Animals, Wakes, and Funerals

A glimpse into the sadder side of animal behavior reveals some heartwarming tendencies.

Recently, there have been an increasing number of studies focusing on the burgeoning subject of animals’ emotions. On the emotional spectrum, animals have been observed to display everything from jovial glee to extreme sadness. Bonobos celebrate (albeit a tad sodomitically) the finding of food, and mourn the loss of their children (heart wrenchingly carrying lifeless infants for days). In my own experiences, I will never forget seeing a squirrel scurry over to what I imagine had been his companion, now dead after being struck by a car. Anecdotal evidence aside, a popular Youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sOw3mCz4Oc) shows a similar situation. Although his friend lies dead, a loyal squirrel remains by his side, defending his body from leering crows.

                This behavior reveals a side of the animal world that, until recently, we were too humanly proud to recognize. Complex emotional structures, often attributed only to humans and “higher ranking” animals, have now been recorded on video in organisms as lowly as the common tree squirrel. Similar tendencies have been noted in a litany of other animal species. A brief compendium: geese become visually distressed, with sunken eyes and a drooping posture, after the loss of a partner; sea lions wail in emphatic distress as killer whales prey on their young; dolphins struggle to save infants even after they are long dead; chimpanzees watch in silent reverence as researchers carry off an elder ape to be buried; elephant families try vainly to rouse slain relatives; polar bears paw at the bloody remains of their felled children; the list is exhausting and poignant – these animals feel emotional pain on a level comparable to our own.

                Joyce Poole, as a longtime observer of elephants in Kenya, insists that what she has seen are real emotions. It goes beyond curiosity of why a fellow animal stops moving, and it’s more than a projection of our own emotions. When they come upon a corpse of one of their own, elephants become “highly agitated and investigate them with their trunks and feet”. Even long dead elephants, that remain only skeletally, also capture passing elephants’ attention. When presented with a variety of bones, elephants have been able to pick their relatives out from the bunch. Perhaps as a form of respect or even extended grief, these animals seem to pay respects even to those who have been gone for months or years.

                A lot of this behavior may seem compassionately human. But when we remember that we were not always the highly evolved, intelligent and complex creatures we are today, it makes a lot of sense. As organisms that inhabit earth, we all share a heritage from a long passed, primordial sea. The behavior observed in animals may prove that, while many things in this world our manmade, much of our emotions and mannerisms are purely biological. 

The Oxygen Paradox

How the very thing that keeps us alive is also trying to kill us. 

Human beings, as well as many of Earth’s creatures, are aerobic in nature.  To maintain active muscles, our cells require a copious amount of oxygen; the same principle applies to our most vital organ, the brain, down to our most intricate of capillaries. Oxygen is an essential element in energy metabolization, gas exchange, and almost every other bodily process.  Aside from anaerobic species, life truly would not persist without oxygen. Yet, an extreme irony exists in the constant biological processes of our bodies. Oxygen undergoes changes as it is utilized in our sundry biological pathways, and these changes tend to transform what is regularly a vital molecule into dangerously poisonous agents known as “Reactive Oxygen Species”.

One of the most common of these Species is superoxide, a malformed version of oxygen produced during an oxygen molecule’s passage through a cell’s mitochondria. Mitochondria are found within each of our cells, and are responsible for transforming food into usable cellular energy. As oxygen proceeds through these mitochondrial pathways, it becomes partially reduced; molecules become reduced by acquiring an extra electron. In this case, oxygen has gained an electron, transforming it into the molecule superoxide. This extra, unpaired electron changes the behavior of the molecule as it searches for another electron to bind to. Superoxide, with its unpaired electron, is therefore a radical element and will more readily bind to other radical elements.  

                This production of superoxide is natural in a normally operating aerobic metabolism. While most superoxide is produced internally (white blood cell activity also yields large amounts of superoxide), external sources such as cigarette smoke and exposure to ultraviolet light also cause increased levels of superoxide. As superoxide becomes present in our bodies, it is often converted into other “Reactive Oxygen Species”. ROS are known to cause damage to many biological molecules. Hydroxyl radicals, formed when superoxide is in the presence of iron or copper, can damage cell membranes and lipoproteins, particles that store cholesterol and fat. Proteins may be damaged by other ROS, causing structural changes and loss of enzyme activity. Another threat is made to our DNA which is estimated to sustain 10,000 “oxidative hits” per day. Although DNA repair enzymes can reverse much of the damage, their success rate is not perfect. Lesions accrued by ROS cause mutations that accumulate with age and may contribute to cancer. ROS damage is also implicated in heart disease and degenerative diseases, such as atherosclerosis.

                Fortunately, nature has provided a way to prevent damage caused by these Reactive Oxygen Species. Antioxidants from our diet collect ROS before they cause damage. Inside our cells, antioxidant enzymes scavenge for harmful radicals and convert them into less threatening species. The existence of these evolved enzymes is considerable proof towards the threat of oxidative damage to cellular survival. Additional proof comes from a recent discovery that noted a defective antioxidant enzyme (superoxide dismutase) in individuals with Lou Gehrig’s disease.

In blood and extracellular fluid, small, molecular antioxidants take up the job of their enzymatic counterparts. Molecular antioxidants may be lipid or water soluble, depending on where they operate in the body. Vitamin E is the most abundant of the lipid soluble antioxidants. Found mainly in nuts and seeds, vitamin E is vital protection against oxidation and has been found in studies to substantially reduce the risk of heart disease. Vitamins A and C also serve as antioxidants within the body, and may help prevent cancer, heart disease, and degenerative diseases. Because humans do not synthesize antioxidants naturally, it is important to maintain a diet that will supply them. These dietary antioxidants, found primarily in fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, are the best protection against ROS; they are vital to protect the body’s biological molecules and to prevent age-related degenerative diseases.