Flamingo Friday: A Quiet Breakfast

And as an update, you can now purchase--in addition to the all-beasts or all-flamingos calendars--a "No More Charismatic Megafauna!" calendar. Refuse to bow to convention, and get all your friends and relatives a calendar replete with winsome invertebrates, amphibians, and reptiles!

"No More Charismatic Megafauna!" - calendar by O_Ambrogio

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‘Tis the Season

For me to promote Beasts in a Populous City Calendars—with all-new photos for an all-new year!

You can get either the all-beasts calendar:

Beasts in a Populous City - calendar by O_Ambrogio

Or the exclusively-flamingos calendar:

Every Day is Flamingo Friday - calendar by O_Ambrogio

And stay tuned for an upcoming “No More Charismatic Megafauana!” calendar for those of you tired of big pretty mammals.

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Adaptations

Not sure why this has been on my mind lately, but I've been thinking about the excellent stories written by people like Jack London (Call of the Wild and White Fang) and Virginia Woolf (Flush) that present life from the perspective of dogs and wolves.

I’m sure if I spent a few minutes I could think of more examples of fiction, or even creative nonfiction, that describes the world and the story through the eyes of some non-human animal—in a way that seems accurate, mind you: much as I love Watership Down, it would not be included in this category.

I love those sorts of stories, when they’re done well and feel authentic—and maybe it’s because of that that I find film versions of such books to be such a bad idea. After all, it’s hard enough in writing to build this different consciousness and yet remain as true as you can be to the animal’s nature—how can you do that in a movie? Either you anthropomorphize like crazy and have the animals talking, with those awful digitized “lip” movements, or you make a silent movie that loses all of the narrative power and is probably less effecting and affecting than a documentary.

So I ask you: is there a good way to show the (as far as we know) authentic lives of non-human animals in film? Are documentaries the way to go, or do they leave much to be desired as well?

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Flamingo Friday: Neck and Neck

Sorry for the extremely late Flamingo Friday post, but I've been distracted by a new member of the family, the lovely not-so-wild-life Earnestine:

--And can you blame me?

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The Hitchhiker’s Guide Was Right

Towels are of the utmost importance, as evidenced by the following: Elderly owl rescued in Fairfax County

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Cue the Charles Gounod

A house sparrow in the sun or the silhouette introducing Alfred Hitchcock Presents?

You tell me.

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Don't Say I Never Gave You Anything

["You're so crane,
you probably think
this song is about you..."]

Reaching new levels of amazing animal pun-ship--enjoy this wonderful take on Motown and the Shirelles:

The Marmoset Song

I can only take credit for having discovered this gem. Have a great weekend!

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Flamingo Friday: What I Could Use More of....

Sleep, gorgeous tangerine and pink feathers--you name it...

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One Good Shot: Urban Birds

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Magic Leaves

The starlings continue to gather in their vast murmurations, swirling and soaring and settling over telephone wires and roofs and trees, where they mutter and whistle and whisper to one another.

The sight, and sound, of them is so striking that it once again reminded me of this beautiful and evocative poem by Anca Vlasopolos, who kindly allowed me to re-“print” it here:

Starlings

You would think, pieces of soot, burnt
pages of journals, banned books, suddenly
come to life, rising in this wild March wind
like ghosts screeching in a forbidden language.
Twilight breaks up into these glimpses
of deepest night. Then, just as sudden,
obeying a call to order none of us can hear
they cluster, leaves on macabre trees
of an illustrated gothic, magic leaves
that sing in the coming dark.

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En Surpris

Perhaps one of my favorite things about research and animal care (and by favorite I mean “things that are fun to think about when you’re no longer doing them”) is the way that your charges can surprise you.

In the case of my marine snails, this was usually achieved by their attempted suicides. Every couple of days they would crawl above the water line in their tanks and sit there, gripping the glass, waiting to desiccate, until I shoved them back into the water, issuing encouraging phrases like, “You have everything to live for!” and “Think of your friends!”

This isn’t really the same thing—it’s even better—for, within this article:

National Zoo welcomes first tentacled snakes born in 11 years

—Is this line: “Eight tentacled snakes were born at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo last month, surprising zookeepers who had spent four years trying to breed the reptile.”

And I ask you, all you researchers out there: isn’t that always the way?

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Flamingo Friday: One Eye Open

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Since it’s Still Fall

…And since I’m writing this Tuesday night while trying not to fixate on the elections… A seasonal haiku:

Sugar Maple In Autumn

A few sparks caught just
the one branch, and it started
up: slowly at first.

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Don't Frog-et to Vote!

What Happened

I’m sure most of you have already read or heard about the horrible incident at the Pittsburgh Zoo, where a poor little boy died after he fell into the wild-dog enclosure and was mauled.

The zoo exhibit was found to meet all required safety standards; nonetheless, any number of people have apparently already vented their opinions online, condemning the zoo or condemning the mother, who held her son over the railing at the exhibit.

It seems extraordinarily insensitive and cruel, not to mention inaccurate, to accuse a parent during one of these cases—after all, I’ve seen tons of people hold their kids on or over railings that they shouldn’t at the zoo—and, it’s true, they shouldn’t do that, and probably more people will think twice now about doing so—but I’ve seen tons of kids not get hurt by this. Not a good practice, but surely not the time or place to blame an individual parent who has suffered such a devastating loss.

What this did make me think of, though, is what I’ve mentioned before when describing one of my concerns about zoos: that they make us, the observers, feel entitled—to be entertained by the animals, to get to see them as close up as we want to, and to be safe from them. And of course we do expect that—we’re not on safari or traveling in the wilds. But I think we become lulled into a too strong sense of complacency sometimes.

I’m not saying that this happened in this particular case—I don’t know anything about this beyond what I’ve read. But the incident did make that concern come to mind. And it makes me sad, too, because all of the good work that zoos do to convince the public not to revile various predators—I’m sure much of that has been undone too.

My heart goes out to the family of that little boy. And I also hope this won’t have negative repercussions for the zoo, provided that it was applying every safety measure it could.

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Ghostly

First there’s nothing but the dim blue water, lanced with beams of sun. And then, faintly, as if formed from the currents, she glides towards you, limned with light.

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Even Crustaceans Can Have Identity Crises

[Photo credit: the New England Aquarium]

…Or maybe they just want a hint of color. Either way, this rare two-colored lobster is quite an impressive sight. Read more about it on the New England Aquarium’s site.

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Flamingo Friday: Showing a Preen Again...

Never wanted to;
What am I to do?
Caaaahn’t help it…

[With many apologies to Marlene Dietrich.]

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Nothing says Halloween like a Pumpkin Stuffed with Squid

I haven’t had a chance to visit the zoo lately, but there’s a great photo album on their Facebook page of the denizens of the American Trail—wolves, otters, ravens, seals, and sea lions—inspecting jack-o-lanterns filled with each species’ favorite treats.