Blog 9 - Nature persists in a man made world

I want to start off by saying that I in no way disagree with the conservation movement. In fact, I avidly support it. I think it is important to not just see the bad in what we are doing but instead also recognize the good. There are instances in our man-made world in which we see nature keeping a strong hold on our psyche. The best example is our yards and gardens. In a book called Biophilia, the author brings up the ideal habitat for the early humans. That landscape was the plains. They provided enough cover to stay out of the sun, find shelter, and hunt efficiently, enough food to be found, and enough room to expand. It is for this reason that the author of this book says that we humans persist in keeping gardens and lawns because it subconsciously reminds us of our beginnings and shows us what we really desire.
Another example is in our domestication of wild creatures - like dogs. We, as humans, started as a predatory species falling under the category of pursuit predators. We aren't fast but we last the test of time and perseverance better than any other terrestrial species. This is why we adopted the wild dog - they were the only species that had the slightest chance of keeping up with us and so we used them to aid us in hunting by filling in our weak spots of scent and hearing. Even though we have domesticated them, we can still see their natural tendencies in everyday life. Domesticated dogs seek a leader for their pack which should theoretically be the owner if they've trained the animal, they follow a social hierarchy just like wild wolves do, and they hunt down rodents in the yard. Dogs are even still used for their original purpose - hunters still use hounds.