A Note from Niagara At Large publisher Doug Draper
If you have been a regular visitor to our Niagara At Large news and commentary site, you know that we have shown an ongoing interest in the welfare of all creatures great and small.
Nature of Things host David Suzuki
Someone from the CBC knew about NAL’s passion for animals and sent us the following note on a program we’re sure many of you who share our panel will want to check out.
The program, featured on CBC’s long-running and ever-popular ‘The Nature of Things’ hosted by the one and only David Suzuki, is called ‘Mysteries of the Animal Mind’ and is being broadcast this Thursday, January 26 at 8 p.m. EST on CBC Newsworld Cable channel 6. Niagara At Large is pleased to share the following write-up from CBC on this program.
Thursday, January 26 – Mysteries of the Animal Mind Any pet owner knows their cat, dog or budgie has feelings. But many scientists considered it absurd to entertain questions about how animals might feel or that they might be thinking—it was unacceptable to ascribe experiences like delight, boredom or self-awareness to non-humans. Now scientists are exploring the complex mysteries of the animal consciousness.
In Mysteries of the Animal Mind we meet the researchers who are finding growing evidence of compassion, cooperation, altruism, empathy, intelligence and communication in all sorts of different species. We’ll meet Diana Reiss of Hunter College who takes viewers underwater at the Baltimore Aquarium. There, her team witnesses the curious looks of the dolphins as they look into a mirror for the first time. She discovers that dolphins can recognize themselves—joining a select group known to have this ability.
Dr. Frans de Waal, one the world’s most widely recognized primatologists, shows viewers a group of chimpanzees who teach us we’re not the only species with a sense of fair play. And at Duke University, Brian Hare introduces us to bonobos, a close relative of ours, who will happily share food—even with a stranger.
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your comments on this fascinating topic before or after you have viewed the program.)
Niagara At Large 
Just out of curiosity why do you refer to Suziki as “the one and only”?
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In response to the question asked by the one and only Nick, why did I call David Suzuki “the one and only?”
Mostly because no other scientsst in this country, including the great Bob McDonald of Quirks and Quarks (a program Suzuki founded, by the way), has done more to make science understandable and interesting for the larger public than David Suzuki. The books he has written for children alone, and he has written more than a dozen of on every topic from insects and plants to light and sight, the food we eat and computers, are a priceless gift for kids and I don’t know how many people who are younger than I and now working in the sciences have told me they first became interested in the field because of those books and the person who wrote them.
Then of course there is The Nature of Things, broadcast in more than 40 countries and one of the few programs of its kind on the boob tube.
I could go on but I suspect it wouldn’t matter to those out there wo, for whatever reason, have little or no regard for this great Canadian.
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In response to the one and only Doug. That’s a good pick. A lot better than the Nobel Prize winning Al Gore. :):):)
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What I like about David, he takes his daughter along with him to exotic locales as company and she makes a contribution as well,he has been adopted by a BC native tribe which he just loves to banter with.I watched a special on his lifes work with the environment movement, terrific.!!!
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