Patrick Jones Approximately 200 Words
INTD 105-19
November 7, 2016
In The Heart of the Antarctic, Appendix I, Earnest Shackleton discusses the multiple life forms he encountered on his 1907-1909 expedition of the Antarctic. Under what was thought unlivable conditions, Shackleton and his team found a microscopic jungle of single-celled organisms and algae along that thrived in the freezing temperatures. Shackleton spends a great deal of time describing the colonies of penguins that lived near his camp. The researchers would constantly interact with these colonies, and learned a great deal with how the colonies functioned as a society. Shackleton even notes how elaborate these societies of emperor and adelie penguins are, and how research involving interfering with the natural routine caused chaos.
There are a lot of interesting topics covered in this small section of The Heart of the Antarctic. I found the idea of human research causing chaos in the penguin colonies the most interesting, though. When we try to learn more about animals, how are we negatively impacting their way of life? By simple moving one egg, Shackleton and his researchers saw the penguins fight for nest and offspring until the colony once again reached an equilibrium. Is our quest to better understand the world around us hurting ecosystems, and if so what can be done to preserve these animal’s way of life?