Animals gone wild

Now, this is unexpected. I was reading GQ magazine, a magazine noted for being a men's style manual more than being a profound publication. There's nothing wrong with that, but imagine my surprise when I opened up the issue and saw a bizarre article about animals working in a concerted fashion against humans.

If that idea seems a bit difficult to wrap your head around, let me explain. Basically, it's the theory that constant encroachment by humans on the habitats of animals has caused animals (intraspecially for the most part) to band together and take "revenge" out on humans. For example, in Africa, there has been an increase in incidence of elephants banding together and destroying small villages. Not just trampling down random huts, but specifically going after people and injuring (sometimes killing) them.

How does one show that these aren't just random, isolated events, but are part of an ongoing trend? Well, this seems to be the work of a scholar from a small college in Ohio. He is the primary scholar of this controversial theory. I have to admit; his methodology is pretty interesting. He has an algorithm set to detect geographical trends of this concerted, anti-human animal behavior. For example, let's say there has been a spike in dolphin attacks in recent years off Chesapeake Bay. His program pinpoints the locations of these incidents and determines if the trend is accelerating with respect to say the last twenty years. It also compares these incidents with other regions of the world and sees if this is "out of the ordinary" in terms of dolphin attacks.

It's a bizzare, but tantalizing theory. Imagine if animals were capable of the same sort of base human feelings that we are. It's a higher level of savagery; one that involves active planning and involves complex feelings like "revenge" and "spite". It seems to suggest that animals may have some sort of memory or perhaps some kind of way of saying to each other "Humans are bad and out to get us. It's us or them."

Obviously, this guy is a fringe and controlling for outside variables would be a challenge for his theory. However, the idea that nature's tired of our fucking around and is turning against us, it's such a controversial idea that I can't help but be fascinated.