15 minutes of writing a day keeps your grades increasing!

Let me write about the Fisherian runaway process. This is a process whereby sexual selection occurs when either a male has a trait that gives it advantage over another male, or when a female has a preference for a male with that trait. Which ever the reason, this would result in an increase in intensity for that preference. The females who mate with such males, would not only confer the genetic trait to her sons, but also confer the preference for that genetic trait to her daughters. This process would go on until those males not selected for become selected for, I presume this would be when there are changes in the environment; or until the females change their preference and no longer select for males with such trait.

This is my feeble attempt at 15 minutes of writing a day.

Perhaps, I should switch to writing on paper instead as suggested by Wee Foong so that I can simulate exam conditions even more.

Orang Utan Dies in Freak Accident [Straits Times 14th February]

Let me apply my Animal Behaviour knowledge here to a real life example, though incomplete it may be.

We all know that animals sometimes have a tendency to kill their young, kill their siblings, kill one another (cannibalism), whatever the reason. Whether knowing their young is diseased; whether knowing by removing a sibling, one is removing a competitor; whether knowing an animal of the same species' body would contain the nutrients the cannibal would need.

So why is it that when Atina, the baby orang utan was trapped in the hanging noose, and the zookeepers saw other orang utans tugging at her neck, and dislocating it, causing immediate death, assumed her mother, Anita, was trying to "free her" and not kill her? After all, but eliminating one fellow orang utan, one is removing a competition factor, and the orang utans might possibly think that, that means more food, more resources for me.

I think many will be shocked at my question. The ruthlessness of the animal kingdom. People might be shocked that these tamed orang utans could actually exhibit behaviour that is radically different from that of what our image of a mother should be towards her own flesh and blood. Or people might outrightly disagree with what I have said. After all, it's up to our interpretation of things and don't we often want to think the best of situations and people and animals? Talking about the anthropogenic view of things.

Or we could joke like Huanyan did that the zookeepers knew orang utan language and understood that the mother and the other orang utans were trying to save the child through their conversations over the commotion. ;) It actually didn't sound like a joke. haha :)