What is your take on the story of animal habits? What is the relevance of Pi’s fathers lesson that an ‘animal is an animal’?

In Life of Pi, Piscine talks about animal habits of animals living in zoos. He brought up the rhino enclosure that was shared between two rhino’s and a herd of goats and I think that the living arrangement is perfectly plausible. As Pi said in the novel there are numerous examples of unlikely pairings of animals living together. Pi called upon two other instances from within the Pondicherry zoo where there was a mouse that lived for several weeks alongside pythons and the common ploy of using a dog as a surrogate mother for a lion cub. These living arrangements do not only occur in zoos but in our homes as well. Dogs and cats are stereotypically sworn enemies but are often found in peaceful cohabitation in people’s homes. These strange living arrangements are not unbelievable because in a zoo, or in a home, animals are given everything they need. Most animals do not enjoy fighting and know the high price of an injury therefore; most animals will not attack without need or provocation.

When Pi’s father, Santosh, saw the way that Pi anthropomorphized the animals in his zoo he realized that he needed to show his sons a lesson. After starving the zoos Bengal Tiger for three weeks he showed the tiger to Pi and Ravi and made them watch as a goat was released into the cage and promptly butchered by the tiger. This was extremely important to the story for two reasons. First it showed Pi that it is extremely dangerous to anthrtopomorphize animals and think of them as friends because "an animal is an animal" and will do what it needs to survive. This lesson was given to prevent Pi from anthropomorphizing animals but we learn almost right away that the lesson didn’t work when Pi imagined the rhinos frowning the next day over the loss of one of their friends. It is very important that we see that Pi has disregarded the message behind the lesson because if he hadn’t, he would not have survived his ordeal at sea because he would have been unable to form a companion. The lesson also shows the capabilities that the tiger has and how dangerous it is to be in close proximity to a hungry tiger. This is important because Pi was able to survive with this tiger for two hundred and seventy-seven days on a life boat with little food. It begs the question was Pi really alone with a tiger or was god on the boat with them?