[lbo-talk] Stray dogs in Moscow and the biology of domestication

Shane Mage shmage at pipeline.com
Fri Jan 22 18:06:11 PST 2010


On Jan 20, 2010, at 1:53 PM, Chris Doss wrote:
> And here are a few taking the metro:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpP-Kv16ylg (the announcement says
> that it's the last stop on the line. Note what the dog does)
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DahHLO1BnE&feature=related
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6ZnaCeqfvA&feature=related
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHewvUDSK5A&feature=related
>
> These little super woofers have greatly increased my opinion of
> animal intelligence. Waiting for the walk sign to change to cross
> the street is impressive enough; taking the metro in one direction
> and knowing what stop to get out at even more so. Figuring out that
> if you cross the metro hall and get into the opposing car from that
> you were in, you will go in the opposite direction from which you
> came -- that is unbelievable.

This reminds me of an experience I had a few years ago. I was sitting relaxed on a bench between the (NYC) Central Park pond and the Park Drive. A duck and her drake waddled up from the pond to the edge of the drive. There they waited motionless while the cars drove by. As soon as the traffic stopped they waddled across the drive and into the bushes where their nest (presumably) was. I couldn't keep myself from singing aloud the verses of W.S. Gilbert:

a pair o' ducks, a pair o' ducks a most ingenious pair o' ducks ha ha ha ha ho ho ho ho a pair o' ducks

Shane Mage


> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures."
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos



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