Need More Space?

Have you ever been to the zoo, watched the animals lie in the sun, and wonder, do they sunbathe in the wild, too?

If you've felt awkward asking that question, then don't--because you're not alone! Countless times I've pondered the same issue, especially when I go visit the San Diego Zoo.

I'm striding along the path with my family, enjoying all the beautiful small animals minding their own business, until we see the bigger animals. Cheetahs are sprawled across logs. Lions are sleeping on a large platform. Tigers are lazily strolling along the riverbank. The zookeepers come and toss in a hunk of meat, and the animals hungrily stride over and begin to eat. As I watch, I'm thinking, They shouldn't be here! If they're cooped up in these fences all day long, they'll never get to show off their hunting prowess. 

As you can see in the picture above (hopefully), these cheetahs will never really have room to hunt at top speed--which is what they're known for! Unless their exhibit is the size of an Olympic Pool, I doubt anyone, much less the keepers, will be able to see the cheetahs run at 90 kilometers per hour.

The same goes for lions and tigers, as well as other larger, wild-at-heart animals. The tigers at the zoo sometimes have a better environment than the lions do, because of the big cliffs and jungles that are provided, but lions can't really do anything in a 600 square feet enclosure. Throw some big trees here and there, and they'll have even less room to show off their instincts (though it does make their surroundings more like Africa).

Personally, I feel like the Safari Park (another branch of the San Diego Zoo) is a better place to keep wilder and bigger animals. The Safari Park is a huge valley(s) that is completely wild and original, all clear of construction so that wild animals could roam freely, like they do in the wild. An occasional little building here and there make good shade and food/water storage for the keepers, and the animals are not separated from each other; so if a giraffe and rhino come face to face, visitors can see the natural and instinctive reaction, rather than watch the two stare at each other through chain-link fences.

Fortunately, my art teacher agrees with me. She also stated that, "big cats should not be kept in zoo enclosures, because people cannot see them hunt and run like they do in the wild. All they do is lie there and do nothing behind fences. They don't have enough space."

What do you think? Should bigger animals be kept in tighter enclosures? Feel free to leave comments below, start a Socratic discussion if you like!

Picture taken from <http://eastangliadaytrips.blogspot.com/2008/06/banham-zoo-apr-07.html>.

Wildlife Math Lesson

Many of us are familiar with the concept of infinity. To most of us, it may simply mean a number that goes on forever, or numbers that go on forever. But how do we prove that infinity is infinity?

David Hilbert gave a lecture in 1942 that offered a simple and interesting solution. He used a hotel to demonstrate that infinity+1 and infinity+infinity all still equal infinity.

Say we have a hotel called the Grand Hotel. This hotel has infinity rooms, and is capable of hosting infinity people. One day, a new tourist comes to live in the Grand Hotel. However, the hotel rooms are all occupied. The hotel manager Bob says anyway, "No problem, we can fit you in!" Bob tells all the current guests to move UP one room.

The guest in Room 1 moves to Room 2, The guest in Room 2 moves to Room 3... The guest in Room N moves to Room N+1. This way, the first room is empty and since there are infinity rooms, all the guests will still have a room. This is the concept of infinity+1=infinity. 

One day a bus pulls into the Grand Hotel's parking lot. The bus contains infinity people. When these infinity tourists ask for a room, manager Bob scratches his head for a couple of minutes, then says, "No problem, I can find you some empty rooms!" He tells all the current guests to move the the Room TWICE their current room number. 

The guest in Room 1 moves to Room 1x2=2, the guest in Room 2 moves to Room 4, The guest in Room 3 moves to Room 6, the guest in Room N moves to Room 2N. This way, all the current guests will be occupying the even number rooms.  Now the new infinity guests could move in to the odd numbered rooms. Since there are infinity odd and even numbers, the Grand Hotel can still accommodate every guest so far. This is the concept of infinity+infinity=infinity.

But what if infinity new tourists come labeled with all real numbers (decimals) between 0 and 0.5? (e.g. 0.31415..., 0.49112...) These decimal tourists ask Manager Bob for rooms. After scratching his head for a long time, Manager Bob finally says, "I'm sorry, we cannot find any rooms for you here. You'll have to try Hotel Uncountable around the corner." These decimals were another DIFFERENT group of infinity, not in the whole number group.

At this point, I realized that this "Uncountable Infinity" situation is parallel to our humans vs. animal competition today. We are the current guests/Manager Bob that are able to live in the Grand Hotel, but when the wild animals (infinite decimals) try their luck here, we kick them out and they cannot survive.
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The difference here is that there are not infinity animals and there are not infinity humans, either, if we continue to treat animals as if they are below us. In a way, humans and animals are all equal. We were all created by the same God or we all evolved from one single cell. True, lions cannot do trigonometry, but they can let their pride flow flood the lands and have their courageous roar be heard around the world. Animals, in a way, have helped us reach where we are in life today. Christopher Columbus sailed to the Americas on a ship. Why did he use a ship? Because it was faster and held more supplies. BUT, also so he wouldn't get eaten up by sharks and have to swim around in freak storms. Nature has shaped us, and though we don't know it, wildlife was there the whole entire way. They deserve the infinite amount of respect there is in the world.