weresehlat:grouch314:hot4triangle:sssn-neptune-vasilias:points-at-my-hand:Ever wonder how big wolves

weresehlat:grouch314:hot4triangle:sssn-neptune-vasilias:points-at-my-hand:Ever wonder how big wolves are and why running from them is a really bad idea?This had me so fucked up the first time I worked at the zoo. Because honestly they just look like big German-Huskies when they’re not wild. They look like big puppies. And then… they get close to you… And it’s suddenly kinda fucking terrifying. Like “oh this is the animal that used to scare people shitless.” “This is the animal that used to run through nightmares and poems so much.” And you suddenly fucking get it. As cool as these animals are far away, as important as the animals are in their natural environment, as much as we need them to survive… they’re still pretty fucking terrifying can you believe these things became our friendsAnd then people domesticated them and now sleep with them in their beds.We’re not a species meant to lastI’d actually argue the opposite!We took these super efficient killing machines and befriended them and now they love and protect us as much as we (ideally) love and protect themCats basically domesticated themselves so that they could share in our food, medical care, and affectionIn urban spaces, prey species know that there’s a higher likelihood that humans will help you if you’re stuck or injured than them killing or maiming youIt’s just, over time we see trends of our species overcoming environmental pressures that would and do lead to extinction in other species by sharing and forming close bonds with other sentient organisms and just kinda… aggressively community-bonding our way out of it?For a long time there’s been this pervading idea that we, as a species, are just innately violent and terrible and “sinful” and it’s been that violence that let us survive (see the hunting hypothesis of human evolution). But that’s not what we seeWe are, at our core, a species that looks into the face of something other, and thinks “I wonder if they want to be friends?” so long as the individual isn’t actively trying to kill us. Sure, tons of people do awful things every day, but for every terrible act or thought on this Earth, there are a dozen acts of kindness that people do casually for complete strangersSo yeah. We looked at these massive fluffy monsters with the sharp claws and crushing jaws rooting in our garbage just beyond the campfire and thought, the way no other species before or after us has done to the same extent; “They look friend-shaped!”And they were. And that is how we got to be the dominant species on this planet -- source link

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