Every Year, A Penguin Swims Thousands Of Miles To Visit A Man Who Saved Him

haidut

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I really liked this story, not only for its feel-good effect, but because it once again illustrates just how intelligent and human-like animals can be. Not to mention that swimming several thousand miles every year, just to be with the person who saved him, flies in the face of all current theories on inherent selfishness of animals, and their purported focus on conserving energy, acquiring resources and generally psychotic behavior exemplified by the motto "Nature is red in tooth and nail". I think the biologists believing in crap like this may need to save a penguin or two before they can produce any scientific progress.

Long-distance love brings penguin to man who rescued him every year | CBC News
"...Ever since a 71-year-old Brazilian man rescued a struggling penguin, he's been receiving regular visits from his feathered friend. Joao Pereira de Souza, a retired bricklayer, lives on Proveta, a fishing village just off the coast of Rio de Janeiro. In 2011, he spotted a starving Magellanic penguin drenched in oil on the beach near his house. Naming the penguin Dindim, Pereira de Souza fed him every day until he was strong enough to leave, according to a video from the University of Rio de Janeiro. But the penguin refused to go. Pereira de Souza decided to row a boat out into the water and drop Dindim off to encourage him to swim home. But when he rowed back to shore, he found the penguin waiting for him at his shanty. "He stayed with me for 11 months and then, just after he changed his coat with new feathers, he disappeared" Pereira de Souza told TV Globo, a Brazilian TV network.

"...Magellanic penguins regularly swim thousands of kilometres a year to breeding spots on the coast of Argentina and Chile. From time to time, penguins show up in warmer Brazilian waters, according to the Wall Street Journal. Many of Pereira de Souza's friends thought that when Dindim finally left, that was it for the human-bird friendship. But a few months later, Dindim returned and found Pereira de Souza. He visits for about four months, a ritual kept for the last five years. "He arrives in June and leaves to go home in February, and every year he becomes more affectionate, as he appears even happier to see me," Pereira de Souza told TV Globo. De Souza appears to be the only person who can get near Dindim. If others try, he pecks them or waddles away. "I think the penguin believes Joao is part of his family and probably a penguin as well," biologist Joao Paulo Krajewski said to the Independent. "When he sees him he wags his tail like a dog and honks with delight." Krajewski helped report the segment for TV Globo, and said that they caught Dindim on his fifth trip out to see Pereira de Souza. "It's really impressive, the love the two of them have," Krajewski said in the segment on the TV Globo show. "I love the penguin like it's my own child," said Pereira de Souza to Globo TV. "And I believe the penguin loves me."
 
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charlie

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Beautiful. :penguin:
 
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haidut

haidut

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*Turns into a penguin* - we are all one big :family:
Just think of the dedication and LOVE it takes to swim several thousand miles just to be with your friend. Like, what else, other than love, would make a living soul do that!?
 
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I have mixed feelings about this story. If animals are indeed more like humans and are intelligent, then how ethical is it to consume animal flesh? If chickens, cows, pigs, and fish are just dumb animals then it doesn't matter if we eat them. Sorry, this is a bit off topic but I have this on my mind lately. How do you all view this topic if it's ethical to eat other living intelligent creatures?
 
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haidut

haidut

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I have mixed feelings about this story. If animals are indeed more like humans and are intelligent, then how ethical is it to consume animal flesh? If chickens, cows, pigs, and fish are just dumb animals then it doesn't matter if we eat them. Sorry, this is a bit off topic but I have this on my mind lately. How do you all view this topic if it's ethical to eat other living intelligent creatures?

I have been thinking about that and even asked Peat about it. He did not respond to me but did to other people and his responses were mixed. One of them said basically that killing other sentient beings is acceptable only if this is your only option for food. So, hunting would be OK but massive animal farms would certainly not be.
 

Vinero

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I have been thinking about that and even asked Peat about it. He did not respond to me but did to other people and his responses were mixed. One of them said basically that killing other sentient beings is acceptable only if this is your only option for food. So, hunting would be OK but massive animal farms would certainly not be.
Luckily for us following Ray Peat it is not recommended to eat a lot of meat anyway. You can eat mostly Dairy and Fruit and get all your nutrients. And you don't have to kill anything.
"I think the basic anti-aging diet is also the best diet for prevention and treatment of diabetes, scleroderma, and the various "connective tissue diseases." This would emphasize high protein, low unsaturated fats, low iron, and high antioxidant consumption, with a moderate or low starch consumption. In practice, this means that a major part of the diet should be milk, cheese, eggs, shellfish, fruits and coconut oil, with vitamin E and salt as the safest supplements."
 

dfspcc20

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You can eat mostly Dairy and Fruit

There is inherent killing involved in dairy production. Cows need to be pregnant to produce milk. About half the offspring will be male. Farmers can't afford to raise and keep all those bulls/steers, so they get sold off to be raised for meat.

Even with fruits and vegetables, small animals like rodents, rabbits, etc. get killed during planting, harvesting, etc.

Not trying to go off on some Whataboutism tangent. I think it just highlights that there are no easy answers to this question. IMO, at the very least it highlights the importance of expressing gratitude to the food we eat.
 

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There is inherent killing involved in dairy production. Cows need to be pregnant to produce milk. About half the offspring will be male. Farmers can't afford to raise and keep all those bulls/steers, so they get sold off to be raised for meat.

Even with fruits and vegetables, small animals like rodents, rabbits, etc. get killed during planting, harvesting, etc.

Not trying to go off on some Whataboutism tangent. I think it just highlights that there are no easy answers to this question. IMO, at the very least it highlights the importance of expressing gratitude to the food we eat.
Seems like there are no karma-free foods then where no death of a living creature is involved. Anyway, Ray Peats focus is on achieving optimal health, regardless if that involves consuming unethical foods.
 
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haidut

haidut

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Seems like there are no karma-free foods then where no death of a living creature is involved. Anyway, Ray Peats focus is on achieving optimal health, regardless if that involves consuming unethical foods.

I think eggs and milk would still be OK. Cows need to be pregnant to give milk but that is OK as it is natural for the cow to get pregnant every year in the wild. Eggs seem to be less of a problem, hens will lay eggs as long as you feed them.
I guess the issue is if it is done in a dehumanizing way as in large scale farms, akin to prison, where the animals are basically tortured and eventually killed.
 

Wagner83

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I guess the issue is if it is done in a dehumanizing way as in large scale farms, akin to prison, where the animals are basically tortured and eventually killed.
Of course this is different but after what was posted about people getting memories of a donor after a transplant, I wonder how we wouldn't be affected negatively by ingesting such meats, amino-acids imbalances aside. Depending on how the animal is raised and killed the meat differs in texture too, so something other than their nutrition must make a noticeable difference.
 
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haidut

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Of course this is different but after what was posted about people getting memories of a donor after a transplant, I wonder how we wouldn't be affected negatively by ingesting such meats, amino-acids imbalances aside. Depending on how the animal is raised and killed the meat differs in texture too, so something other than their nutrition must make a noticeable difference.

I think we would be, and this is one of the reasons the whole "free-range" movement started. The media tried to portray it as a nothing but a hippie crack dream, and it certainly quickly devolved into a corporate-driven political crusade, which eventually benefits the powers that be. But at least its early steps were based on older studies from the 1960s showing negative health effects from consuming animals subjected to abuse, torture, and (obviously) toxic living conditions that ended up in the meat/milk/eggs.
If we keep in mind the idea that under stress the levels of cortisol/estrogen/serotonin/histamine/etc can rise several hundred times over normal, then it is quite obvious that eating an animal with such tissues would be bad. At some point Peat was concerned about even eating uncooked pineapple and tomatoes due to the high serotonin. The levels of serotonin in a stressed animal would dwarf the ones in those fruits.
I think testing the meat/milk/eggs for those stress mediators has never been done on a large scale (likely on purpose), and even when there are elevations we are told that these toxins are not bioavailable when eaten. But they are, as studies on this forum have shown. The other studies on the forum on parents passing down stress to their offspring also speak volumes. The eggs, calves, lambs, chickens hatched from eggs of stressed hens, etc will all bear the epigenetic marks of stress and imprint those on us.
As the saying goes, you are what you eat. So, we do what we can to minimize the damage in an inperfect world.
 
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haidut

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sladerunner69

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I have mixed feelings about this story. If animals are indeed more like humans and are intelligent, then how ethical is it to consume animal flesh? If chickens, cows, pigs, and fish are just dumb animals then it doesn't matter if we eat them. Sorry, this is a bit off topic but I have this on my mind lately. How do you all view this topic if it's ethical to eat other living intelligent creatures?
I would argue this not an example of intelligence, but of instinct. Penguins already migrate long distances each year for mating, as many birds do. This penguin developed a familial bond with the gentleman due to the extended period of time he was being cared for, thus his innate migration shifted to his new "home". This is actually observable in zoology, as birds caught in the wild and brought long distances into captivity, after remaining in captivity long enough to integrate the new place as a home, will not migrate back to the original home in the wild.

This story, while interesting and sweet, does not demonstrate an intelligence previously unknown to penguins.
 

michael94

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I think we would be, and this is one of the reasons the whole "free-range" movement started. The media tried to portray it as a nothing but a hippie crack dream, and it certainly quickly devolved into a corporate-driven political crusade, which eventually benefits the powers that be. But at least its early steps were based on older studies from the 1960s showing negative health effects from consuming animals subjected to abuse, torture, and (obviously) toxic living conditions that ended up in the meat/milk/eggs.
If we keep in mind the idea that under stress the levels of cortisol/estrogen/serotonin/histamine/etc can rise several hundred times over normal, then it is quite obvious that eating an animal with such tissues would be bad. At some point Peat was concerned about even eating uncooked pineapple and tomatoes due to the high serotonin. The levels of serotonin in a stressed animal would dwarf the ones in those fruits.
I think testing the meat/milk/eggs for those stress mediators has never been done on a large scale (likely on purpose), and even when there are elevations we are told that these toxins are not bioavailable when eaten. But they are, as studies on this forum have shown. The other studies on the forum on parents passing down stress to their offspring also speak volumes. The eggs, calves, lambs, chickens hatched from eggs of stressed hens, etc will all bear the epigenetic marks of stress and
I have been thinking about that and even asked Peat about it. He did not respond to me but did to other people and his responses were mixed. One of them said basically that killing other sentient beings is acceptable only if this is your only option for food. So, hunting would be OK but massive animal farms would certainly not be.
 

Peater

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I have mixed feelings about this story. If animals are indeed more like humans and are intelligent, then how ethical is it to consume animal flesh? If chickens, cows, pigs, and fish are just dumb animals then it doesn't matter if we eat them. Sorry, this is a bit off topic but I have this on my mind lately. How do you all view this topic if it's ethical to eat other living intelligent creatures?

I doubt the penguin has these thoughts about the fish he eats.

Yes it's a lovely story.

Yes humans need to eat meat. We didn't write the rules of biology.
 
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