Better than Humans

The regional, national, and international news stories which tend to dominate the pages of print media these days are not the most uplifting.  Yesterday, for example, The Sunday Star-Ledger ran another above-the-fold, front-page story on sex abuse. 

A Bottlenose Dolphin
(Courtesy of Wikipedia.com)

It is the latest in a series on this topic by staff writer Mark Muller, featuring a continuing investigative report by that newspaper on the Archdiocese of Newark and, in particular, the Rev. Michael Fugee.

Since the early 2000’s, I’ve done my own extensive, ongoing research on the issue of sexual abuse, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church.  I understand the nature and consequences of that problem very well, probably far more than most.  I’ve also come to discover how pervasive and pernicious it is throughout at least several other major professions.

However, it is not the sort of thing that I care to read about on a Sunday morning, as Pris and I settle down peacefully at the kitchen table with breakfast and a cup of coffee, preparing to read the Star-Ledger and the Courier News. 

Accordingly, I decided to bring your attention to several other, uplifting stories from the columns of the Star-Ledger instead:

How often have you considered that the intelligence and instincts possessed by some of nature’s creatures may be far superior to those of our own?  To an egotist or, I suppose, to a person who has not thought much about it, that question may seem absurd.

Give it a second look, though. 

Non-human creatures don’t use their naturally endowed gifts in any manner except to live the life that they were designed to live.  It’s sort of nature’s way of implementing the Army slogan, “Be all that you can be,” except that they do it naturally and effortlessly.

CONSIDER THE DOLPHIN:  Some of nature’s creatures are endowed with extraordinary sensory capabilities which human technology is only beginning to fathom. Take, for instance, the bottlenose dolphin.  In the reprint of an L.A. Times story, the Star-Ledger reported that “Dolphins naturally possess the most sophisticated sonar known to man.” 

Unable to duplicate those skills for some of its underwater applications, the U.S. Navy is doing the next best thing.  It is training these marine mammals, as well as sea lions, “for mine detection, mine clearing and swimmer protection.”  In 2003, dolphins were used in Iraq “to patrol for enemy divers and mines.”  This story goes on to explain that dolphins are presently being used to protect several U.S. submarine bases.

CONSIDER THE LEATHERBACK TURTLE:  This giant sea creature of reptilian origin traces its evolutionary development to over 100 million years ago.  Now an endangered species, it comes ashore to lay its eggs under the moonlight in the sand of the same warm tropical islands, year after year, following a long journey from the frigid waters of the North Atlantic Ocean. 

A serious threat to its survival comes from callous humans who, anticipating the turtles’ predictable migratory pattern, wait in the dark of night to dig up the eggs and to kill the leatherback for its meat.  However, officials and villagers on the island of Trinidad have come to this turtle’s rescue by protecting the beach nesting area from poaching by humans. 

These far-sighted rescuers also prevent predatory birds from swooping down on the tiny hatchlings as they hustle out of their nests to the relative safety of the ocean.

The uncanny navigational ability of female leatherback turtles to cross hundreds of miles across vast ocean depths preceded that of human science’s development of GPS systems by tens of millions of years.

Any bets on which of the three species will survive the longest?