Down in jungle land: Love, marriage, parenthood are ‘same same, but different’

Within families, both ours and theirs, there’s sibling rivalry, which sometimes can lead to dreadful consequences. First-born chicks may kill their younger siblings to get their parents’ undivided attention and food supply, just as brothers fight tooth and nail over papa’s business empire.

In one respect, however, the animal kingdom seems more evolved. While most animal moms — be they tigers or elephants — will (like our own) ferociously defend their babies to death, they will still kick out their “ladla betas” once the aforesaid betas become obnoxious or are able to look after themselves. With us…alas!

Of course, before all this, the ladies have to be wooed. And in species after species, including ours, it’s the guys that do the strutting, posturing and blustering and fighting in order to impress and win over the girls. And it’s the girls that make the decisions as to who to go with. Ah, you may say, what about those matches where the boy goes to “see” the girl (as if she were an item of furniture) ? Well, we’re talking about love and romance, not a potential, feudal business arrangement. What’s even more telling is that much of the posturing and dancing that men (and women) do while courting has been lifted straight from the posturing and dancing that animals and birds do.

We are all appalled and horrified, when say, a new lion king strides into a pride he’s just taken over and proceeds to mercilessly murder all those cute cuddly cubs sired by the previous ruler. Well, what happens when a new regime takes over in a country, violently or otherwise? The old order either is shot, speared or buried alive, or is dispatched to some godforsaken hole and never heard of again, which is much the same thing. The same thing happens when your boss gets the boot and a new one takes over: you suddenly find yourself in a windowless 6’X4’ cubicle adjoining the toilets instead of the penthouse office suite you enjoyed because you played golf with the old boss (and let him win).

What does a dog do when he’s let into a new place? He runs around sniffing madly and raises his leg time and again, marking his territory, claiming ownership and defying anyone to challenge that. And what do we do? Up go the fences and walls, sometimes ringed with razor wire and bitter vendettas break out over tiny square inches of waste land, allegedly infringed upon by the neighbour. It can get equally crazy in the animal kingdom: I recently watched a film in which a crab claimed an entire beach for itself and had a pincer-to-pincer confrontation with a neighbour who had the same idea. Fortunately, both decided it was not worth losing their lives over and that the beach was big enough for the both of them and trundled back to their respective homes.

But willy-nilly, property reflects power, both in our and their worlds and it will be grabbed when the opportunity arises and then fiercely defended. A handsome magpie robin I met in Goa years ago laid claim to three buildings, a garden and a swimming pool — a much larger property than he really needed to provide for his family — by pretending to be three different males, by singing different songs from different perches in the area (and thus discouraging any competition). How many land-grabbing scandals have there been in our society, though unfortunately, we don’t “land-grab” by singing songs! Tigers, leopards and chimpanzees regularly patrol their territories and protect them as assiduously as we guard our borders.

In some areas we are, of course, more developed. While some ants go to war and even take slaves, and chimps conduct raids on rival bands, none have developed war to the extent, sophistication and sheer annihilating power that we have.

Whether that makes us superior to them — well, you decide.

Ranjit Lal is an author, environmentalist and birdwatcher