Musings on a new hairbrush . . . & summer love songs

Wild boar

A hairbrush with boar bristles, as in “boar,” or wild pig.  As in, the boar didn’t donate those bristles, so I have to assume this brush and others like it, made in China (why am I not surprised?), involved killing boars for their bristles, and probably their meat and other body parts too.

This is China, remember, the country that not long ago was the world’s major consumer of elephant ivory -- also not donated by elephants, but coming to China indirectly, as in smuggled from Africa through other countries after the elephants had been killed by poachers for their tusks.

Although to some extent, China has recently gotten religion on the subject of ivory, its lust for rhino horns and pangolin scales and lion bones and tiger parts continues for use in Eastern medicinal practices (with no proven efficacy).  Whether stated or not, animals are still seen in China as objects that exist for human use.  Eastern religions may not preach human dominion over animals -- maybe Genesis (1:26) has a lock on stating that belief -- nonetheless, people in those countries are living the belief.  

Consider pigs, for instance: animals bred en masse to be killed and eaten.  Since “African swine fever” broke out in Asia, millions of pigs have had to be killed.  Horrors!  No, not from compassion for the animals, but grief over lost income. https://www.google.com/search?q=pig+disease+%2B+Asia+%2B+culling&rlz=1C1VSNG_enUS691US702&oq=pig+disease+%2B+Asia+%2B+culling&aqs=chrome..69i57.9543j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

“I never met a pig I didn't like.  All pigs are intelligent, emotional, and sensitive souls.  They all love company. They all crave contact and comfort.  Pigs have a

delightful sense of mischief; most of them seem to enjoy a good joke and

appreciate music.  And that is something you would certainly never suspect

from your relationship with a pork chop.” 
― Sy Montgomery, naturalist and author (1958-   )      

Still on the subject of human-used animals, just think about silk, a Chinese invention based on the threads of silkworms. Moths lay eggs and worms hatch, eat mulberry leaves till they’re fat, then spin cocoons.  Cocoons are steamed to kill the growing moth inside, then rinsed in hot water to loosen the fibers, which are combined into threads, which in turn are woven into cloth: silk.

https://www.ducksters.com/history/china/legend_of_silk.php   

California condor 

But we can’t be too righteous about China’s sins against animals.  After all, we’re the ones who killed off American buffaloes and drove majestic California condors -- North America’s largest flying bird --  nearly to extinction.  (Now in gradual recovery, they’re still endangered by lead exposure in carcasses (lead ammo must go!) and consumption of junk in their habitats (humans must clean up after themselves!).    

Seductive sounds

Cicada

On to a happier and much noisier subject: the sizzling seasonal sounds of . . . bugs.  Specifically, cicadas, crickets and katydids.  We hear them in alpha-order, with male cicadas buzzing during the day, singing to attract females by vibrating a special membrane in their abdomens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mah26og11ms

Male crickets rub their wings together to produce their chirpy mating calls late afternoon and evening, while katydids rub their front wings together to "sing" to each other late at night in bursts of two, three or four notes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Olfg9KK_bmE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob2rEjRz-RM

Cricket

Nor are these three insects the only ones we hear these steamy days and nights.  Rubbing a hind leg against one of its hard front wings, a grasshopper also makes sounds, and for the same purpose: courting and mating.  

It’s a buzzy, chirpy world out there during these “bug days of summer.”  But as temperatures drop, the seasonal sounds lessen and are usually gone by October.  It's sad.

Katydid

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We emotion-sharing animals save one another

“Mutual Rescue”: doesn’t that sound appealingly two-way?  Many of us are, or try to be, animal rescuers.  But in fact, helping an animal often helps us at least as much as the animal.

That’s the title-thesis of a book I mentioned here (May 12 post) as one of three new books animal people might like.  I’ve just finished Mutual Rescue: How Adopting a Homeless Animal Can Save you, Too -- and “like” doesn’t begin to say it.  It’s highly readable and hugely true, as I know and many readers here probably do too.

Carol Novello (writing with Ginny Graves) has filled her book with stories about how rescuing an animal made much better people of the rescuers. That’s because in fact, animals can be exemplars and inspirations, and in the process of picking up on that, and often imitating it, people start to see themselves in a different light.

The authors say, “. . . these endearing, willful creatures unleash our ability to feel compassion -- the life-giving pulse at the center of meaning.”

For example, there’s the story of a woman whose relationship with a caring and smart pig helped cure her sadness and depression, eventually prompting her to start a pig rescue. And of the man with rock-bottom self-esteem who began helping community cats to the point of abandoning his original career goal so he could continue that highly satisfying activity.

Novello & Graves make this crucial point: “Our strong emotional response with a variety of animals actually seems to be innate -- a relic of a long-ago time when humans saw themselves as part of the fabric of the natural world, one animal species among many, rather than separate from it.”   

(How often now do we separate sentient beings into “we” and “they” -- human and non-human animals -- in spite of how fundamentally we’re all linked?)  

A key link among humans and non-humans alike is our emotions. We all have them and we all show them. There can be no doubt that animals experience fear, joy and all the rest. 

Reviewing Frans de Waal’s book, Mama’s Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us About Ourselves, Sy Montgomery says “nothing could be more essential [than emotions] to understanding how people and animals behave.”  Measurable “hormones [connected with emotions] are virtually identical across taxa, from humans to birds to invertebrates.”

Mama & daughter   de Waal pic

Emotions, she says, “give meaning to everything”; they “enable us to survive.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/25/books/review/frans-de-waal-mamas-last-hug.html

Spider status

My BBFSF (Best Bathroom Female Spider Friend) now lives, I hope, outside.  After days of craning my neck to find her as she moved around the ceiling perimeter, I finally spotted her bobbing up and down right over my head.  Having just heard about a man who suffered long-lasting ill after-effects of a bite by a brown recluse spider, I decided I didn’t want to tangle with any spider in my hair.

So, with apologies and a hope she’d find a “kindred-spirit spider,” I transported her to our deck, where other spiders were already constructing webs.  No doubt I’ll walk right into hers sometime soon -- they all seem to be located on my path to the hose spigot.

Two days later: another spider, decidedly bigger, appeared on my bathroom ceiling: an avenging- angel spider?   

Time off

So much more to talk about -- from animal-related bills in the NJ legislature (now recessed) to elephant poaching in Botswana, and from racehorse deaths to fish-free fish (!). But summer break calls, irresistibly. Till I return later this month, maybe you’ll look into one of the books mentioned here and/or rescue a homeless animal!

But take care: a book about crazy laws still on the books warns that you can’t keep a walrus as a pet.  

                                                                                                                                           National Geographic Society pic

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Endangered orangutans vs. making money: that's easy

                               Hope                                 NYTimes pic

The mother valiantly protected her baby from those who would harm or steal her.  She was attacked over and again with guns and spears, and finally blinded, with 74 air-gun pellets in her lacerated body.

Somehow, she “survived” . . . to a new life as a caged wild animal in a rehabilitation center. Her baby had died and she needed intensive medical care after the cruelties she had endured.

Named "Hope," this model of loving, protective motherhood is an orangutan, the only great ape species living outside Africa, exclusively on two Indonesian islands.  The spread of palm oil plantations on Hope’s home island of Sumatra has destroyed habitat there as well as on Borneo, where orangutans are also critically endangered. 

 

Ironically, “orangutan” means “people of the forest” -- yet the islands’ forests are fast disappearing through mass burnings, with the added hazard of dangerous carbon emissions. The future looks very bleak for orangutans (who share almost 97 percent of their DNA with humans): they could become the first major great ape species to go extinct.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/29/world/asia/orangutan-indonesia-palm-oil.html   

Sort of a tiger

A Siberian tiger cub born last month at Six Flags will never live the life of a Siberian tiger.  Whatever comes of “Carli,” as she was named, the “fuzzy, playful” cub will learn to be an adventure park tiger, period.  If, unlike numerous other tigers around the world, she won’t have to be photographed with

tourists and eventually discarded, Carli will be comparatively lucky.

Victoria Roberts for NYTimes

Water, water everywhere

Since we humans can’t live on salt water -- much as we may “love” the ocean -- what do creatures who live in salt water drink? 

Here’s the short answer: “Marine animals may consume both freshwater and saltwater. They rely on various adaptations for survival when only saltwater is available.”

Many sea dwellers can handle more concentrated salt in sea water than humans, while for others,  what they eat or produce on their own makes the difference. And sea birds have quite an unusual system for extracting and excreting salt. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/28/science/marine-animals-salt-water.html?ref=headline&nl_art=&te=1&nl=science-times&emc=edit_sc_20190 528

Help your local shelter

July is “Kind Acts for Animal Shelters” month.  Sounds a little strange till you think about it: sure, it’s the shelter animals who really count, but then, as long as they’re residents of a shelter -- and we know that not every “shelter” lives up to that name -- it’s well worth doing something for the facility itself.  Improve the place and with that, make life better for residents there.

Catster pic

First of all, it’s still kitten season (as much of the year is, in fact), so your neighborhood shelter might need volunteer “socializers” or even feeders for them.  Then, there’s fostering: no animal shelter ever has enough fosters.  (Try it, you’ll like it!)

More basic yet, your area shelter would probably welcome donations of towels and cleaning supplies (check its website for preferences).  Transporting animals to adoption events is a great “kind act,” and you’ll get to know the animals looking for loving families.

And, of course, you can always stop by and ask shelter staffers how you might help!  

Disaster plans for pets

The link below leads to ASPCA safety sheets -- one each for cats and dogs and horses -- with tips for how to plan ahead to protect your pet(s) when disaster strikes.  Floods, fires, hurricanes. . . they’re all possible, and you need to be ready to take care of your animals.

Suggestion: print out the tip sheet(s) you need, then get started.  Give yourself a week or so to do the job, then when you’re finished, you’ll feel great about being ready.

https://www.aspcapro.org/resource/dog-cat-safety-tip-sheets-case-disaster

Phone the gov!    

     

With the state budget now a thing of the past, Governor Murphy could at any time decide on whether to sign the terrible bill now on his desk, S2419.  Anyone who cares about New Jersey wildlife will want Murphy to veto that bill. (http://1moreonce.blogspot.com/2019/06/a-world-saving-challenge-for-meat-eaters.html). Please urge him to do so: Phone 609-292-6000.  It’s that easy to make your voice heard -- for the animals!   

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Your comments are always welcome!  Simply go to 1moreonce.blogspot.com and share your thoughts.