We come now to ears.

In the first chapter of his book, The Origin of the Species, Charles Darwin notices that domesticated animals tend to have drooping ears because  they’ve grown to have less need to hear or listen for predators to protect themselves. *

On reading this I wondered if successful human politicians may be characterised by more erect ears than their competitors, such ears giving them a greater capacity to hear what their opponents may say, and thereby better protect their political careers.

This question, I hope, will be solemnly pursued in a doctoral thesis where a more authoritative answer may be found than in this blog.  In the meantime, I offer these two sets of ears for comparison and invite you to conduct your own scientific scrutiny.  Our brief enquiry, unfortunately, did not produce a truly comparable set of front-on images and perhaps someone reading this can offer some?

Prime Minister Gillard and (with ears obscured) Indonesian President

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott

* Darwin writes:

“Not a single domestic animal can be named which has not in some country drooping ears; and the view suggested by some authors, that the drooping is due to the disuse of the muscles from the ear, from the animals not being much alarmed by danger, seems probable.” p30 (the ebook version)