I don't know if this is the correct thread to post this (sorry, Paul, if it's not - just saw "Darwin" and thought, "That'll do"), but until last night - believe it or not -  I do no think I fully understood the brutality and horror of our Darwinian world. Then I saw this.

Did anyone else see Planet Earth Two - the racer snakes? You have to watch the whole clip to appreciate the horror of it all.

I know the snakes are only snakes and just doing their snake thing, but dear God they look/are evil. Stuff of nightmares. Ellie Harrison at the Radio Times describes it as the "most intense chase scene of all time". She writes: "Hell, those snakes could climb. And the sheer number of them. There were so many. It was a relentless, apocalyptic nightmare."


The motto for survival, whether you are an iguana or not, is most definitely: "Keep your nerve and don't move." Lesson for us all here, I think.








PS Some idiot has already done a "Benny Hill Remix" of the terrible chase - makes you realise how important the right music is when creating atmosphere.

Were you yelling " Run, Iggy, run" at the TV as well? Between that, the ants and the poor blood soaked penguins trudging home, I was a wreck by the end.

My admiration for Attenborough was also boosted by reading  that, when asked about Trump, he said, "We could shoot him, it's not a bad idea". I'm sure he was joking........

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/david-attenborough-donald-trump-shoot-radio-times-interview-michael-gove-a7390476.html

ferval wrote:

the poor blood soaked penguins trudging home

Attenborough: "For these commuters it's rush hour. Some have had a really bad day."

Shortly afterwards, and just as the featured penguin was about to reach its family, there was a dopey-looking and somewhat annoying brown gull standing in the way. Seemingly at the end of its tether the penguin shouted at the gull which took fright and flew off. One doesn't need to be able to speak Chinstrap to have understood the message as it didn't need much translation.

Zavodovski Island (where the penguins were filmed) was one of the last places to be discovered by humans. First sighted and charted only in the 19th century, the virtually inaccessible volcanic island near Antarctica is a genuinely Jules Verne type location.

A sensible, Darwinian response from scientist Rhys Jones (biologist at Cardiff University) to Gary Lineker's rather hysterical (the man is clearly far more emotional than me) comment:


Gary Lineker
✔  ‎@GaryLineker  

Racer snakes are right bastards!

10:04 PM - 6 Nov 2016

https://theconversation.com/in-defence-of-racer-snakes-the-demons-of-planet-earth-ii-theyre-only-after-a-meal-68514


The snakes looked as though they were working as a team. Apparently they were not: they were just hungry individuals trying to stay alive. Mmm. Still, if Iggy has offspring he'll pass on some cracking genes. A champion runner and leaper that little chap.

I've moved this diversion from Paul's thread about "Social Darwinism" to one where maybe the discussion will focus on actual Drawinian theory, as so far it seems that it does. Apologies for upsetting the logic therefore of the first post, Temp, as well as the suggested title - though you can of course change both now as this becomes "your" thread.