By Bennett Kim
I haven’t ever found a subject that I have loved or thought about outside of school. Of course, I had classes that I found a little interesting, but no subject stood out enough for me to pursue. That was until I decided to take AP Biology in my junior year of high school. It was the first class that I had completely no understanding of yet didn’t get frustrated at. I found myself thinking of concepts even after I had completed the class. This interest in biology and life science only continued to develop during my senior year as I took APES (AP Environmental Science). I was for the first time able to connect concepts from that class to my other interests like camping and backpacking. It was because of these experiences that I decided to become a biology major in college. From there, my interest only grew as professors like Dr. Ezin ignited a newfound appreciation and admiration of the life sciences. In college, I found a passion for how these processes although small affect our everyday lives. Constantly, our cells are replicating whether we injure ourselves or just live everyday life this process never stops. It is because of my interest in how these concepts apply to fields outside of class that I am interested in how biology can be applied to fairy tales. Two Fairy tales stuck out to me because of the prominence of large wild animals.
Classic fairy tales such as “Little Red Riding Hood” and “The Three Little Pigs” are often the first interactions people have with animals like wolves and pigs. However their depiction in fairy tales are far off from what they are in the real world. In fairy tales, these animals are depicted as for out of the ordinary, blowing down homes, and talking to people like it’s a normal thing. However, fairy tales are as fantastical as they are biologically impossible, this is because they break many of the known barriers of the biological world both behaviorally and physiologically. This demonstrates the importance of understanding real-world concepts to fully learn the true extent of what the fairy tale genre can teach and the difference between the real world and those depicted in fairy tales.
.Wolves are animals that have been depicted throughout history as cunning and deception. In part, Little Red has helped contribute to this as the big bad wolf is characterized as dangerous and cunning deceiving its prey. In “Little Red Riding Hood” the wolf uses deception to hunt asking Little Red “where she was going” and “Does [grandma] live very far away?” when asking about the little girl’s plan (Tatar 34). While wolves have a variety of hunting strategies this is not one of them. Wolves don’t use the same silver tongue trickery when hunting in the wild. Instead, naturally, they utilize a much more direct and active approach. Wolves are persistence hunters meaning they “will chase and test their prey looking for weakness” (Wolf Haven International 1). In “Little Red Riding Hood” it is the wolf’s persistent questions about where Little Red is going that tests the character’s endurance. Wolves cant do this in the real world as they don’t have the intelligence or vocal abilities. Additionally, while hunting they want to waste as little energy as possible. Predators don’t receive much energy from their prey, especially wolves. This is because they are tertiary consumers and only receive about 0.1% of the energy their prey got from what they ate. This is because the energy transferred from the trophic level to the trophic level is only about 10%. The wolf’s portrayal in the fairy tale helps teach the importance of mental determination and perseverance. Through the act of continuously asking questions, the wolf shows how patience always leads to opportunity. This fairy tale focuses on the mental aptitude of the wolf which allows it to trick Little Red into its trap. By switching the wolf’s endurance from a physical standpoint to a mental one the fairy tale becomes biologically impossible.
There are also some physiological inconsistencies within the story as well. Grey wolves have “long legs that are well adapted to running, allowing them to move fast and travel far in search of food” (U.S Fish and Wildlife Service 1). Wolves as a species take up a lot of space having territories that span miles across. However, this aspect of wolf behavior and physical adaptation is ignored in the story. In the story, the wolf is described as an “old Neighbor Wolf” meaning that it had lived in the area for a long time not moving constantly like its real-world counterparts (Tatar 34). Territoriality isn’t just a trait that some wolves have it is ingrained in their DNA to be territorial species as we learn in Bio 102. These behaviors aren’t naturally altered without some physical barrier. However, through the social interactions of this story it becomes evident that this is not the case for the Big Bad Wolf as it chooses to stay in the same area. Additionally, wolves while social animals cannot talk like people. Little Red breaks this truth by having a full conversation with the Big Bad Wolf. This is simply impossible. Wolves communicate through a variety of different methods. They have to ability to maintain a “complex social system: they breed, hunt, and keep large territories cooperatively” these all being intraspecific interactions (Farago 1). However, this complexity is not the same as human wolves as most people know communicate through barks and howls. They do not speak to people nor choose to interact with people when a choice is given.
Fairy tales stretch the biological possibilities of their characters to show different perspectives. By making these non-human characters perform human tasks a new point of view can be gained. In “Little Red Riding Hood” by making the wolf talk with Little Red you can apply aspects of wolf behavior to the story. The presence of the wolf and its notoriety as a predator gives more weight to the story as well as everyone knows what a wolf is. Despite the absurdity in which the wolf “hunts” Little Red it adds an evil and menacing tone to the story. Additionally, even though aspects of wolf behavior are used incorrectly or interpreted very creatively cultural knowledge can be applied to the story. Fairy tales span many different regions and cultures and by using an animal that is so well spread through the world with “a circumpolar range including North America, Europe, and Asia” more people can relate to the story (U.S Fish and Wildlife Service 1). Fairy tales while containing a lot of information mean nothing if that information can’t be identified and connected with. By making the wolf a character the tale is better able to reach more people. But how does this relate to the biological impossibilities of fairy tales? By making traits like the wolf’s ability to talk or wait to eat a part of the tale it becomes more relatable to the individual reading as these are things we have to do every day. However, there are more biologically challenged aspects to this story such as what other dangers lie in the woods.
The forest isn’t a safe place by any stretch of the imagination as I know from backpacking in the sierras. It is unrealistic to assume that Little Red would just run into the Big Bad Wolf and not some other danger like a rattle snake or poorly maintained trail. One of the biggest dangers of walking in the woods is falling. Falling could result in sprained ankles, broken bones, head injuries, and a variety of other injuries which all require you to be air lifted out by helicopter. The CDC reports that “Approximately 8000 US children are treated for fall-related injuries in EDs every day” (Ali 1). Although not biologically impossible it is highly likely that through walking through the woods alone Little Red would have sustained some other type of injury as it is very easy to stumble or take a bad step. 8000 cases daily in the US alone may not seem terrible however this is considering only emergency room cases and modern technology. Shoes have a big influence on how stable you are while walking this is why people like me pay for hiking-specific shoes. Little Red’s shoes certainly were not up to today’s standards as this is an old fairy tale and most likely she used animal skin boots that lack a rock plate in the sole supportive ankle construction. Injuries in the woods are much more dangerous as you lose one of the most important abilities which is the ability to move and get yourself help which is terrifying. Nationally people need to be rescued every year from national parks “From 1992 to 2007 there were 78,488 individuals involved in 65,439 SAR incidents” I have even seen people airlifted out of camps because they rolled an ankle (Amundson and Heggie 1). Little Red would likely have injured a lower extremity in the woods in some way and would not have been prepared as it can get dark and cold quickly outside. The fantastical outlook of the woods in the fairy tale is that it is some magical place it isn’t always. The woods are a place to admire but with respect. They can show you some amazing things that seem straight out of a movie but also contain dangers such as snakes’ loose rocks and stupid uphill climbs. I think fairy tales choose to ignore the biological diversity and thus the danger of the woods taking one bad approach. I think it is done to encourage curiosity within the reader to explore outside more. Back to one of my favorites the “Three Little Pigs” demonstrate a variety of biological impossibilities through their human actions”.
The three little pigs have several fantastical elements that are biologically impossible. Like the wolf in “Little Red Riding Hood,” the pigs are also able to speak a language that they could physically never in the real world. Generally, pigs use a series of “high-frequency calls such as screams or squeals in negative situations, [or] low-frequency calls such as barks and grunts occur when pigs experience both positive and negative emotions” which can be frightening when unexpected (Yang 1). This mode of communication is far from that of how the pigs in the tale are depicted. Pigs are physically incapable of communication like people due to the structure of their vocal cords. This is additionally true for the wolf character as they also communicate in a fictional way that is physiologically impossible due to their vocal cord structure. Another biological falsehood seen in this fairy tale is the pig’s construction of homes. Pigs naturally sleep outside in grass beds they create through a behavior known as bedding. I have seen ruminates of these beds while in Arizona and they are nothing like a house. These beds more resemble that of dog beds. Additionally, wild pigs are known to fight off wolves as they have “sharp tusks help wild pigs fend off predators” making the homes of the pigs not only impossible to build because they don’t have tools or thumbs but also not needed (Hein 1). These biological concepts I have seen in real life as I have seen a cousin to wild boar the white collard peccary up close. They have massive teeth that come out the side of their mouths developed as a part of antagonistic coevolution to protect against coyotes and mountain lions.
From my time in this class, I have heard some of the weirdest things from abstract ideas about serial killers and why they have blue beards to Merpeople who want to have legs so that they can spread them due to sexual desires. Despite the logical shortcomings of how the characters are shown in fairy tales, there is still a way to appreciate the differences and similarities between the two. Biology teaches people to think in a particular way and this train of thought can also be applied to fairy tales. Through this lens a whole new perspective on how to analyze fairy tales is possible.
References
Ali, Bina, et al. “Consumer Products Contributing to Fall Injuries in Children Aged <1 to 19 Years Treated in US Emergency Departments, 2010 to 2013: An Observational Study.” Global Pediatric Health, vol. 6, Jan. 2019, p. 2333794X18821941. PubMed Central, https://doi.org/10.1177/2333794X18821941.
Faragó, Tamás, et al. “The Information Content of Wolf (and Dog) Social Communication.” Biocommunication of Animals, edited by Guenther Witzany, Springer Netherlands, 2014, pp. 41–62. Springer Link, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7414-8_4.
Gray Wolf (Canis Lupus) | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. 11 Dec. 2008, https://www.fws.gov/species/gray-wolf-canis-lupus.
Heggie, Travis W., and Michael E. Amundson. “Dead Men Walking: Search and Rescue in US National Parks.” Wilderness & Environmental Medicine, vol. 20, no. 3, 2009, pp. 244–49. PubMed, https://doi.org/10.1580/08-WEME-OR-299R.1.
Hein, Treena. “Controlling Feral Pigs in the US and Canada.” Pig Progress, 2 June 2020, https://www.pigprogress.net/world-of-pigs/controlling-feral-pigs-in-the-us-and-canada/.
Predation – Wolf Haven International. https://wolfhaven.org/conservation/wolves/predation/. Accessed 29 Apr. 2024.
Tatar, Maria. The Classic Fairy Tales (Second Edition) (Norton Critical Editions) (p. 9). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.
Yang, Maya. “Swine Language: Scientists Decode Pig Emotions from Their Sounds.” The Guardian, 22 Mar. 2022. The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/mar/22/oinks-squeals-grunts-scientists-decode-pig-emotions.
