As animals our brains float above the planet’s surface. We were made to be mobile and carry our intelligence with us. A huge leap for mankind is happening right now.
In his new book How to Survive the Next 100 Years ecologist and naturalist SIMON MUSTOE shows us how to consume a more balanced variety of knowledge to become healthier and happier by reconnecting with nature. The key to avoiding disaster is to work within the natural balance of our beautiful world.
Cats can make us too conservative (or just enough). Grasshoppers, eels and blue gropers teach us to solve global obesity and food crises. Simply saving wildlife in our own backyards can reduce cost of living by 60 or 70 times.
Read on for an extract and listen to a podcast with the author.
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Cats, Parasites and the Wolf of Wall Street
For Mother’s Day I bought my canine-loving mum a chance to walk dingoes at a conservation park near Melbourne. She was thrilled. Throughout the walk the dingoes behaved just as dogs will, investigating invisible odours until inevitably one rolled gleefully on its back and writhed in delight, it’s woolly mug almost grinning as it spread itself in dung before proceeding to eat it.
At some unknown moment in time, perhaps even before wolves evolved, a dog-like animal did just this. There are several possible reasons why – maybe it helps with gut bacteria, or perhaps it conceals the dog’s scent when hunting? Either way, that dog-like animal ingested cat faeces and set off a relationship between pets and people that is perhaps the weirdest of all animal-to-animal relations. They say three’s a crowd; well, when the third party is a brain parasite it even crowds one’s judgment.
One in five of us reading this book has toxoplasmosis of the brain. You are most likely to have caught it from a cat, and while it doesn’t make you feel obviously ill it does make you behave differently to other humans. In fact, two papers published recently support the idea that this common brain parasite can even make those who are infected vote differently. It can also make you less cooperative and a bit more aggressive, which in wolves and humans makes us more likely to become the leader of the pack.
As well as manifesting as changes in levels of aggression, toxoplasmosis can also increase antisocial behaviour in humans. Ironically, nature has decided these qualities are also what makes a good businessperson. This is a wonderfully quirky example of our co-dependence on wildlife and how much we as individuals are controlled by those outside forces of nature. Cat owners will already know that cats are capable of mental mind control but perhaps there’s a reason why this view has made its way into common consciousness. To understand this weird relationship we need to look to wolves. In one study, scientists looked at 22 years of blood data involving over 200 wolves in Yellowstone National Park. Wolves that spent time near cougars (which are cats, though admittedly rather large ones) were more likely to be infected by toxoplasmosis. This meant that:
- Both male and female infected wolves were more likely to leave their pack earlier than they normally do.
- Infected males were an amazing 46 times more likely to become pack leaders than uninfected males.
While this type of parasitic mind control is not unusual in the animal world, it is only quite recently that scientists have been seeing an uptick in toxoplasmosis in humans. As Imperial College London scientist Joanne Webster says in an article for Discover Magazine, ‘We often see symptoms like altered activity levels, changes in risk behaviours, and decreased reaction times … but in some cases, they become more severe – like schizophrenia.’
Those changes in risk behaviours could certainly have an impact on a person’s business acumen. It would seem likely that another wolf – this time the Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort – had a soft spot for cats, as even his latest ventures include a blockchain-based pet company. I’d bet he grew up around animals and probably, inadvertently, consumed some faeces when he was young. Though it should be noted that this isn’t something we should be aspiring to – nor will it make you a millionaire – so please don’t try it at home.
The association between toxoplasmosis and businesspeople and entrepreneurs is well known. A study in 2018 found that:
- Students who tested positive were 4 times more likely to major in business.
- Professionals attending entrepreneurship events who tested positive were 1.8 times more likely to have started their own business.
- Nations with higher infection had a lower fraction of respondents who cited ‘fear of failure’ as a factor inhibiting new business ventures.
Your chance of being infected with toxoplasmosis could be higher depending on where you live. In the US and UK that chance ranges from nine to 11 per cent. Those of you in Canada and Australia have a higher possibility of contracting the infection at 20 to 23 per cent. New Zealand is higher still at 35 per cent, with Indonesia and France taking the leap right up to around 54 per cent. Cosa Rica tops the toxoplasmosis- contracting table at a whopping 76 per cent.
What isn’t as well known as the businesspeople–toxoplasmosis connection is the effect that toxoplasmosis has on our political behaviour. But if we know that leaders are more likely to carry the parasite, what does that mean for the rest of us?
A 2021 study in Evolutionary Psychology looked at a sample of over 2,000 Czech men and women. The findings showed that ‘men and women infected with the disease demonstrate lower conscientiousness, generosity, and novelty-seeking’30 and also had poorer health. It also showed a tendency for people to be less loyal, less liberal and more anti-authority. This change in behaviour is thought to be related to inflammation of the brain that occurs because of the infection.
For the most part these changes are quite benign and only at the extremes do we see the worst behaviours emerging. There’s an amusing story in the book Fifty Shades of Gray Matter by Teresella Gondolo about an Ecuadorian man who used to rescue stray cats. His parents named him Hitler (no, I’m not making it up) and he was hospitalised with uncontrollable arm movements that resembled a Nazi salute. He was identified as having hemiballism, which comes from the Greek meaning ‘half-jumping’ and describes a condition where someone makes involuntary movements. This condition had come about from developing a brain lesion after contracting acute toxoplasmosis. He since recovered.
The real Hitler hated cats but was madly fond of his dogs, which is another way for the parasite to reach the human mouth. Viable toxoplasmosis oocysts are found in dog fur and can be ingested after petting an animal that has rolled in cat faeces. Was Hitler infected? We will never know. Though it does make you wonder, doesn’t it? Why is there always a cat in Number 10 Downing Street? James Bond’s arch enemy Blofeld was famously depicted with a cat. Could he have been heavily infected with toxoplasmosis? Studies suggest so.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I have a lifelong love of wildlife but what thrills me most, is watching how animals make ecosystems work.
I am passionate about telling that story as I firmly believe, it’s the key to reconnecting people with nature. It’s not enough to simply know animals exist, we have to recover our natural instincts and sense their significance in some of the most important processes for human survival and well being.
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