This is part four of a series in which you get to experience life in the body of animal for. Links to previous parts: One. Two. Three
In which the twitch of a zebra’s nostril saves the life of an ancestor, worlds open at many scales and potent potions are offered to taste.
Through the previous articles I touched on how we have windows onto the existence of different species through the shared genes, biochemistry, nervous systems and bio-mechanics.
Now let’s look at why so many of us may have a desire to look through these windows, or turn them into doors and step through. It can be a matter of life and death.
As individuals we are cued into the reactions and body language of other people. If I am in an unfamiliar neighbourhood I can get valuable information about a stranger by the way he or she is treated by locals. In some situations a failure to notice this kind of information can be dangerous, even fatal.
Let’s get out of the city and visit the Serengeti. If you have never been, you will most likely have some memory of a documentary in which a sea of tree studded grassland is washed by waves of grazing or migrating beasts.
Picture a herd of zebra. They are cued to each other. One zebra spots a stalking lion and the knowledge ripples through the…
