached the eggs, we would dash them onto the ground to spite the adult sparrows incessantly flying about, chirping desperately and menacingly.
When I got older, my education taught me that species can be divided into the “good” and the “bad.”
For a long time sparrows were considered “bad,” for they would peck at the grains grown in the field. They were even included as one of the “four pests” and national campaigns have been launched to wipe them out.
Examples of coexistence
In the mind of many, wildlife can still be distinguished by edible and unedible, with some of our compatriots working overtime to make more and more species palatable — and endangered.
In our distorted view of the natural world, other species exist solely for the purpose of administering to our needs or maximizing our pleasures.
Given the prevalence of this attitude, it is understandable that other species incapable of serving us learn to keep a respectable distance from us.
In People’s Square there is a swarm of pigeons that are not scared by approaching pedestrians. To be honest, I still cannot make out what kinds of inducements have overcome their fears.
Recently an Indian colleague shared with me a video showing a leopard approaching a brood of sleeping pigs, and then running away with a piglet in its mouth. The pigs started a wild chase, but had to give up after the leopard jumped onto a high wall with its trophy.
This breathtaking scene, captured with an infrared camera, was shot by the BBC in Mumbai, with some local inhabitants clearly visible walking in the background.
As a matter of fact, the colleague recognized the scene to have taken place right behind his flat in Mumbai.
In October this year, the 42-year-old Mumbai Based Photographer Nayan Khanolkar was awarded the BBC Urban Wildlife prize for his picture “The Alley Cat,” which showed a silent leopard sitting under the yellow-bulb light between two mud-splattered homes.
It is not as if leopard is seen as sacred in India. Cows are though. And even slithering snakes for some groups, my colleague explained.
We should go beyond narrow utilitarianism in our attitudes towards other species, for how we view other species is vital to our salvation, and survival.
In this we can be inspired or enlightened by some of our neighbors, or our ancestors who used to know better how to coexist with other species.
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