Does ugly equate to weak?

[chef]

What do you think theses babies are without looking at the properties?

....just about all babies of any animals are cute! I always wondered since there are ugly human babies, do other species see animals as ugly/inferior and sense that in survival, feeling the need to kill it.



Vicki

[Bill Glasheen]

Interesting theory. There's much human research on the level of "cuteness" of infants and toddlers vs. the level of care that they receive.

How a newborn looks depends a lot upon the number of weeks past conception that they are born. That varies from species to species.

I won't give away any more than that.

- Bill

[Glenn]

That's easy, they are mammals!

Beyond that it is difficult to say, although the feet remind me of bears' paws.

[Bill Glasheen]

That's easy, they are mammals!

Beyond that it is difficult to say, although the feet remind me of bears' paws.

You're missing an important detail, but otherwise very close.

- Bill

[chef]

Like the mama's coloring?

Vicki

[Bill Glasheen]

- Bill

[Glenn]

Assuming y'all are referring to what they are laying on, looks like the fur of one of my cats. If I'm close and it is a black and white bear, then it would be either the Panda or the variant of the Black Bear that has a white patch on its chest...they are in western Canada I believe.

[tigereye]

I have never seen babypandas .
They look more like dinosaurs.

[chef]

Right you are, Eva. They are baby Pandas. See caption below:

A newborn giant panda is about as big as a stick of butter and lacks the familiar black-and-white markings for its first month or so of life. Successful births in captivity are extremely rare—and extremely prized by conservationists, given the species's dwindling numbers. About 1,600 giant pandas remain in the wild, plus about 160 living in zoos and breeding centers, according to the National Zoo.

Vicki

[chef]

For an animal to look odd or different in its habitat spells danger or death, especially one that relies on it's natural camouflage abilities.

In the article, "A world without color: life is full of hidden dangers for animals lacking hue", an animal born with no pigment (Albinism), live in danger, in this case - a albino zebra. due to skin sensitivity to sun and inability to mix and hide in it's natural environment. See following ink:

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... i_n9478507

Few albinos born in the wild survive long enough to breed. Everyday tasks carry hidden dangers for the color-free. Hungry predators (animals that hunt and kill other animals for food) easily spot the pale creatures in their natural habitats and gobble them up. The animals can also fall victim to sun-related diseases.

.

Interesting fact: Albinism in plants is lethal. That's because albino plants are missing the pigment called chlorophyll. This chemical helps plants use the sun's energy to grow. Albino plants seldom survive more than a few days.

Interesting stuff.

Regards,
Vicki

[chef]

Some situations are due to the environment and not the animal. Through time an animal either adapts physically, develops survival strategies, or eventually dies out.

See following link: http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~taflinge/biology.html

Of course, this means the life has to change as well, to match the new conditions. If it doesn't, it dies. An example is a moth in England. It was originally a mottled white, which allowed it to blend into the light bark of the trees in its area. However, in the 19th century factories in this area began to belch out soot from their chimneys that settled on the trees, changing the tree bark from mottled white to mottled black. The moth could no longer blend in and thus was easy prey to birds. However, some of the moths were darker and thus less noticeable. After a few generations of these darker moths surviving and passing on their genes, the standard color changed to mottled black, and the moth, now blending into the dark bark, survive.

Note that such changes are not conscious decisions made by the organism: the moth did not say to itself, "The bark is getting dark--I'd better change color, too." It is simply that there are variations between individuals in any species (an advantage of sexual reproduction and its combining of genes). Some of those variations are detrimental: the dark moth variations were easy prey when the tree bark was light. However, as the conditions in a niche change, those same variations can become advantageous, enhancing rather than weakening chances for survival.

Such changes in an organism's physical characteristics are, of course, accidental. If no variations exist in a species that contribute to survival when conditions change, or if conditions change too quickly for advantageous variations to be passed on to enough descendants,(1) the species can die out.

Interesting article.
Vicki

[Glenn]

Albinism is not an aspect of "ugly" though, it is a genetic defect that has a significant survival consequence. The concepts of "beautiful" and "ugly" as humans perceive them likely do not exist in other animals. Believing other animals perceive things in the same way humans do is called anthropomorphism, and is considered a fallacy in the biological sciences.

Way back when I was a grad student in ecology I saw reports of studies indicating that in some species a parent does seem to respond differently to their various offspring, up to selective abandonment, likely for perceived survivability reasons. Ecologically there is a cost to raising offspring and animal parents tend not to take on that cost for offspring that have little chance of surviving to reproduce themselves. What exactly the parent is perceiving and what cues they see regarding offspring survivability is harder to determine, but ecologists generally try to do so without assigning anthropomorphic traits.

[TSDguy]

The higher up the evolutionary ladder you go, the less inappropriate it is to assign human traits to animals and their behaviors. Obviously animals as "stupid" as otters, dogs, pigs etc can be happy, playful, even jealous. For a long time scientists tried to tell pet owners that dogs and cats can't "smile", and everyone who has ever owned a pet knew that was untrue. Now they admit, yes, dogs and cats do in fact smile.

Then you move on to animals that are as smart or smarter than below average humans: chimps, orangatangs, dolphins. Their behaviors are far more complex than just acting on instinct. They definitely have personalities, and sometimes do things just because they feel like it.

For decades I've read the theory that baby mammals are cute because it enourages the parents to take care of them. I'm not sure it's something that can ever be proved.

But think about what makes a baby human cute. It won't be deformed, have scaling, flaking skin, it won't be overly fat or skinny, it will smile... these are all signs of being healthy. Sick kittens are not cute, and mother cats eat those kittens.