Jack Kochansky
AP Biology EF Even
Mr. Ippolito
24 September 2017
Castro, Joseph. “Do Animals Murder Each Other?” LiveScience, Purch, 16 Sept. 2017, www.livescience.com/60431-do-animals-murder-each-other.html.
“Do Animals Murder Each Other?”
by Joseph Castro
With all of the violence that is happening and hatred that exists among humans in the world today, it is interesting to consider whether or not similar things happen with animals. As it turns out, several species of animals do murder each other, and there are some that people would not generally expect. As Mr. Castro explains in his article, animals kill not only other animals for food but will at times kill animals of their own species. Sometimes, it is accidental, through sexual or territorial disputes. Castro points out, for instance, that “. . . male Western toads may crowd on a female in the water, inevitably drowning her.” However, other disputes, such as those over territory, can lead some animals, like betta fish, to deliberately kill one of its own kind to secure its own area. Similar territorial conflicts can be seen in animals like cats and dogs, although these domesticated animals tend to stop short of killing each other. Even more strangely, some animals like the black widow spider kill their mates. The female spiders murder their male counterparts while mating as a part of the typical process of reproducing. Other animals that one would not expect, like horses, squirrels, and chinchillas also murder each other, research showed. A study of 4 million animal deaths in 1024 species carried out by researchers in Spain found that humans do not even rank in the top 30 for the most murderous species of animals. Monkeys, wolves, and lions, which are all viewed as fairly violent creatures towards one another, did rank in the top 30, however. The research also showed that most animal murders are infanticide committed by the dominant adults of a group to stop potential threats from children of subordinates in the group. Surprisingly, though, meerkats were found to be the animal that murders its own species most often. About 20 percent of meerkats are killed by other meerkats. So as bad as humans can seem, meerkats are a whole lot worse.
This article is relevant to the world of today because it can often feel like humans are terrible creatures of hate and violence, and unfortunately, we sometimes are. But looking at other animals, we can see that humans are not entirely different from other animals in the realm of murder. Although “when it comes to killing adults, ‘humans really are exceptional,’” we are certainly not alone in murder. Among other things, competition can drive people do commit terrible acts, just as it drives animals to do so. By studying patterns of behavior in animals, we can get some sense for what humans do in situations of conflict. It is also informative to contrast the murderous behaviors of different types of animals -- spiders kill each other for different reasons than toads or meerkats, for example. Studying this can help us to learn more about the instincts and nature of these animals and ourselves.
One of the strongest parts of this article was its brevity, as a brief article is key in today’s world for keeping the attention of readers long enough to communicate an idea. The article provides many specific examples of animals that do and do not kill each other, which helps to offer knowledge on a wide range of species. Because all animals are so different, the inclusion of many species in the article helps us to learn about more than just a few particular groups -- we cannot really extrapolate to other types of animals. However, in part because the article is so short, it has a few shortcomings. For example, it mentions that the study of animal deaths was carried out by Spanish researchers on 4 million animal deaths, but it does not establish the credibility of such research. The points that Castro makes would have been stronger if he had cited the specific research completed. Castro also says that humans are exceptional as animals that murder adults of our own species, but he does not really elaborate on how we are exceptional. It would have been useful for him to go into greater detail on the specific ways in which humans are different from other animals on this front. Overall, “Do Animals Murder Each Other?” was an interesting article that has relevance to our world and humans today, but there were a few improvements that Castro could have made.
Robby Schetlick
ReplyDeleteCitation: Castro, Joseph. “Do Animals Murder Each Other?” LiveScience, Purch, 16 Sept. 2017, www.livescience.com/60431-do-animals-murder-each-other.html.
Jack Kochansky’s current event article is called “Do Animals Murder Each Other?” by Joseph Castro. His report is is an insightful analysis with a goal of trying to impact the reader’s world view. The first way he does this well is using simple statistical evidence from the article. He peppers in little by little small examples that add up to a greater understanding and make the report much more digestible. For example, the spain study was a great sample, showing that humans are not even ranked in the top 30 for murderous animals. Small ideas like this add up to make the greater point. The second way Jack guides the reader is through a strong and logical essay structure. His introduction starts out by pulling the reader in with a connection to “...violence that is happening and hatred that exists among humans in the world today,” and then continues into his statistics and examples. Once the idea is developed and the point is made, he circles back to the real world example with a new perspective for the readers in closing. A third way Jack improves the quality of his article is through is conversational tone. The simple language and sentence structure helps the reader relate to the article in a way that would otherwise be impossible, such as with a more scientific tone. The ideas are more suggestive than forceful, but this makes the reader more likely to pick them up as if they are reading a letter from a friend. For instance, he says “So as bad as humans can seem, meerkats are a whole lot worse,” which is a lot more conversational than something like: “Meerkats have a higher probability of committing murder and are therefore worse than humans.” The former is simpler, which is in the proper essence for a report that should be simplifying the article.
The report has a good balance between style and formality — and is well written — but could benefit from some minor improvements. The non adherence to grammar rules does support his style, but can also result in awkward sentences. Jack says, “This article is relevant to the world of today because it can often feel like humans are terrible creatures of hate and violence, and unfortunately, we sometimes are.” The ending of it just feels out of place with the unnecessary pause and it could be said much simpler to improve understanding. The second thing Jack can do to improve his writing is get rid of redundancy in his writing. For example he says, “One of the strongest parts of this article was its brevity, as a brief article is key in today’s world for keeping the attention of readers.” While this use of the brief stem is technically incorrect, I think the report would benefit from a greater vocabulary.
I choose this report because it was something I was genuinely interested and didn’t know about. I found it fascinating that animals actually do commit murders outside of the typical reasons we think of such as territory or nutritional reactions. Even more surprising to me was the fact that humans rank so low on the list of most murderous, given how much war and violence is present in the world today. I think this report widens my perspective and worldview a a bit, making the violence between humans seem a little more natural than it did to me before. We really are more similar to animals that we think.
Castro, Joseph. “Do Animals Murder Each Other?” LiveScience, Purch, 16 Sept. 2017, www.livescience.com/60431-do-animals-murder-each-other.html. “Do Animals Murder Each Other?”
ReplyDeleteJack Kochansky did a great job on reviewing his article “Do Animals Murder Each Other?” by Joseph Castro. I particularly enjoyed how Jack took the time to incorporate the discussion of how this article is relevant to hate and violence amongst humans and then was able to connect it and list example of other animals or species that are murderers of their own kind as well. Although Jack does mention the hatred and violence amongst humans he is able to connect it to the extincts of other animals to kill and gives statistical percentages of meerkat to meerkat killing therefore providing the reader with the understanding of an individual’s need to survive and the measures they will reach to achieve that. Additionally I enjoyed that Jack provided the different reasoning amongst different animals to kill an animal of their own species. Jack states that most often animals of the same species kill another member accidentally through sexual or territorial disputes. Jack state's specific animals that are surprising to the reader such as frogs and black widow spiders who kill their mates. This really catches the reader's attention and helps with the understanding of the mindset of the animal during that time. Lastly I really enjoyed Jack’s incorporation of his opinion on how he believes the the article is relevant to the world today and his conclusion of how humans are different yet similar to other animals. Jack states that by studying patterns of animal behavior could help sense what humans do in situations of conflict.
However, I believe that Jack did have two areas in his review in which he could improve upon.Primarily, I would recommend that Jack go into further detail on the part of the article that mentions animals that do not partake in killing their own species. I believe that for the reader to fully understand and have a complete summary of Castro’s article there would have to be the key information of the contrast between animals that do and animals that don’t kill within their own species. Therefore I believe that in order to correct this, Jack would have to include those nonkilling animals and dedicate a paragraph to explaining why he believes animals react in different ways. Additionally, I would encourage Jack to incorporate more quotes in order to really back up his evidence and to provide the reader with a clear understanding of the point of the original article.
Overall, Jack did a great job in creating a well written review that illustrates the nature in which different animals fall under the same category of ‘murderers’. I personally chose to read this article because of my interest in learning how different animals react and how they are either similar or different to humans. Through reading this article I believe that my knowledge and perception changed in the way that I realized that humans are animals and the they act in ways that can be connected to that of other species.
Susie Goodell
ReplyDeleteMr. Ippolito
AP Biology
10/3/17
Castro, Joseph. “Do Animals Murder Each Other?” LiveScience, Purch, 16 Sept. 2017, www.livescience.com/60431-do-animals-murder-each-other.html.
Current Event 3:
For this current event, I read my classmate Jack’s review of the article, “Do Animals Murder Each Other?” by Joseph Castro from LiveScience. This article discusses how many animal species purposefully and accidentally kill other animals, sometimes even their own species, for reasons other than food. Jack did a great job reviewing this article. He forms a strong argument discussing animals and the murders of other animals that includes many facts that function to help assert his statements and back up his claims. He also creates a wonderful argument about why this topic is relevant to us today. He explains how humans are not that different from other animals and the murders of humans are not that vicious when compared with those of other animals. Jack also provides a great analysis of the article, with a detailed lists of its weaknesses and strengths. He clearly supports his points with evidence from the text.
Despite all of the wonderful aspects of Jack’s review, there are a few areas in which it could improve. First of all, Jack includes a quote towards the beginning of his review that is useful for understanding how some species kill their own, but he does not clearly state the motivations for the kill. The reader can assume that it was an accidental sexual or territorial dispute, as he stated those two kinds of disputes just before the quote, but it is unclear which one he is discussing. After reading that section over a few times, I have a better understanding of his meaning, but it is confusing for most readers during the first readthrough. Another aspect that Jack could improve is the summary of his article. In the summary paragraph, he writes about the topic but doesn’t discuss what the author actually states in his article. This would be more helpful for his review to
I chose to read this review because the title of the article stood out to me as I was scrolling through the reviews. It is so interesting to think about how we view violence and murder towards other humans as vicious and wrong, but if we look at other animal species, this brutality occurs as well. This will change my outlook on this violence, as well as the view of other people. I will research this topic more because this comparison is very interesting to me.
Caroline McGrath
ReplyDelete11/14/19
Current Event 8
https://bronxvilleapbiology.blogspot.com/2017/09/do-animals-murder-each-other.html
Castro, Joseph. “Do Animals Murder Each Other?” LiveScience, Purch, 16 Sept. 2017, www.livescience.com/60431-do-animals-murder-each-other.html.
The author’s review of “Do Animals Murder Each Other?” by Joseph Castro is an interesting topic. The first he does something well is using simple statistical evidence from the article. He uses small examples that add up to a greater understanding and make the report much easier to understand. For example, the Spainish study was a great example of showing that humans are not even ranked in the top 30 for murderous animals. I also enjoyed how the author took the time to incorporate the discussion of how this article is relevant to hate and violence amongst humans and then was able to connect it and list examples of other animals or species that are murderers of their own kind as well. Finally, I thought the author makes a strong argument of discussing animals and the murders of other animals that includes many facts support his statements and back up his claims.
Although the review was very well written, I found the quote towards the beginning of his review that was put there as use for understanding how some species kill their own, however, he does not clearly state the motivations for the kill, which briefly confused the reader. Secondly, I would have liked if the author went into further detail about the part of the article that mentions animals that do not partake in killing their own species. I believe that for the reader to fully understand the article there needs to be a contrast between animals that do and animals that don’t kill within their own species.
Overall this article was very interesting and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it because I think it relates to how violent our society has become. I chose to read it because the title stood out to me and was very intriguing. I think this article really widened my perspective of the human species because it shows just how similar we are to animals.