Friday, May 02, 2008

Some Guys Just Have a Thing for Tuxedos

BBC reports that a rambunctious, lonely and possibly confused young seal in the Antarctic redently spent 45 minutes attempting, unsuccessfully, to mate with a King Penguin. Apparently this type of interspecies behavior is unusual (we're not talking about people). What was interesting and evidence of how cultural assumptions play into scientific research is that the Brit researchers referred to this activity as "sexual harassment" which on the plain meaning of the words, I guess it was. However the use of word with widespread legal and negative connotation throws a whole different spin on the article. If the seal had instead killed and eaten the unfortunate bird, it would have been called "dinner" and treated as normal behavior- not as a denial of essential rights of penguinhood.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

web page hit counter