SubscribeNovember 9th, 2011
gender games
Male birds who dress like females:
Some male harriers are colored almost exactly like females, with mainly brown plumage and white heads and shoulders, instead of the overall gray of adult males. It’s not because they are immature, as is the case in many bird species, but because they spend their life in drag, a type of permanent mimicry known in only one other species of bird.
The abstract from the originating article:
Permanent female mimicry, in which adult males express a female phenotype, is known only from two bird species. A likely benefit of female mimicry is reduced intrasexual competition, allowing female-like males to access breeding resources while avoiding costly fights with typical territorial males. We tested this hypothesis in a population of marsh harriers Circus aeruginosus in which approximately 40 per cent of sexually mature males exhibit a permanent, i.e. lifelong, female plumage phenotype. Using simulated territorial intrusions, we measured aggressive responses of breeding males towards conspecific decoys of females, female-like males and typical males. We show that aggressive responses varied with both the type of decoys and the type of defending male. Typical males were aggressive towards typical male decoys more than they were towards female-like male decoys; female-like male decoys were attacked at a rate similar to that of female decoys. By contrast, female-like males tolerated male decoys (both typical and female-like) and directed their aggression towards female decoys. Thus, agonistic responses were intrasexual in typical males but intersexual in female-like males, indicating that the latter not only look like females but also behave like them when defending breeding resources. When intrasexual aggression is high, permanent female mimicry is arguably adaptive and could be seen as a permanent ‘non-aggression pact’ with other males.
It makes me remember a woman I once knew who was rather violently opposed to homosexuality (her son was a closet gay applying to belong to the Catholic priesthood). Her reasoning was that homosexuality wasn’t normal biologically. She said to me “bucks always go with does.” Silly woman. For someone whose set of values was centered around the natural world and the power of animals, she sure didn’t know much about them.
September 7th, 2011
elk addiction
A drunken elk in a tree gets help from neighbourhood, police and hunter. Once freed it sleeps off its drunken stupor on the lawn and then carefully toddles away.
“We often see elk stuffing their faces with apples around here but this is the first time we found one perched in a tree,” he told The Local.
That’s fermenting apples, mind. I wonder if they get headaches too.
via Stephen Fry
July 10th, 2011
evidence of learning in dogs
via Wimp
June 24th, 2011
just because
Pictures courtesy of George.
Thanks George. Feel free to go take more.
May 29th, 2011
just because
The same person that took the eeeew photos in the earlier post took these out near Whistler yesterday. When at the camp site, he had some interesting neighbors.
Kidding about the evolution thing of course.
April 12th, 2011
marmot dreams
I dreamt about a marmot giving birth last night. It was a messy affair; she deposited the contents of her bowels prior to the contents of her womb. But eventually, the baby was born in a tumble of blood and mucus. They were both fine, and in short order the baby marmot was cleaned up and exploring. And mom was back to normal.
So what does that mean?
Here’s the thing about dreams. What meaning can be ascribed to the images, events and feelings is possible because of the things you’ve experienced, the people you know, the things you want and need.
For example, I know someone who has a sumesh relationship with Marmot. I’ve had dreams about Marmot before, told my friend about the dreams, followed up on the images and direction in the dream and found marmot bones under stands of mugwort at my local colony. I’ve also lived long enough to see the City of Spokane poison the colony and kill them all. So there is history here and the dream set must be taken into consideration.
As for the days before the dream – I’ve been reading Seamus Heaney. His approach to trouble, his relationship with the land, his concept of poetry as personally redemptive suits. Like a dream, a poem describes the situation, its violence and pain but it also re-orders it. A dream/poem transforms the fact of life into an art. When that transformation occurs, a new way forward is offered. Art is that: a new way forward.
And so the baby marmot, born after much muck, a new life follows the digestion of the last?
What new way is being shown? That baby Marmot obviously, but in my waking, prosaic life? I used to live near a marmot colony. Walking past them twice a day allowed me time to watch them, get to recognize individuals, watch for little guys in the spring. I would bring them treats: carrots, parsnips, celery, bits of apple. And when you’d backed off far enough, they’d come and drag the food into the tunnel. Such satisfaction I got from that! A gift accepted.
Telling you what my dream means to me would involve me telling you about my friend who’s partner is Marmot. It would involve me talking about mugwort, my collection and use of the plant, what I feel and know about the way marmot’s live. That would take a long time and many words and you don’t really need to know. But answer the questions for yourself. If it were your dream what would it mean?
I keep getting waylaid by how close dreams and poems are, and how similar the processes of interpretation. It’s a repetitious miracle. Surely, that’s part of what this dream speaks to?
April 10th, 2011
representing animals
Representing animals is a touchy business. All animals (including the human one) have their own “selves” and therefore their own agendas. Because we are animals too, when we represent creatures in any form of art, there is something there that is really referencing us and not the non-human animal. We are fundamentally interested in ourselves, first and foremost. But that isn’t the problem. The question for me when assessing whether I like something or not revolves around whether the artist seems to know this and acts to respect the animals “self.” That is, is there anything left of the animal’s self or is it really just a Disney ‘toon?
And then there is “Primitive” art.
 Jessica Fries, artist |
 Jessica Fries, artist |
 David Harden, artist |
 David Harden, artist |
 Hannah Giffard, artist |
 Hannah Giffard, artist |
 Valerie Wenk, artist |
 Warren Kimble, artist |
I really do like Primitive art of this sort. Despite the fact that these animals clearly represent some human feeling or obsession, the humor of them seems to allow the animal self to peek out regardless. “A cat in a hot tin tub,” I mean really. (That really is the title of that last piece.)
I’m not sure about this but it might be that such art references human life through a natural behaviour of the non-human animal and in doing that takes as a starting place the animal’s actual world. As an opposing example—Yogi Bear: what a comically dumb, always greedy bear. Bears are not like that. Sure in some parts of the year they are more hungry than normal, but that doesn’t define “beardom.” And certainly comical stupidity doesn’t do it either. But for a cat…heat-o-phile, sensual smugness, comfort…that does go a long, long way, to encompass “cat.” The fact that it also speaks to “human,” well that’s what makes it effective as a piece of art.
Of all the pieces above I’d say Valerie Wenk’s piece strays the farthest from an authentic sense of animal nature. Now if she’d put a tiny glimmer of claw in there, well she’d have it then I think.
March 26th, 2011
funny and irritating at the same time
March 24th, 2011
animal fun
posted over on fb by PL – Thanks Paul
Here’s another similar fun vid – human beings are good for something anyway
So it’s not only people who play football (beakball?)