Animal adoptions “make no evolutionary sense”
Creation magazine has over the years featured various instances of cross-species adoption. E.g., in the wild, a lioness adopted a baby oryx (creation.com/echoes-of-eden), and a leopard an infant baboon (creation.com/leopard-baboon-altruism). And in captivity, pigs suckled tigers (creation.com/tigers-and-pigs-together).
Of course, we enjoyed pointing out that such behaviour, from an evolutionary framework, makes little sense. And evidently it still doesn’t, as per the title of a recent article by evolutionists from Bangor University, “Animal adoptions make no evolutionary sense, so why do they happen?” The authors tried to come up with possible evolutionary explanations for cats adopting ducklings, and many other instances of “altruism beyond kinship”. But the crux of the matter, in their own words, remains:
“Adoptions like these puzzle biologists. From an evolutionary perspective, what matters is how many copies of your genes make it into the next generation.”
From the perspective of biblical history, however, animal adoptions and other evolution-defying examples of suppressed carnivory are a beautiful echo of a pre-Fall world without death or pain. Also, a reminder of the biblical prophecy of such a time to come (Isaiah 11:6; 65:25).
- Winder, I. and Shaw, V., Animal adoptions make no evolutionary sense, so why do they happen? theconversation.com, 29 Apr 2021.
Readers’ comments
Comments are automatically closed 14 days after publication.