OCTOBER 2017
Dear Readers,
Octopuses have nine brains, are creative and ‘see’ through their skin; elephants remember food and water sources within a radius of 600 km and can recognize their own image in a mirror; chimpanzees are capable of anticipation and empathy, use tools, treat themselves with appropriate medicinal plants, communicate through vocalizations and even use suffixes; crows devise strategies; ants farm and select fungi and keep ‘herds’ of aphids. The list goes on ...
But animals, ‘the most other among others’, as Claude Lévi-Strauss famously put it, are at best regarded merely as the ‘tenants’ of biodiversity. And when a species like the bee, so ruthlessly exploited by humankind, is endangered, what do we do but invent a RoboBee that may well be impervious to pesticides ... but not to its natural environment, for there is little chance of ‘Robot Nature’ being invented any time soon.
And when the last member of a critically endangered species finally dies, there is no funeral oration. And yet what perishes is a living treasure. A genetic heritage like no other disappears. Let us never forget that all the components of the chain of life – a chain in which the human race is but one link – are connected and interlinked. The ‘living heritage’ that is being lost on Planet Earth will ultimately turn humanity into an endangered species.
As you will see from this newsletter, the Foundation is ‘doing its bit’, helped by donors. You, too, can make a difference by taking action to support endangered species.
Enjoy our Newsletter!
