Shenk explains that parents are an essential role in the development of a child. He writes “…parenting does matter. And to the extent that parents can have a serious impact on the goals, strategies, and personal philosophies of their children” (135). In the same Chapter, Shenk also talks about love and affection that a parent and child share and the importance that this affection has on a child socially and emotionally later in life (139). As we learned in the ecology unit, Humans are k-selected species, but the amount of time and energy that parents spend on their offspring is much longer than most other animals. Also, many humans develop relationships with parents that often last a lifetime. One of the overarching concepts that we have discussed in class is that the main goal of animals is to survive and reproduce, no matter what the cost. Do you believe that other animals have a similar notion of “love” or is the care they provide for offspring simply just a function of a want to pass on genes? If you think there is a notion of "love", to what extent does this idea of “love” exist in other animals? Refer to ideas that we discussed in the ecology unit including altruism, inclusive fitness, and Kin selection (Chapter 51). We have also discussed the costs associated with raising offspring (Chapter 53), and the reasons that species have many mates (polygamous) or only 1 mate (monogamous) (Chapter 51).
-Sid Dash
(sdash27@gmail.com)
-Sid Dash
(sdash27@gmail.com)
Recent scientific articles have “repeatedly verified the existence of… emotional networks in our fellow animals,” predominately in K selected species(Panksepp http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=7&hid=111&sid=32e434c6-d2f4-47a5-ace3-09609ecddd0c%40sessionmgr13&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=60109333). Being able to experience a sort of emotion would open up the possibility of animals possessing “love” for their offspring, rather than merely providing care for them in order to ensure that their genes continue to be passed on. However, it would be difficult to empirically test different animals to discover which species are more likely to experience love.
ReplyDeleteK selected parents typically provide substantial parental care for their offspring, despite the energy costs. However, this does not necessarily constitute “love” for one’s offspring. Similarly, altruism alone falls short of “love,” as “parents sacrificing for their offspring” is ultimately an act rooted in the parents’ self interest in improving their “genetic representation in the population,” regardless of any emotional tie to the offspring (Campbell 1139).
But an animal’s capacity to love and the increased likelihood of K selected species to have a vested interest in the success of their offspring seem to indicate that there are certain animals that have a somewhat similar sense of “love” as humans do. In the context of evolution, it might be seen as a selective advantage for a K selected species to experience love for their offspring; K selected species already spend more time with their offspring than other species so there would not be a much greater cost in raising offspring, and developing an emotional connection might help to further ensure the success of a species’ offspring in survival and reproduction, thereby increasing the overall fitness of the parents as their genes would be more represented in their population.
However, despite the potential selective advantage of love, it is unlikely that the human idea of “love” plays as big of a role in animals, particularly animals that are polygamous, in which multiple mates, regardless of love, will help to increase an organisms’ genetic representation in its population. Even in monogamous species, significant parental care as well as kin selection and altruism can help to ensure an offspring’s success to the point where love isn’t needed as an extra incentive for parents to spend time with their offspring. Thus, although love may exist in some animal species, it is not likely to be widespread as it is with humans.
David Ribot (ribotdavid@gmail.com)
Parents play a vital role in their offspring’s lives because the parents are the ones teaching their kids the basics to life. Shenk states, “Parents are more important when it comes to education, discipline, responsibility, orderliness, charitableness, and ways of interacting with authority figures” (Shenk 135). I agree with Shenk in that there isn’t a way of measuring parental influence and collecting data, but it can be seen that the influence of a parent on a child is very influential. Kids are so influenced by their parents at a young age due to the amount of affection, love, and care the parents give them. Love is something shared between parent and child throughout their entire lives, but this is mostly only seen in humans and not in animals. Humans are considered K-selected species because K-selected species tend to be big and are organisms that produce few offspring and provide care for their offspring for longer than usual. The care humans provide for their offspring is quite difficult to compare to another animal, but there are cases where animals show “love” for their offspring.
ReplyDeleteI believe that there are some animals that merely reproduce, so that their genes can get passed on to another generation, but other animals will provide care for their offspring and really show their offspring how to survive on their own. Species that produce a lot of offspring, have a very low survival rate at birth, and have very minimal parental care are R-selected species (Campbell 1185). Examples of R-selected species would be fish, mice, and insects. R-selected species’ populations have a very high number of species, but the average lifespan is very small. humans, buffalos, and elephants are considered K-selected species due to the amount of offspring they produce and the extensive postnatal care necessary for the offspring. This type of care is “love” because all parents want their kids to succeed or all animal parents want their offspring to be able to survive and reproduce on their own without their help. For K-selected species, the time period spent on maturing offspring is extensive and requires a lot of ATP from the parents, which shows that “love” and “affection” is being shown by the parent. So, I believe that there is a notion of “love” in K-selected species but not to the extent of a human.
For birds, there are some species that involve a lot of parental care and others that involve minimal parental care. Ornithologists break young birds into six categories. Superprecocials are young birds that are completely independent at hatching and require no parental care. An example would be a megapodes. Precocial birds are young that leave the nest and follow parent but are able to feed themselves. An example is young waterfowl. Subprecocial birds are young that leave nest and follow parents after hatching and are not able to feed themselves, so the parents feed them. An example is a loon. Semiprecocial birds are young that hatch and are a little mobile but stay in nest and need parents to bring food to them. An example is seagulls. Semialtricial birds are young that are not mobile and require the parents to feed and brood them. An example is a hawk. Altricial birds are young that are helpless at birth and are naked and are blind. An example would be a hummingbird. All these different classes have different parental cares even though they are the same species. This is due to evolution. Evolution is one of the six themes of biology and it is defined as “the idea that living species are descendants of ancestral species that were different from the present-day ones” (Campbell G-14). because the primitive mode was precocial development, so over time these different birds have adapted to their environments and their bodies have evolved over the years to allow the birds to survive and reproduce.
http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/parentalcare.html This URL was used for all the information about the birds and the different groups.
Krish Desai (kjdesai5@mac.com)
Scientific articles have stated that animals have developed emotions as “ adaptations in numerous species. They serve as a social glue to bond animals with one another and also catalyze and regulate a wide variety of social encounters among friends and foes.” Animals experience a range of emotions to aid them in their quest to survive and reproduce.
ReplyDeleteK-selected species take extensive care of their children, unlike R-selected species, but don’t exhibit ‘love’ and ‘affection’ like humans. K-selected species, like elephants, are primarily concerned with raising their young safely until they can survive and reproduce on their own. They develop an strong emotional connection, although not love, with their offspring.
Animals are primarily interested in maximizing their offspring’s chances of survival and reproduction. It may seem that the animal is showing ‘love’, but in reality, it is exhibiting altruistic behavior. Altruistic behavior is most “apparent in parents sacrificing for their offspring” (Campbell 1139). Animals are not protecting their young out of care and ‘love’ like humans; they protect them to increase chances of their genes being passed through generations.
Also, especially in birds, ‘love’ is non-existent. Many birds, among other animals, engage in polygamy to increase the chances of its genes being passed down through the generations. If ‘love’ was present, most animals would remain with one mate; but it isn’t a selective advantage. It is in the animal’s best interests to have multiple mates to pass its genes through (Campbell 1134).
In humans, “parenting can have a serious impact on goals, strategies, and personal philosophies of their children” (135). Humans, being the most advanced species, can develop such feelings between themselves, but animals cannot afford to do so.
http://www.thebark.com/content/do-animals-have-emotions
Rohan Dasika (rohandasika@gmail.com)