Aniakchak \,an-e-'ak-chak\ National Monument and Pre¬ serve Park, southern shore of the Alaska Peninsula, U.S. Situated in the volcanically active Aleutian Range, it consists primarily of a great dry caldera, which last erupted in 1931. The crater has an average diameter of 6 mi (10 km). Declared a national monument in 1978, it covers 942 sq mi (2,440 sq km).
Aniene River \an-'ya-na\ River, central Italy. It rises in the Simbruini Mountains southeast of Rome and meanders 67 mi (108 km) to join the Tiber River north of Rome. Nero created a group of artificial lakes in its upper course and built a villa there, the remains of which survive.
aniline Va-no-.lInN One of the most important organic bases, parent sub¬ stance for many dyes and drugs. Pure aniline is a highly poisonous, oily, colourless liquid with a distinctive odour. First obtained (1826) from indigo, it is now prepared synthetically. It is a weakly basic primary aro¬ matic amine and participates in many reactions with other compounds. It is used to make chemicals used in producing rubber, dyes and interme¬ diates, photographic chemicals, urethane foams, pharmaceuticals, explo¬ sives, herbicides, and fungicides as well as to make chemicals used in petroleum refining.
animal Any member of the kingdom Animalia (see taxonomy), a group of many-celled organisms that differ from members of the two other many-celled kingdoms, the plants and the fungi (see fungus), in several ways. Animals have developed muscles, making them capable of spon¬ taneous movement (see locomotion), more elaborate sensory and nervous
systems, and greater levels of general complexity. Unlike plants, animals cannot manufacture their own food, and thus are adapted for securing and digesting food. In animals, the cell wall is either absent or composed of material different from that of the plant cell wall. Animals account for about three-quarters of living species. Some one-celled organisms display both plant and animal characteristics. See also algae, arthropod, bacteria, CHORDATE, INVERTEBRATE, PROTIST, PROTOZOAN, VERTEBRATE.
animal communication Transmission of information from one ani¬ mal to another by means of sound, visible sign or behaviour, taste or odour, electrical impulse, touch, or a combination of these. Most animal communication uses sound (e.g., birds calling, crickets chirping). Visual communication usually indicates an animal’s identity (species, sex, age, etc.) or other information through specific characteristics (e.g., horns, patches of colour) or behaviour (e.g., the bee’s “dance” describing a source of food). Chemical communication involves pheromones (chemi¬ cal signals) produced by the animal’s endocrine system. Eels and some other fishes use electrical impulses to communicate.
animal husbandry Controlled cultivation, management, and produc¬ tion of domestic animals, including improvement of the qualities consid¬ ered desirable by humans by means of breeding. Animals are bred and raised for utility (e.g., food, fur), sport, pleasure, and research. See also BEEKEEPING, DAIRY FARMING.
animal rights rights, primarily against being killed and being treated cruelly, that are thought to be possessed by higher nonhuman animals (e.g., chimpanzees) and many lower ones by virtue of their sentience. Respect for the welfare of animals is a precept of some ancient Eastern religions, including Jainism, which enjoins ahimsa (“noninjury”) toward all living things, and Buddhism, which forbids the needless killing of ani¬ mals, especially (in India) of cows. In the West, traditional Judaism and Christianity taught that animals were created by God for human use, including as food, and many Christian thinkers argued that humans had no moral duties of any kind to animals, even the duty not to treat them cruelly, because they lacked rationality or because they were not, like Man, made in the image of God. This view prevailed until the late 18th century, when ethical philosophers such as Jeremy Bentham applied the principles of utilitarianism to infer a moral duty not to inflict needless suf¬ fering on animals. In the latter half of the 20th century, the ethical phi¬ losopher Peter Singer and others attempted to show that a duty not to harm animals follows straightforwardly from simple and widely accepted moral principles, such as “It is wrong to cause unnecessary suffering.” They also argued that there is no “morally relevant difference” between humans and animals that would justify raising animals, but not humans, for food on “factory farms” or using them in scientific experiments or for product testing (e.g., of cosmetics). An opposing view held that humans have no moral duties to animals because animals are incapable of entering into a hypothetical “moral contract” to respect the interests of other rational beings. The modern animal-rights movement was inspired in part by Sing¬ er’s work. At the end of the 20th century, it had spawned a large number of groups dedicated to a variety of related causes, including protecting endangered species, protesting against painful or brutal methods of trap¬ ping and killing animals (e.g., for furs), preventing the use of animals in laboratory research, and promoting what adherents considered the health benefits and moral virtues of vegetarianism.
animals, cruelty to Willful or wanton infliction of pain, suffering, or death upon an animal or the intentional or malicious neglect of an ani¬ mal. Perhaps the world’s first anticruelty law, which addressed the treat¬ ment of domesticated animals, was included in the legal code of the Massachusetts Bay Colony (1641); similar legislation was passed in Brit¬ ain in 1822. The world’s first animal welfare society, the Society for the Protection of Animals, was established in England in 1824; the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was chartered in 1866. In varying degrees, cruelty to animals is illegal in most countries, and interest in endangered species gave further impetus to the anticruelty move¬ ment in the late 20th century. Reflecting such interest, many laws have been passed, though they are seldom enforced unless public pressure is brought to bear. Acts targeted by the movement have ranged from the mistreatment of domesticated animals to bullfighting and vivisection. Fac¬ tory farming, which involves various evidently cruel practices, has remained largely exempt from legal scrutiny. See also animal rights.
animals, master of the Supernatural figure regarded as the protec¬ tor of game animals in the traditions of hunting peoples. In some tradi-
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tions he is the ruler of the forest and guardian of all species; in others, he is the guardian of a single species—usually a large and valuable animal— and may have both human and animal characteristics. He requires that hunters treat slain animals with respect; if they fail to do so, he may with¬ hold game until he is placated through a ceremony or by a shaman.
animation Process of giving the illusion of movement to drawings, models, or inanimate objects. From the mid-1850s, such optical devices as the zoetrope produced the illusion of animation. Stop-action photog¬ raphy enabled the production of cartoon films. The innovative design and assembly techniques of Walt Disney soon moved him to the forefront of the animation industry, and he produced a series of classic animated films, beginning with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). The Fleischer brothers and the animators at Warner Brothers offered more irreverent cartoons that often appealed to adult audiences. In Europe new animation alternatives to line drawing were developed, including animation using puppets (sometimes made from clay). In the late 20th century computer animation, as seen in the first fully computer-generated animated feature, Toy Story (1995), moved the art to a new level.
anime Style of animation popular in Japanese films. Anime films are meant primarily for the Japanese market and, as such, employ many cul¬ tural references unique to Japan. For example, the large eyes of anime characters are commonly perceived in Japan as multifaceted “windows to the soul.” Much of the genre is aimed at the children’s market, but anime films are sometimes marked by adult themes and subject matter. Modern anime began in 1956 and found lasting success in 1961 with the estab¬ lishment of Mushi Productions by Osamu Tezuka, a leading figure in modern manga (Japanese comics). Such anime as Akira (1988), Princess Mononoke (1997), and the Pokemon series of films have attained inter¬ national popularity.