Bambie Hero Forgot His Permit
June 6, 2008
“Taking an orphaned animal home is not legal in New Brunswick without a permit,” said Mr. Delong. “And permits are not generally issued for someone to take an animal home to take care of it.”
This from a Globe and Mail story about a man who performed a caesarean section on a pregnant deer that layed dying at the side of the road after being struck by a pick-up truck.
So I’m curious whether the journalist who wrote the article is emphasizing the legal/illegal aspect to add tension to this interesting story. It is hard to believe that the Department of Natural Resources officials in New Brunswick are debating whether or not to charge this man.
Eco Nihilism
August 14, 2007
A New York Times Opinion piece named The 17 Percent Problem and the Perils of Domestication laments about man’s influence on the natural world.
In June, Science magazine published an article called “Domesticated Nature,” which noted that by 1995, “only 17% of the world’s land area had escaped direct influence by humans.” The article was accompanied by one map showing the enormous “human footprint” on Earth and another showing in a thicket of red lines the tangle of road networks and shipping lanes across the globe. That 17 percent figure is now certainly smaller, and that thicket of transport networks gets a little more tangled every day. The article takes as a working assumption what is obviously true: “There really is no such thing as nature untainted by people.”
Obviously true? Let’s try it with bees: “There really is no such thing as nature untainted by bees.” This sentence applied to bees really doesn’t make any sense because the word “untainted” is emotionally loaded in a “you’ve got the cooties” kind of way and it is really really weird to think of bees as separate from nature.
So why do we continue to think of humanity as separate from nature despite all the contrary evidence? It is an “Us vs. Them” mentality where Them is nature and Us is something very different and flawed beyond repair.
Margaret Wente Rights My World
May 19, 2007
Just when Goracle Gardeners make me sigh, along comes Margaret Wente to right my world. Her article in the Globe and Mail titled The birds and the bees and the northern flicker in the fridge cracks me up.
UPDATE: article now behind a subscriber firewall… sorry.
Shrimp in an Anemone
April 25, 2007
Buggy Images
April 13, 2007
I have a lot of flower pictures and a surprising number of them have bugs in them. Insects of all kinds. Spiders, beetles, and tiny little red things that I know not what they are. Software bugs are a constant irritant but for whatever reason I really like the bugs in my images. They make me happy.
Bring Out the Clowns
March 23, 2007
Some days you just feel like bringing out the clowns… or the clownfish in this case. Clownfish have to be the most photogenic critters on the planet. They have beautiful color and the host anemone serves as a fascinating backdrop. They make me happy.
Leaves and Hunting Finches
March 22, 2007
This image reminds me of watching finches hunt. In the summer I spend time on a relatively tall deck that puts me face to face with finches and woodpeckers and other birds in the adjacent trees. Finches are beautiful little birds but when you get to see them in action up close you realize they are magnificent hunters too. They move from dry leave clump to dry leave clump, presumably a good spot for insects. They move their heads constantly, narrowing in on their prey.
Soon, very soon, I will once again spend time in the trees with hunting finches. Sit out on the deck, feel the warmth of the sun, immerse myself in a book, watch the hunting finches when I hear their distinctive flutter, breath, repeat. Ah yes, soon.
Spear Wielding Chimp Podcast
March 19, 2007
I reported earlier about chimpanzees using tools to hunt bushbabies. CBC Radio’s Quirks and Quarks interviewed Dr. Jill Pruetz about the discovery. Click the player to listen.
Rodents of Enormous Size Revisited
March 8, 2007
I’m afraid to even provide a quote from this press release for the scientific paper Sexual selection and genital evolution in mammals: a phylogenetic analysis of baculum length. Who knew.
Feeling Trapped
March 3, 2007
Did the recent ice/snow/wind/rain storm in southern Ontario make you feel trapped at home? Me too… and when I feel trapped I take reflective self portraits.
Bushbaby Poked to Death By Tool Wielding Chimp
February 27, 2007
Iowa State University anthropologists report tool use by chimpanzees in Senegal.
Chimpanzees forcibly jabbed tools into hollow trunks or branches multiple times and smelled and/or licked them upon extraction. Only two of the 22 reported cases were seen as playful — in the case of an infant male — or exploratory in nature. In all other cases, chimps were judged by the researchers to use such force in inserting the tool that prey within the tree could have been injured. They witnessed just one case in which a chimpanzee extracted a bushbaby — a smaller primate — through use of the spear.
The chimp was reported saying “mmmmmmm…… bushbaby.”
Leafy Filefish Behavior
February 26, 2007
I took a photo of this beautiful Leafy Filefish on a dive in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. I normally would not have to mention “on a dive” but the results of a quick Google search made me think twice. I searched on “behavior leafy filefish” and the top results contained information for aquarium owners. Sigh.
Nature is a Cruel Mistress
February 22, 2007
Nature is a cruel mistress. She teases me with warmth and exposing long black lengths of my driveway only to mock me now. A cruel reminder of her power over me. Wagging her finger and saying “you had no part in the snow free driveway”. I know my dear. I know.
