English Essay by EUNICE G DIAZ-GUISAO https://padlet.com/eunice_diaz1/rdqrd5nz5ok en-us 2019-09-29 20:32:17 UTC 2019-09-30 00:51:12 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.pics/1/image.webp?t=g_auto&url=https%3A%2F%2Fpadlet.net%2Ficons%2Fpng%2F1f601.png Are humans and wolves similar? eunice_diaz1 https://padlet.com/eunice_diaz1/rdqrd5nz5ok/wish/391076980 Are humans and wolves similar? According to the ‘Oxford Dictionary of English’ something similar is “having a resemblance in appearance, character, or quality, without being identical”. Knowing that, can we say that humans in wolves or similar? In what ways are they similar? My thoughts are that: while wolves and humans are different in some ways the two are similar in terms of their way of caring for their infants and the way that they act or interact with each other.
 
There are different ways that humans and wolves are alike, it could be something as simple as our similar tastes in food. Wolves and humans both enjoy eating sheep, cattle, deer, elk. So even on the “insignificant” things, we have some similarities with wolves. We know that wolves are very territorial creatures, but humans are also territorial, and sometimes need to claim their territory and for that, we draw lines on maps and kill thousands of animals because we feel the need to “protect” it. Wolves do the same, they defend their territory by any means possible. Humans and wolves have evolved and families, have found strength in numbers. In both families, human and wolf, members assume specific roles. Human parents are like alpha wolves in the way that they make decisions and control of the pack. Other members help or add to the pack’s survival. As well as humans, wolves in families play, show affection, feed, discipline their young and mourn their dead.
 
Wolves have different personalities, like humans; some are loners, some are lovers, some are leaders. They also use facial expressions and posture to express joy, sadness, aggression, fear, dominance, and submission. And that in humans is what we call non-verbal communication. Humans tend to show how they feel physically, using body language or showing emotions. According to evolutionary biologist Mark Bekoff, in his book, ‘The Emotional Lives of Animals’, says that wolves “have more varied facial expressions and that they use these expressions to communicate their emotional states to others. Wolf tails are more expressive, and wolves use more tail positions than dogs or coyotes to express their emotions". We, humans, experience grief, and it’s one of the times we tend to show our emotions the most. Bekoff states that the wolves use body language to express how they felt after losing a low-ranking female; While grieving wolves lose their spirit and playfulness; they don’t howl together as a group. Instead, they all sing alone in a slow mournful cry, they held their heads and tails low and walk softly and slowly when they are on the place their pack mate died. These changes in behavior are similar to human behaviors after they’ve lost a loved one. 
 
A group of prominent scientists considers that both humans and wolves were moral creatures, so they signed the ‘Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness’. They state that scientific evidence confirms that many animals are conscious and aware in the same way humans are. And their animals act with intentions. Consciousness, awareness, and intention are keystones of morality. When Bekoff and bioethics Jessica Pierce wrote their book “Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals” they reported that "the staggering amount of information that we have about the animal intelligence and animal emotion" is now inclining more scientists to say that animals can act with compassion, altruism, forgiveness, trust, and empathy. 
 
To review, there are more ways in which wolves and humans are alike, some of which I would never have imagined. Beginning with the most basic thing as similar taste in food, up to the deeper things which are emotions and even moral. After all my research I discovered that even though I was right about two of the many similarities, I was shocked when I discover other ones. I didn’t know wolves had a non- verbal communication skill, and that they would mourn their losses, and would even change their way of acting after that happened. And our similarities go beyond having similar tastes in food and using body language to express how we feel, to even to be moral creatures like us. Wolves are way much similar to humans than we think. So we can say that: while wolves and humans are different in some ways the two are similar in terms of their way of caring for their offsprings, and the way that they act or interact with each other. That includes how they treat their family members, how they communicate, the way of reacting to different events that occur and the fact that they're being called "moral creatures" by scientists, which means that wolves do have more similarities to humans than we know or want to believe.
 ]]> 2019-09-29 20:35:48 UTC https://padlet.com/eunice_diaz1/rdqrd5nz5ok/wish/391076980 The Similarities Between Wolves and Humans Dreaming_Student https://padlet.com/eunice_diaz1/rdqrd5nz5ok/wish/391107557 It is a common occurrence for people to see wolves as vicious wild animals that should be avoided at all cost, but facts show that they are efficient, hierarchy-based predators that share several similarities with humans. The similarities between the two are so vast that they occasionally cause conflict between these two species. However, not all similarities between these two populations cause issues, most have the potential to bring them together. While humans and wolves are different in some ways, the two are similar in terms of their habitats, behavior, hierarchy, territorial tendencies, and their capacity to show emotions and differences in personality.

The similarities that cause the most conflict between humans and wolves are the habits and territorial tendencies. These issues date back to the 1960s in multiple European countries, including Spain and Sweden. Throughout this time the territorial disputes the occurred caused a drastic decrease of the wolf population to the point that extinction became a looming possibility. These similar preferences in habitats are still an issue more than a century later. Wolves live in areas that humans tend to take and change into livable areas for their own. From forests to swamps and deserts, wolves have shown their ability to thrive anywhere humans can. 

Like humans, wolves have shown the capacity to present different personality types: some prove to be loners that prefer to stray from the pack, some are leaders that grow to be alphas in their pack, and some are more lovers than fighters and have their partner protect them and their eventual offspring. Like what in humans is called non-verbal communication, the postures and facial movements of wolves express their joy, sadness, aggression, and fear. In his book The Emotional Lives of Animals, the evolutionary biologist Marc Bekoff writes on his findings, saying that wolves "have more varied facial expressions and that they use these expressions to communicate their emotional states to others. Wolf tails are more expressive, and wolves use more tail positions than do dogs or coyotes to express their emotions."

The other similarities between humans and wolves that should be addressed is the most notable, both species live in family-oriented groups. Within these families, human or wolf, each member takes on a specific role. Alphas are the ones the make decisions for the good of the pack and are the wolf equivalent of the parents in human families. Everyone else is divided between the siblings and offspring of the alphas, much like household responsibilities are divided within human families. The family dynamics usually involve the older members caring for, disciplining and feeding the youngest members of the pack/family, while the latter play and bond amongst themselves.

The similarities between wolves and humans go even deeper. Both are moral creatures as proven several years ago when a group of prominent scientists signed the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness. The scientists declared that rapidly evolving scientific evidence shows that many animals are conscious and aware in the same way humans are and that animals, particularly wolves, act with intention. Consciousness, awareness, and intention are keystones of morality. In other words, these two species are so similar it goes as deep as their neurology. To conclude, this all goes to show that though wolves and humans are considered different, they share more similarities than most care to acknowledge.

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