Soooo How Much Agency Do We Have? Pondering in the Serengeti

The Serengeti: the most beautiful and surreal place I might ever see and experience.

First for the visuals! The excursion began with a tour of the Crater. Picture this: a collapsed volcano that has transformed into a home for lions, hyenas, rhinos, hippos, wildebeest, zebras, ostriches and buffalos.

We were there during the wet season, and to describe it to you in the easiest terms: imagine a world where all the animals had all the resources they could possibly need, are surrounded by the most beautiful views and are completely unphased by your presense. I couldn’t help but picture one of them walking over, giving a head nod and saying “what’s up”… crazy, but seriously, everything was so peaceful… talking animals were only fitting.

Fast forward to the Serengeti, and I experienced the best day of my life. Surrounded by good friends, beautiful animals, even more beautiful views; I could not be happier. I think the best part was how my program set it up so that we actually knew what we were looking at. Bird exercises assigned by our Professor seemed to be tedious at first, but I slowly realized that noticing even the tiniest creatures of the Serengeti was of the utmost importance to fully appreciating the Serengeti. In line with this, learning the geology of the beautiful savannah left me experiencing awe.

I left pondering the ways that animals and the way they interact with the environment are reflective of the most perfect balance in this world. They are naturally moved by the rhythyms of life, just biologically known to them. It is only when humans intervene that this natural balance of reproduction and death are messed up.

It led me to seriously consider the fact that we humans have these same biological drivers. Sure, our IQ and EQ may have evolved in different ways than animals, but not because we are intrinsically better than them. Rather, we adapted to our environment differently. Yet, we as humans are drawn to think that we make all of our own decisions; that our emotions are ours, not belonging to others. In actuality… how much agency do we actually have? Take attraction and the desire to be with someone. We think we are attracted simply because of what “our type” is when realistically, our bodies our triggered by the pharomones being transmitted by either our own bodies or someone else. This hormone is released because of the biological desire to reproduce which is triggered by an increase in either testosterone or estrogen. Now I am not trying to say that we hold the exact same capacities as an animal such as wildebeest holds; we surely are able to use our IQ and EQ to make decisions with more subsistence than that of an animal just trying to pass our DNA on. However, it inspired a new interest in understanding the ways chemicals governs our psychology and actions in a way that is completely biological.

Given that the main differentiating factor between humans and animals’ lifestyle is humans’ capacity to build and use technology, I have two questions for which I don’t have answers to right now: 1) At what point in evolution did technology evolve in the way that it did?; 2) What is the proper way to balance technology with the proper biological balance of the world.

Enjoy the pics; I finally got strong enough wifi to upload them!

To start: a visual of the outside of THE CRATER!
Check out where the earliest species of humans roamed!
LEOPOARD!
BABOON GETTING IN OUR SPACE
the bugs got the best of my hand 🙁
Awwwwwwwwwwww
SHE’S SO CLOSE!
Be my frienddddddddddddddd
I know you could kill me, buuuut
Hi babies 🙂
Swala-pala!
Contrary to popular belief, East African lions can climb trees!
OFFICIAL BIRDER
It’s just so beautifulllllllll!
Very dirty; even more swollen; great week!
Cheetahs in the distance! (Fun fact… these are definitely males, since females only hang out alone!)
A hyena getting ready to hunt at sunset!
Ugh, the rains down in Africa thoughhhhhhhh
WE LOVE HIPPOS!
In case you’re wondering how much large a hippo paw is!
u cute ;o
A baby and its mama!
Hot take: wildebeest are cooler than most safari animals
I LURV YOU