Is behavior more learned than genetic?
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The idea for Orana Wildlife Park began when a New Brighton resident, Neville Jemmett, suggested to the Christchurch City Council that a zoo should be built on the recently completed land-fill dump at Bexley. Naturally enough, the concept of having a new zoo in Christchurch was widely reported by the news media and soon caught the imagination of the public. The South Island Zoological Society was formed in July 1970, and in a matter of weeks, had grown from the original eight founding members to over one hundred. A number of public meetings were held to debate the concept behind a modern zoological park, as well as to consider the funding and ongoing support the new project would require. It was soon established that the new venture would be an open range wildlife park with the design reflecting a feeling of the animal’s natural habitat.
The site at Bexley proved totally unsuited for the construction of such a wildlife park, but it wasn’t long before a new site was proposed on McLeans Island, on land to be leased from the North Canterbury Catchment Board.
This was an excellent site for the new wildlife park, being located adjacent to the recently created recreational area and on the end of a tar sealed road, just 18 kilometres from Christchurch. It was light river bed land, with only poor soil and very few trees but the land was easy to work and would be particularly suited for excavation of moats and earth banks which would be used for the construction of a completely new zoo concept.
And Then The Work Began
The first few months were well occupied in designing the new zoo concept and frequent on site planning meetings were held. Of the 80 hectares leased from the North Canterbury Catchment Board, only 16 hactares were to comprise the first stage of the new zoo site. The McLeans area had been planted in pine forest and much of the land we occupied had recently been clear felled, leaving a landscape littered with stumps and debris. There were a few mature pines here and there, that had escaped the loggers saw, but the only other vegetation remaining above the sun baked river bed, were the occasional clumps of impenetrable gorse.
The first working bees were equipped only with picks and shovels in their efforts to clear the site, it was hard, back breaking work for a little band of volunteers who turned up week after week to clear away and burn the debris. As time passed and the results of fund-raising activities began to grow, the second equipment was purchased.
At first, a David Brown tractor and trailer and later, a very old, but still workable D4 bulldozer. With the arrival of this equipment, the working bees became more successful and the site preparation advanced as the landscape began to take hold and the area was planted in trees and shrubs. The boundary fence was erected during 1974, and by mid-1975, work had began on a number of projects, including a toilet block and a service workshop.
THE GRAND OPENING ~ SEPTEMBER 25th 1976
Website Orana Wildlife Park
Zoo
Christchurch
New Zealand
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Question by Paul: Is behavior more learned than genetic?
There’s a question that my Biology class is debating, and it’s also part of the last assignment for the semester. In your opinion, is a person’s behavior more influenced by their genetic makeup, or the environment in which they are raised? Give 2-3 reasons for your answer.
Can you help? Leave your own answer in the comments!
One Response to Is behavior more learned than genetic?
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It;s obviously both.
For simpler species like Bees, the behavior is more likely to be innate and from genetics.
In species like ducks, the sensitive period of imprinting is genetic, but the environment dictates what is emulated by the duck.
In humans, I believe as much more complicated animals we are far more affected by the environment. For instance, a certain speaker or hobby can shape us differently in chance events that ultimately lead to completely different possible life routes.
But if I had to pick one….that’s what the real challenge is!!
Considerate Terminator
February 23, 2013 at 11:00 pm