If we didn have birds, flying insects, would we have ever thought about the idea of flying?
Even if we didn’t have birds and flying insects, we still have bats and animals that glide, like the flying squirrel. But we’re very creative creatures. Somehow, even without the idea of animals flying, we would have encountered a need for flying, like, say, preventing ourselves from falling to our deaths from a cliff side. If you think about it, many primates naturally jump from tree to tree. It wouldn’t take much for humans to imitate that behavior, then wonder how to keep themselves suspended in the air for longer – thus, gliding. Then we might continue on to think, “Hey, what about instead of just coasting, we could go up and down as we please, and land whenever we want?” The mechanism we would use to try and imitate flight might have been different, as historically, humans have tried to imitate birds when it came to making flying machines, but remember that some machine have been suggested that had nothing to do with flapping, and more to do with a helicopter motion. I don’t think
We have learned most of what we do and have invented from animals, flying is one of them. Birds and flying insects did cause the idea of flying, but if we didn’t have them we still would have figured it out by the other types of flying creatures in the world. Nothing can be made without the idea of something else to guild you no matter how smart any one is. Nature and life experiences have helped us develop what we have and do today. Human behavior came into play by watching how animals interacted and adapted to their surroundings.
