Category: Semi-shameless anthropomorphism
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Near the North Pole, examining a submarine. When we were getting ready to go to Antarctica, people warned us about polar bears. Polar bears, they pointed out, are fast, big, smart, dangerous. They are more inclined than other bears to view humans as fabulous taste explosions. No, we said. We're going to the Antarctic, not…
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Earlier this year, a wildlife rescue center took in a mute swan (Cygnus olor). Mute swans aren't native birds. In North American we have tundra swans, whooper swans, and trumpeter swans. Some people buy mute swans, the lovely birds of classic European imagery, and place them on ornamental water to make it even more ornamental.…
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Killdeer are marvelous birds. They wear a handsome double necklace for easy identification by eye. They fly around shouting their name – KillDEER! KillDEER! — for easy identification by ear. (It would be impressive if they shouted their Latin name – ChaRAdrius voCIFerus! — but harder to remember.) ShutterGlow.com Famously, when any worrisome creature comes…
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On Monterey Bay, a tour boat laden with wildlife photographers spotted a sea otter. The boat headed over. When they got close enough to point their cameras at the otter, the otter pointed a camera at them. Enrique Aguirre got the shot that shows the otter with the videocamera. As Stephanie Pappas wrote in the…
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While visiting Santa Fe recently, I read an interesting story in The New Mexican, the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi. Some visiting Tibetan monks had been asked to bless the prairie dogs in Frenchy's Field, a large city park. A colony of 50—100 prairie dogs lives in Frenchy's Field. An organization called People for…
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Sometimes people get sentimental about the nobility of animals. But it depends on the animal. Perhaps you saw the story of Yosuke, a pet African Grey parrot in Japan. One day he got out. As parrots do, he flew around for a few days and a few miles before landing and seeking human help. (“Free!…
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I was reading Tupai: A Field Study of Bornean Treeshrews by Louise H. Emmons because that is the kind of thing I like, and learned about the absentee maternal system found in some treeshrew species. First I should say that treeshrews are the same as tree shrews, and the closing up of the word is…
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