As they did after the shock and terror of 9/11, hosts on
“our” radio station stuck to the business of playing great music. No ranting,
no hand-wringing. It was a relief to
tune in and think of something else for a change.
Since last year's presidential election, and the unbelievable
daily fallout since then, it’s been pretty much the same pattern. Occasionally,
connected with surprising or worrisome news of the day, a host may simply point
out that the music may soothe listeners in “these troubled times.” That’s as far as
it goes: Professionalism at work.
But this blog is
about and for animals – creatures who can’t speak for themselves, can’t go to a
legislator’s office or email and complain about their treatment, can’t change
the circumstances that affect them.
Which is why I’m here to say: "horseshoe crabs" and call
your attention to a NYTimes headline
from April 23: “The World We Could Lose” (“Tax cuts and executive orders can be
reversed. The effects of President Trump’s environmental policy cannot.”)
Related more to spiders, ticks and scorpions than to crabs,
horseshoe crabs have been around since prehistoric times. Now, thanks to humans, their
continuation is threatened. These days, humans
use Limulus polyphemus for medical
tests, bait and fertilizer – so much so that the number that can be “harvested”
is limited in some states. HC eggs are desperately
needed food for migrating birds traveling from South America to their nesting
places in the Arctic.
As oceanographer Sylvia Earle writes in that NYTimes piece, loss of critical habitat
is the top threat to Atlantic horseshoe crabs, but the runner up is “human predation” like that just cited. Our
habits of “consuming wild places and wild life” could mean the end of this
long-lived (till now) species.
One other captivating reason to be aware of horseshoe
crabs: their technical name, Limulus
polyphemus, reflects the early mistaken
belief that, like “Polyphemus,” the cyclops in Homer’s Odyssey, horseshoe crabs have just one eye.
“Protect Horseshoe Crabs!”
P.S. on African elephants
Sometimes it pays to leave late for a doctor appointment and
forget to take anything to read. So once there, I grabbed a copy of Smithsonian magazine (January 2017), in
which I found an article about a favorite topic – elephants – by an admired
writer – Elizabeth Kolbert (Pulitzer Prize winner for The Sixth
Extinction: An Unnatural History).
Kolbert writes about a scientist whose studies of DNA-laden African elephant dung and analysis of trafficked tusks helps him pinpoint "hotspots" for elephant poaching so law enforcement efforts can be focused there.
Kolbert writes about a scientist whose studies of DNA-laden African elephant dung and analysis of trafficked tusks helps him pinpoint "hotspots" for elephant poaching so law enforcement efforts can be focused there.
In the last post, I forgot to include the website for Save
the Elephants, the organization founded by elephant expert and protector Iain Douglas-Hamilton. It’s www.savetheelephants.org.
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| Sheldrick caretaker with orphaned baby elephant |
Finally (for now!) on the subject of elephants, you might
want to know about an African elephant sanctuary, one that’s sadly over-populated
with orphaned baby elephants (and rhinos). Hoping that if and when the unconscionable poaching
of elephants and rhinos for their tusks and horns is ended, the numbers of
orphaned wild baby animals will also drop. https://www.sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/index.asp
Iguana at the vet
For some delightful reading, follow this link to a
fascinating story about exotic animals and their veterinarian – in New York
City!
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| sumspic |
Very interesting, thanks for sharing! How does one protect the horseshoe crab exactly?
ReplyDeleteEnd HC use in medical tests, for bait and fertilizer (what did we use before those purposes were discovered?); and ban their "harvest" for any human purpose so HCs can live out their lives doing THEIR thing, like laying eggs along the Delaware Bay to help power migrating birds.
DeleteBut. . . none of that is likely to happen with this administration.