Shark Words

Something strange in society that is never mentioned is how the reality we face as adults does not correspond in important ways to the one we learned about growing up. Since this discrepancy remains unacknowledged, each of us discovers and must investigate its length and breadth alone.   The irrational nature of the bias held against sharks in Western society became evident to me during discussions on the Internet discussion list, Shark-L from 2002 to 2008. Being familiar with the behaviour of several species of wild sharks, I found that the members seemed to be talking about a different animal. While a large proportion of those posting on the list were apparently in thrall to the great white shark ( Carcharodon carcharias ) , a variety of shark scientists and shark fishermen from many countries were also members; membership at that time was between 450 to 500 people. The subject of shark attacks commonly generated avid discussion, and during the year that Discovery Channel presen...

 What do they have in common?     When you watch the behaviour of many different wild animal species over long periods of time, you notice parallels which might not otherwise be seen. Having observed both species in the wild for many years in many different situations, I found a remarkable similarity between the behaviour of a flock of crows and a fleet of three dozen sharks. Though these animals are far apart on the evolutionary tree, it appears that their behaviour was similar because it had a common cause: both sharks and crows were angry.     The crows had systematically bullied the five off-spring of the local raven couple while they were maturing, and then the raven youngsters left the area late in the summer. But one of them returned in early winter, and when she did, the crows congregated around her in the trees, and when she alighted on the ground, they descended, prevented her from taki...