Chapter One
The Emperors Embrace
Could it be that there is a politics of knowledge when it comes to animal behavior?
We hear about infanticidal lions but rarely of heroic penguin fathers. Benito
Mussolini, the Italian fascist dictator, once said: "It is better to live one day as
a lion than a hundred years as a sheep." This remarkable statement manages to combine
macho bravura with sheer ignorance (the male lion spends most of the day asleep). In
any event, why should the life of a sheep be seen as any less inherently valuable
than the life of a lion? To whom is the life of a vegetarian species less interesting
than the life of a carnivore? Sheep would no doubt see it otherwise. So too would
people who actually study wild sheep. In bighorn sheep, the leader of the herd is
simply the oldest ewe, not the most dominant but the one with the most offspring, and
even the biggest ram will follow her lead when in the flock. Perhaps this female
leadership was another reason for Mussolini to scorn sheep. Dictators might mock
penguins, too, but penguins have a great deal to teach us when it comes to
parenthood.
Until ... read full excerpt from: The Emperor's Embrace: Reflections on Animal Families and Fatherhood ebook
