Darwin's Dangerous Idea

Darwin's Really Dangerous Idea

Adaptation by natural selection is among the most successful and influential ideas in the history of science, and rightly so. It unifies the entire field of biology and has had a profound influence on many other disciplines, including anthropology, psychology, economics, sociology, and even the humanities. The singular genius behind the theory of natural selection, Charles Darwin, is at least as famous as his most famous idea.

You might think that my contrarian view of the limited power of adaptation by natural selection would mean that I am “over” Darwin, that I am ready to denigrate the cultural/scientific personality cult that surrounds Darwin's legacy. Quite to the contrary, I hope to celebrate that legacy but also to transform the popular understanding of it by shedding new light on Darwinian ideas that have been neglected, distorted, ignored, and almost forgotten for nearly a century and a half. It's not that I'm interested in doing a Talmudic-style investigation of Darwin's every word; rather, my focus is on the science of today, and I believe that Darwin's ideas have a value to contemporary science that has yet to be fully exploited.

Trying to communicate the richness of Darwin's ideas puts me in the unenviable position of having to convince people that we don't actually know the real Darwin and that he was an even greater, more creative, and more insightful thinker than he was been given credit for. I am convinced that most of those who think of themselves as Darwinians today – the neo-Darwinians – have gotten Darwin all wrong. The real Darwin has been excised from modern scientific hagiography.

The philosopher Daniel Dennett referred to evolution by natural selection – the subject of Darwin's first great book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection = as “Darwin's dangerous idea.” Here I propose that Darwin's really dangerous idea is the concept of aesthetic evolution by mate choice, which he explored in his second great book, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex.

Why is the idea of Darwinian mate choice so dangerous? First and foremost, Darwinian mate choice really is dangerous – to the neo-Darwinists – because it acknowledges that there are limits to the power of natural selection as an evolutionary force and as a scientific explanation of the biological world. Natural selection cannot be the only dynamic at work in evolution, Darwin maintained in Descent, because it cannot fully account for the extraordinary diversity of ornament we see in the biological world.

It took Darwin a long time to grapple with this dilemma. He famously wrote, “The sight of a feather in a peacock's tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick!" Because the extravagance of its design seemed of nu survival value whatsoever, unlike other heritable features that are the result of natural selection, the peacock's tail seemed to challenge everything that he had said in Origin. The insight he eventually arrived at, that there was another evolutionary force at work, was considered an unforgivable apostasy by Darwin's orthodox adaptationist followers. As a consequence, the Darwinian theory of mate choice has largely been suppressed, misinterpreted, redefined, and forgotten ever since.

Aesthetic evolution my mate choice is an idea so dangerous that it had to be laundered out of Darwinism itself in order to preserve the omnipotence of the explanatory power of natural selection. Only when Darwin's aesthetic vies of evolution is restored to the biological and cultural mainstream will we have a science capable of explaining the diversity of beauty in nature.

 (From the book The Evolution of Beauty. How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World – and Us. By Richard O. Prum).

Given that sexuality is an instinct is traditionally defined as a hereditary behaviour unique to a species, varying little from one member to the next, the variety of our sexual tastes is curious. Photograph by Elena.

Lion, panther, jaguar, tiger

Lion, panther, jaguar, tiger

Lions are social animals that live in prides, in which the females do most of the hunting. They inhabit open plains, though their once vast range is now reduced to the savannas of Africa. Lions are often followed by scavengers from vultures to hyenas, which has contributed to the idea that lions are kings attended by a court. The male has an enormous head and luxuriant mane, which suggests the sun sending forth rays.

Tigers, by contrast, are usually solitary, and they are found in the jungles of Asia and the forbidding hillsides of Siberia. Though normally shy near human settlements, they will occasionally attack human beings.

Panthers, which are almost identical to leopards apart from the color of their fur, are smaller than either lions or tigers, and they rely more on stealth and speed in hunting. They are able to climb trees, where they can hide meat from scavengers, observe while unnoticed, and pounce suddenly upon their prey. Panthers and leopards are solitary, nocturnal hunters, often associated with chthonic realms.

Even in Paleolithic times, the great cats seem to have had a special religious significance, and they were given a place of honor among the cave paintings of Lascaux in a cavern known as the “Chamber of Felines.” At the dawn of urban civilization, people already thought of these animals as primarily feminine. Our words “female” and “feline” both ultimately come from the Latin “felare”, meaning “to suck”. Several figurines of women, possibly goddesses, accompanied by great cats have been found at Çatal Huyuk in Turkey, the earliest known walled town.

In early pantheons, the great cats are most closely associated with feminine deities. Among the foremost of these was the Egyptian Hathor, who was the goddess of love, dance, feminine arts, but was also capable of great fury. When men rebelled against the sun god Ra, she attacked them as a lioness and soon developed an insatiable thirst for blood. When Ra himself was satisfied that the rebellion had been defeated, she continued to kill, and the gods feared that she would destroy all humankind. They left out bats of red wine, and she drank them, mistaking the liquor for blood, fell asleep, and finally awakened with her anger appeased. Hathor in her incarnation as a furious avenger was known as Sekmet and was depicted with the body of a woman and the head of a lioness. The Babylonian goddess Ishtar, in her capacity as a deity of war, was represented standing upon a lion. Lions were harnessed to the chariot of Cybel, the Syrian goddess who was adopted by the Romans as their Magna Mater.

Male lions, however, are just as common in the visual arts of the ancient world. Both the Egyptians and Mesopotamians placed stone lions as guardians on each side of the doorways to temples and palaces, a practice that eventually spread eastwards all the way to China.

In Sumero-Babylonian animal proverbs, which are among the very earliest literary works to have survived, the lion is already established as the king of beasts. This motif soon became one of the most widely established literary conventions, found in fables attributed to the semi-historical Aesop. The lion often appears as a figure of brute power that terrorizes other animals, and the sly fox in one fables observes that many tracks lead into his cave but non lead out. The lion is not always dominant, however, and in another fable the ass and other animals he once tormented beat the aged lion. In African legends as well, the majestic lion frequently falls victim to weaker but cleverer creatures such as the hare. The motif of a lion as monarch has been used in the Hindu-Persian Pancatantra, the Medieval European stories of Renard the Fox, the Narnia stories by C. S. Lewis, and countless other works throughout the world.

(From The mythical zoo by Boria Sax).

Leopard in the Toronto Zoo. Photo by Elena.

Bear in Myth and Legend

Bear in Myth and Legend

By Boria Sax, excerpt from The Mythical Zoo, Animals in Myth, Legend and Literature.

Of all animals, the bear is probably the one that most clearly resembles human beings in appearance. Even apes cannot stand fully upright, and only walk with difficulty. The bear, however, can run on two legs almost as well as a human. Like a person, a bear looks straight ahead, but the expression of bears are not easy for us to read. Often the wide eyes of a bear suggest perplexity, making it appear that the bear is a human being whose form has mysteriously been altered. Bears, however, are generally far larger and stronger than people, so they could easily be taken for giants.

Perhaps the most remarkable characteristic of bears is their ability to hibernate and then reemerge at the end of winter, which suggests death and resurrection. In part because bears give birth during hibernation, they have been associated with mother goddesses. The descent into caverns suggests an intimacy with the earth and with vegetation, and bears are also reputed to have special knowledge of herbs.

At Drachenloch, in a cave high in the Swiss Alps, skulls of the cave bear have been found facing the entrance in what appears to be a very deliberate arrangement. Some anthropologists believe this is a shrine consecrated to the bear by Neanderthals, which would make it the earliest know place of worship. Others dispute the claim; true or not, the very idea is testimony to the enormous power that the figure of the bear has over the human imagination.

The cult of the bear is widespread, almost universal, among people of the Far North, where the bear is both the most powerful predator and the most important food animal. Perhaps the principal example of this cult today is the one followed by the Ainu, the earliest inhabitants of Japan. They traditionally adopt a young bear, raise it as a pet, and then ceremoniously sacrifice the animal. Eskimo legends tell of humans learning to hunt from the polar bear. For the Inuit of Labrador, the polar bear is a form of the Great Spriti, Tuurngasuk. The name of Arthur, the legendary king of Britain, derives from “Artus,” which originally meant “bear”.

The Great Golden Bear overtaking the Transit Commission System Map. Photo taken by Elena.

Countless myths and legends reflect an intimacy between human beings and bears. The Koreans, for example, traditionally believe that they are descended from a bear. As the story goes, the tiger and the female bear had watched humans from a distance, and they became curious. As they talked together on a mountainside one day, both decided that they would like to become human. An oracle instructed them to first eat twenty-one cloves of garlic, and then remain in a cave for one month. They both did as instructed, but after a while the tiger became restless and left the cave. The mother bear remained, and at the end of a month she emerged as a beautiful woman. The son of Heaven, Han Woon, fell in love her and had a child with her., Tan Koon, who is the ancestor of the Koreans.

The Greek deity Artemis, whose name literally means “bear”, was the goddess of the moon, the hunt, and animals. The bear was also sacred to Diana, her Roman equivalent. In a story from the Roman poet Ovid, the god Jupiter disguised himself as Duana, and then raped her nymph companion Callisto. On realizing that Calliston was pregnant, Diana banished the young girl from her presence. Eventually Callisto gave birth to a boy named Arcas. Juno, the wife of Jupiter, turned Callisto into a bear and forced her to roam the forest in perpetual fear. Arcas grew to be a young man. He went hunting in the forest, saw his mother, and raised his bow to shoot her. At that moment, Jupiter looked down, took pity on his former mistress, and brought both mother and son up to Heaven, where they became the constellation of the great and little bear. This is only one version of the story among many, but the Arcadians traditionally trace their origin to Callisto and her son.

The ancient Hebrews, who were herders, regarded carnivorous animals as unclean, and the bear was no exception. In the Bible, the young David protected his flock against bears (1 Samuel 17:34). The bear became a scourge of God when small boys followed the prophet Elisha and made fun of his bald head. Elisha cursed them, and two she-bears came out of the woods and killed the children (2 Kings 2:23-24). According to tradition, however, Elisha was later punished with illness for his deed.

The Tingit and many other Indian tribes on the northwest coast of the North American continent have told stories of a young woman who was lost in the woods and was befriended by a bear. At first she was afraid, but the bear was kindly and taught her the ways of the forest. Eventually she became his wife. She grew thick hair and hunted like a bear. When the couple had children, she at first tried to teach them the ways of both bears and human beings. Her human family, however, would not accept the marriage, and her brothers killed her husband, whereupon she broke completely with the ways of humans.

No longer greatly feared, the bear has become a symbol of vulnerability. Everybody in the United States who was born before the 1970s or so has seen posters with Smokey the Bear, who was created during World War II to warn people that Japanese shelling might begin a conflagration in the woods of America. When the war ended, the United States Forest Service retained Smokey as a symbol in a campaign to prevent the careless ignition of forest fires. Far from being bestial, he has a rather parental image. He wears human clothes and a forester's hat. His facial expression is mature, friendly, and a little melancholy. Yet if Smokey seems almost absurdly civilized, his role remains that of bears since archaic times – protector of the wild. 

The enormous size of the bear, together with its similarity to human beings, often makes it an object of both awe and derision. Photograph by Elena.

Termites

Termites

I don’t suppose you know much about termites, so I’ll remind you of the salient facts. They are among the most highly evolved of the social insects, and live in vast colonies throughout the tropics. They can’t stand cold weather, nor, oddly enough, can they endure direct sunlight. When they have to get from one place to another, they construct little covered roadways.

The termites seem to have some unknown and almost instantaneous means of communication, and though the individual termites are pretty helpless and dumb, a whole colony behaves like an intelligent animal.

Some writers have drawn comparisons between a termitary and a human body, which is also composed of individual living cells making up an entity much higher than the basic units.

These creatures are often called “white ants”, but that’s a completely incorrect name as they aren’t ants at all but quite a different species of insect.

Excuse this little lecture, but I get quite enthusiastic about termites myself. Did you know, for example, that they not only cultivate gardens but also keep cows – insect cows, of course – and milk the, Yes, the termites are sophisticated little devils, even though they do it all by instinct (supposedly).

To communicate with termites, we must do for them what von Frische had done with bees – he’d learned their language. But the language of the termites is much more complex than the system of communication that bees use, which as you probably know, is based on dancing.

Our technology enables us to listen to the termites talking among each other, but also permit us to speak to them. Actually that’s not as fantastic as it sounds, if you we use the word “speak” in its widest sense. We speak to a good many animals – not always with our voices, by any means. When you throw a stick for your dog and expect him to run and fetch it, that’s a form of speech - sign language. Thus we could work out some kind of code which the termites understand, though how efficient it will be at communicating ideas I didn’t know…

Have you ever wondered who will take over when we, the Humans, are finished? Remember that the termites, as individuals, have virtually no intelligence. But their colony as a whole is a very high type of organisms – and an immortal one, barring accidents. Their progress froze in its present instinctive pattern millions of years before Man was born, and by itself it can never escape from its present sterile perfection. It has reached a dead-end – because the termites have no tools, no effective way of controlling nature. But you cannot judge the termitary by human standards. What we can hope to do is to jolt its rigid, frozen culture – to knock it out of the groove in which it has stuck for so many millions of years. I will give it tools and new techniques, and before the next generation comes we’ll to see the termites beginning to invent things for themselves.

I do not believe that Man will survive, yet I hope some of the things he has discovered, will be preserved by the next tenants of the Earth. If the Man is to be a dead-end, another race should be given a helping hand. A supertermite, if it ever evolves, will have to remain for millions of years and reach a very high level of attainment.

Besides, Man has no rival on this planet and thus it may do him good to have one. It may be the Mankind’s salvation. (Not that I’m hostile to mankind. In fact, I’m sorry for it. I simply believe that humanity had shot its bolt, and I wish to save something from the wreckage. Perhaps there may be some kind of mutual understanding, since two cultures so utterly dissimilar as Man and Termite need have no cause for military conflict. But I couldn’t really believe this, and if a contest comes, I’m not certain who will win. For what use would man’s weapons be against an intelligent enemy who could lay waste all the wheat fields and all the rice crops in the world?

I think we should let the termites have their chance. I don’t see how they could make a worse job of it than we’ve done. Illustration : Megan Jorgensen.

Push en 2019

Push en 2019

Le beau marcheur blanc

To Jump or not to Jump! This is the question!

The Master and Commander of the Universe.

The Cat that Changes our Universe.

Cat thinking about the trip to the Moon.

A gorgeous Light Cat. 

Push Reflecting.

Push the Wise Cat.

About Ecotherapy

About Ecotherapy

Ecotherapy, earth-centered therapy or green therapy refers to healing and growth nurtured by interaction with the earth.

There is a difference between ecotherapy which includes work with the body and ecopsychology, the study of the psychological relations with nature providing a solid theoretical, cultural, and critical foundation for ecotherapeutic practice. Experts regard ecotherapy as applied ecopsychology. As such, Ecotherapy employs different methods and practices in systematic attempts to reconnect the psyche and the body with the terrestrial sources of all healing.

Ecotherapy is also different from psychotherapy in its focus on transforming our relationship to the natural world. Psychotherapy aims to help individuals understand and create meaning from emotional and psychological difficulties they are experiencing. Ecotherapy, utilising psychotherapeutic principles, forms a relationship to the natural world in order to enable us to make sense of our inner emotions and life experiences. We may feel depressed, anxious, lost and alone, overwhelmed by our thoughts and feelings and unable to draw upon previous ways of coping. In short, psychotherapy in combination with the natural environment allows us to develop new ways of understanding ourselves and feel integrated in our lives.

Ecotherapists believe that nonhuman forms of life have a right to exist for their own needs and purposes, and that this includes leaving plant and animal ecocommunities intact and protecting the needs, health, and sense of agency of our animal companions.

Ecotherapists regard our work as part of an ongoing collective effort to build just and sustainable communities in which all forms of life can delight and mature.

Ecotherapy. Photo by Elena.

As a term defining nature-based methods of psychological and physical healing, ecotherapy points to the need to reinvent psychotherapy and psychiatry as sciences related to the human-nature relationship. Ecotherapy takes into account both the traditional indigenous wisdom and the modern scientific understandings of the universe. This approach defends the point of view that people are connected with, embedded in, inseparable from the rest of nature. Grasping this fact shifts our understanding of how to heal the human psyche and the dysfunctional human-nature relationship. In fact it has become clear that what happens to nature for good or ill impacts people and vice versa. And the process leads to the development of new methods of individual and community psychotherapeutic diagnosis and treatment.

Relationships of healing with nature and Earth require us to acknowledge our participation in industrial, governmental, or organizational actions that harm the environment and to seek alternative actions whenever possible. This relationship holds cultural, ecological, epistemological, spiritual diversity to be a precious source of enrichment, value, and, ultimately, survival. The more diverse the ecosystem, the greater its resiliency, creativity, and resourcefulness.

According to Howard Clinebell, who introduced the term Ecotherapy in 1996, an ecotherapist should  take guidance from an Ecological Circle of three mutually interacting operations or dynamics:

• Inreach: receiving and being nurtured by the healing presence of nature, place, Earth.
• Upreach: the actual experience of this more-than-human vitality as we relocate our place within the natural world.
• Outreach: activities with other people that care for the planet.

Here are some examples of ecotherapy research findings, quoted in different sources – “Connection to Nature Vital to Our Mental and Physical Health”, “Equine Therapy Helps Withdrawn Vets Reconnect, “immersion in Nature Makes us Nicer”, “71% Report Depression Decrease After Green Walk”, “How the City Hurts Your Brain…and What You Can Do About It”, “Drug Addiction: Environmental Conditions Play Major Role In Effective Treatment And Preventing Relapses, Animal Study Shows”.

Note that a certificate in ecotherapy is not a license to do psychotherapy, but ecotherapy techniques are being taught to practicing psychotherapists, whose concentration on mending relationships and inner conflicts benefits from placement in the wider ecological context in which all human activity unfolds.

Keep also in mind that although ecotherapy interventions tend to be much less invasive than drugs or psychotherapy, ecotherapist should always put the well-being of clients first and carefully monitor potential safety and health concerns.

Understanding one’s existence as such is always an understanding of the world (Martin Heidegger). Photo : © Megan Jorgensen.

Biotechnology

Biotechnology

We use biotechnology to alter living things. It gives us the power to create new animals, plants, foods, medicines, materials and even machines. People have used biotechnology for thousands of years to slowly breed new plants, animals and the microorganisms that make cheese, bread, beer, yogurt and wine.

In 1987, geneticist Truda Straede of Australia created spotted cats after breeding toroiseshell cats with Burmese and Abyssinian cats for ten years. Today, modern biotechnology could speed up this breeding process by altering the genetic material deep inside the cells. Scientists have already created bright blue carnations, and tomatoes that ripen on the vine without getting mushy. Biotechnology's potential is enormous. We can even use bacteria grown in laboratories to digest oil to clean up oil spills. The next hundred years will be an age of exciting ”bio-inventions”.

Spot the Difference

In the future, the spot-making genes from a leopard could be mixed in with the genes of a domestic cat to produce a spotted animal.

Killer Cotton

In 1992, an American company altered the genes in some cotton plants so that their leaves became poisonous to caterpillars but nothing else. This reduced the need for harmful insecticides.

Two cats, Jamaica. Photo by Elena.

Strange but True

In 1994, scientists in Australia invented a way of removing fleece from sheep without shearing. They injected sheep with a special hormone then wrapped them in lightweight hairnets. Three weeks later, the fleece could be peeled off the sheep by hand.

Transgenic Pigs

The heart of a pig is similar in shape and size to the human heart. People and pigs, however, have very different genes. Scientists in England have developed a virus that carries human genes into pigs. This makes it possible for the human body to accept the heart of a pig in a transplant.

Changing Genes

Every living cell has spiral-shaped deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), discovered in 1953 by Francis Crick and James Watson at Cambridge in England. The DNA is made up of genes that control how the cell works. Biotechnhologists have learned how to alter the genes and change living cells.

• 6000 BC: Beer – Mesopotamia.
• 1000 BC: Cheese – Nomad tribes, Middle East.
•  1972: Oil-digesting microbes – Dr. Ananda M. Charkabarty, USA.
• 1975: Monoclonal Antibody – George Kohier and Cesar Milstein, England.
• 1984: Transgenic plant – University of Ghent, Belgium.
• 1986: Black Tulip, Geert Hageman, Netherlands.
• 1989: Gene Shears – James Haseloff and Wayne Gerlach, Australia.
• 1990: Crown Gall Bactericide – Dr. Alan Kerr, Australia.
• 1991: Long-life Tomato, USA.

On a Farm

On a farm

The plow and irrigation have tamed more farmland than any other farming inventions. People first grew crops in the Middle East about 10,000 years ago, but planting, harvesting and watering them by hand was a slow process.

In Egypt and India, nearly 4,500 years later, farmers prepared the ground for planting with wooden plows pulled by oxen. The Egyptians invented a machine called a shaduf, which helped them take water from the River Nile to irrigate or water their crops. Barbed wire was another great farming invention. Farmers used it to divide huge areas of Africa, North America and Australia into separate wheat, cattle and sheep farms in the 1800s. These enormous new farms revolutionized farming. Farmers now needed faster ways of harvesting grain, wool, meat and milk. The old methods were soon replaced by machines that did the work of hundreds of people.

Spade

Wooden spades with iron blades were invented by the Romans about 2,000 years ago.

Barbed wire

In 1867, American Lucien Smith invented barbed wire and made it possible for farmers to fence off their lands.

Cows and barbed wire. Photo by Elena.

Four jobs in one

In 1884, Australian Hugh McKay invented the horse-drawn harvester. It combined cutting, threshing, winnowing and bagging wheat grain into one operation. Combine harvesters with gasoline or diesel engines are now used 24 hours a day, with lights at night, to harvest the crops.

Watering the Crops

The Egyptian shaduf is a little like a seesaw. A long wooden pole, balanced on a crossbeam, has a rope and bucket at one end, and a heavy stone weight to counterbalance it at the other. The weight of the rock makes it easier to lift a heavy bucket of water.

Did you Know?

Superphosphates – aftificial chemicals that enrich the soil – were invented by Sir John Bennett Lawes in England in 1842. But fertilizers often run into the rivers and oceans, killing fish and making algae grow,

Plow

Plows made from wood and stag antlers were invented in Egypt and India about 5,500 years ago. Simple ox-drawn plows are still used on family farms in many countries.

Tractor

Three-wheeled steam tractors, built by the Case company of America in 1829, were very heavy and often became stuck in the soft soil. Modern tractors were pioneered by Henry Ford in 1907.

Time-line

• 1794: Cotton Gin (separator) – Catherine Green and Eli Whitney, USA.
• 1831: Grain Reaper (Cutter) - Cyrus McCormick, USA.
• 1833: Steel Plow – John Lane, USA.
• 1860: Nutriculture – Julius vos Sachs, Germany.
• 1868: Granny Smith Apple – Maria Smith, Australia.
• 1889: Modern Milking Machine, William Murchland, Scottland.
• 1924: Aerial Crop Dusting, USA.
• 1939: Dot Pesticide: Paul Muller, Switzerland.
• 1975: Axial Combine Harvester – International Harvester, New Holland, USA.

Central Park - New York

Central Park - Manhattan - New York

The  New York Central Park was established in 1857 on 778 acres of land acquired by the city of New York. In 1858, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and architect/landscape designer Calvert Vaux won a design competition to improve and expand the park with a plan they titled the "Greensward Plan". Construction began the same year, and the park's first area was opened to the public in the winter of 1858. Construction north of the park continued during the American Civil War in the 1860s, and the park was expanded to its current size in 1873. 

After a period of decline in the early 20th century, Robert Moses started a program to clean up Central Park. Another decline in the late 20th century spurred the creation of the Central Park Conservancy in 1980, which refurbished many parts of the park during the 1980s and 1990s.

Here come some views of the park. All the pictures have been taken by Elena.

Central Park was designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 1963, which in April 2017 placed it on the tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage sites.

The park is frequented by various migratory birds during their spring and fall migration on the Atlantic Flyway. 

In 1979, Parks Commissioner Gordon Davis established the Office of Central Park Administrator, appointing to the position the executive director of another citizen organization, the Central Park Task Force.

Pond. The park contains several natural-looking lakes and ponds that have been created artificially by damming natural seeps and flows.

Medieval Fight.

Arch under a bridge.

Rocks in the park.

Simon Bolivar.

Lonely trails.

 There is a large area of woods in addition to seven major lawns, the meadows.

There is an all-volunteer ambulance service, the Central Park Medical Unit, that provides free emergency medical service to patrons of Central Park and the surrounding streets.

The 6 miles (9.7 km) of drives within the park are used by joggers, cyclists, skateboarders, and inline skaters, especially when automobile traffic is prohibited, on weekends and in the evenings after 7:00 pm.

The park has many minor grassy areas; some of them are used for informal or team sports and some set aside as quiet areas; there are a number of enclosed playgrounds for children.

Flowers-blue-and-white on the roof.

While planting and land form in much of the park appear natural, it is in fact almost entirely landscaped. 

Monument to Jose Marti, the Cuban prophet.

An enchanted forest. A beautiful landscape at dark purple sunlight or moonlight.

The Central park has its own New York City Police Department precinct—the Central Park Precinct—which employs both regular police and auxiliary officers.

Toronto's High Park

Toronto's High Park

Within a city, trees are important not only for their aesthetic value, but also for their role in maintaining a healthy environment and atmosphere.

Among other things, they are vital to the absorption of carbon dioxide; the reduction of heat accumulated from buildings, pavement, roads, and vehicles; and the control of stormwater runoff.

Trees within a city on private and public lands are collectively referred to as the “urban forest”.

Toronto’s urban forest has a mixture of native and non-native tree species, with thousands of different cultivated varieties. Trees of different species and ages growing throughout the city, on streets, in parks, and on private property, reflect the trends and fashions in planting at different periods of the city’s history.

All the pictures have been taken by Elena.

Spring in High Park. Its well drained acid sand supports prairies and savannah vegetation, characteristic of 4,000 years ago, when the area was warmer and drier.

The plant communities offer the opportunity to view many rare species of plants and wildflowers including Black Oak, Wild Lupine, Cup-plant and Sweet Flag.

Orange, yellow and brown flower (sunflower), close up.

Multicolored flower bush.Presented to the citizens by the Rotary Club of Toronto.

A magnifying glass isn’t necessary when exploring  natural spaces but it can help you get a closer look.Very brightly colored red flowers. Pink flowers, bush, close up.

The park contains Toronto’s largest pond and approximately 110 acres of remnant oak woodland communities, once common on the Great Lakes sand plains.

There is no provision for lighting on the nature trails. These trails are intended for daytime use only. 

There are different levels of difficulty: from Asphalt Path (easy, level terrain) to Woodchip Path (moderately slopped terrain) and Footpath (not maintained). Flowers white buttons - Pretty beige flower bush.

A fictional character with bright fuchsia hair and lips hidden behind the leaves.

The booklets which were developed by Toronto City Planning can help you uncover the broad diversity of spiders, birds, trees/shrubs, butterflies, fishes, mammals, reptiles and amphibians found in High Park and other Toronto’s parks.

Two loonies in Grenadier Pond.

The High Park administration recommends that you enjoy secluded areas in the company of friends.

You’ll be amazed at how many animals and rare plants you’ll see.

Keep your eyes open and listen carefully while exploring Toronto's Parks and Trails.

Sakura in winter. 

Nature in the City: You can also find an incredible Biodiversity Booklet Series available online and at Toronto Public Libraries. Flowers of sakura Purple blue flower (petunia), close up

High Park : Animal Paddocks, Baseball, Colborne Lodge, Dream Site, Fishing, Food Concession Grenadier Restaurant, Football, Hillside Gardens, Howard Tomb and Monument, Information Map, Lawn Bowling, Nature Trail/Foot Path, Outdoor Pool, Parking, Pedestrian path (paved), Picnic Areas, Playground, Road (vehicular access), Road (no vehicular access), Sculpture Symposium Site, Skating, Soccer, Stairs, Streetcar Stop, Subway Station, Summer Music Festival, Telephone, Tennis Court, Trackless Train Stop, Wading Pool, Washroom.For more information on area of the High Park history, inquire at the Runnymede Branch of the Toronto Public Library. For more information on parks and parks programs, please call 416-392-1111.