NEWS112
4
find out things like where frogs are to be
found,where thereare fishes,and theplaces
where lizards live.You need to acquire this
knowledgeas a child inorder tobeable to
develop a feeling for environmental and
species conservation as an adult. And yes,
there must be a few poor animals that
believe this instills in childrenanawareness
of the fragility of life and of the huge
responsibility that goes with the
maintenanceof living things incaptivity.
No false romanticism!
Nowadays even normally reasonable
peopleoftennurture theabsurd idea that a
wildanimal feelshappy inthewild.That is,of
course, utter nonsense: no animal feels
happyorsad in thewild,ithasabsolutelyno
concept of such things! An animal either
survives in itsnaturalenvironmentor itdies.
Itdoesn'thaveanychoice inthematter.And
precisely the same applies to a fish,
amphibian, or reptile in the aquarium or
terrarium. If the conditions aren't right then
the animal will die in short order. But if the
conditions are right then from the animal's
subjective viewpoint it is living in an ideal
environment. Animals have no concept of
freedomand liberty,atanyratenotthesmall
animalsthataresometimeskeptbyhumans
in theaquariumor terrarium.
In the wild animals are exposed to a
multitude of life-threatening dangers. And
inthewildsmallanimalsexperiencethe fear
of death several times every day.Well over
90% of all creatures born in the wild die
before attaining sexual maturity. And the
types of death that they experience are so
ghastly fromahumanviewpoint thatunder
animal protection laws Mother Nature
should be locked up for all time with
immediateeffect.
Man judges everything by his own
standards!
Just as incorrect as the requirement for a
completely natural environment for wild
animals incaptivity is the justificationof the
keeping of wild animals by the specious
argument that they do a lot better in
captivity than in freedom. Both views are
nonsense.
It is totally impossible to keep animals
successfully in a completely natural
environment, as the owners of the animals
wouldnever beable to squander life in the
same way as Mother Nature does. And it
wouldbeethicallyquestionable tostandby
andwatchcaptiveanimalsundergowhat is
sometimes agruesome fight for survival, at
least fromahumanviewpoint.
But the reason for maintaining and
breedingwildcreatures incaptivity isnot to
imitate Nature! Thewhole purpose of wild
creatures in captivity is togain knowledge!
What typeofknowledgevaries fromperson
to person, as everyone has their own
motivation. The initial motivation is
undoubtedly that the animal inquestion is
beautiful or attractive in some other way
and provokes the desire to have this
attractivecreaturenearby inorder toalways
beable toenjoy it.Probably themajorityof
aquarists and terrarium keepers remain
permanently at this stage and never take
theupwardstepofgainingknowledge.And
there is nothing at all wrong with that, as
even this very basic form of keeping wild
creatures requiresacertainamountofbasic
knowledge,
which
awakens
an
understanding of how the species lives in
TheHimalayanBalsam -
Impatiensglandulifera
-was imported from India in1839andplanted inmany
places as anornamental plant and food supply for bees. It is agorgeousbut highly invasive species.
The Small-Flowered Balsam (
Impatiens
parviflora
) escaped into thewild frombotanic
gardens in 1835. It isn't, however, an invasive
species as it isn't in competition with native
plants.
