Today is Darwin Day, a global day to pay homage to Darwinism and its creative force natural selection. The ultimate understanding of why organic life, including humanity, is the way it is and has the properties it has, is of utmost importance for the survival and reproduction, and therefore the fitness, of us all. Of less importance, but nonetheless apparent, is that the enjoyment of the observation of wild plants and animals in the wilderness also is highly brightened by the insights offered by Darwinism. In nature, as well as in culture, both individual plants and animals struggle to survive and reproduce at the expense of the fitness of other individuals. In this strife there is grandeur and beauty.
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Birch trees close to the tree line, where their survival is barely possible and where some of them push boundaries and some of them perish. Photograph by Filosofimaskinen in Sarek National Park in Sweden 31 March 2016
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A fly scavenging on the carcass of a young bird, whose premature death by no means is meaningless to other individuals. Photograph by Filosofimaskinen in Sarek National Park 23 July 2016
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A spider spinning its web, which won’t be worth while without the coming bad fortune of another individual. Photograph by Filosofimaskinen in Sarek National Park 23 July 2016
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Illustrating sexual selection, an impressively horned female reindeer, with its calf, is followed by a protective male reindeer with smaller horns. Photograph by Filosofimaskinen in Sarek National Park 4 September 2016
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Birch trees in their preferred habitat, where the struggle against the harsh conditions of the tree line is less frequent, but the struggle against other individuals is closer at hand. Photograph by Filosofimaskinen in Sarek National Park 10 September 2016
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The tools and equipment of a lone great ape far away from his species’ original habitat in the tropics. Photograph by Filosofimaskinen in Stora Sjöfallet National Park in Sweden 27 March 2016
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Filosofimaskinen