A good question, lonely cats, resilient crabs & a shelter event

Chinese Horseshoe Bat

With Covid-19 numbers dropping and the country breaking free from pandemic precautions, one giant, worrisome question remains: How did the coronavirus start? 

Did it spill over to humans from animals – was it “zoonotic”? – possibly through contacts between the two at the infamous Wuhan wet market?  Or, was it the result of an accidental laboratory leak?  The work at two rival scientific institutions in Wuhan includes studying such viruses in hopes of avoiding or treating new ones.  

Palm Civet

Although a “zoonotic spillover” is still in the lead, the lab-leak theory has gained ground recently, accompanied by talk of leaks that infected workers whose illness was hidden as part of China’s overall secretiveness.  

Because great research depth and detailed evidence would be required to decide between these possible causes of the coronavirus, President Biden’s hope for an answer after a 90-day study is unlikely to happen so swiftly, if ever.  Infighting among scientists themselves, the punditry and the media will probably extend the debate indefinitely.

Meanwhile, fingers have been pointed at bats, civets, pangolins and others, each as the likely infected animal whose condition spilled over to humans – which is the usual path for the spread of viruses.  This NYTimes summary of the situation may be the most clear and definitive look at both possible coronavirus origins and where different experts stand.  https://tinyurl.com/3n5pjj.    

Deserted cats on desert island

Desert islands don’t attract cats, especially when there’s no fresh water and they’re loaded with spiders and snakes.  Yet off the coast of Brazil, Ihla dos Gatos, or island of cats, is home to hundreds of felines who were abandoned by their owners.  And their number has risen with “pandemic abandonments.”

Some of the cats are adoptable, while many others, born there, are feral.  They’re unkempt, and worse: uncared for.  A municipal veterinarian recently boated to the island to take a look and do an informal study that confirmed the cats’ great need.  

Until the pandemic hit Brazil hard, sympathetic people brought food and water out to them.  Some fishermen left part of their catch for the felines.  It’s different now, much worse.

Yet the great uncertainty about what to do about the cats continues.  Until decisions are made, animal suffering and ecological problems will continue on Ihla dos Gatos.   https://tinyurl.com/5jnbjsxm

Hooray for horseshoe crabs!

It started last month: shorelines mobbed with horseshoe crabs who had migrated from the continental shelf to Delaware Bay’s sandy beaches.  Females bury skazillion eggs in the soft, moist sand, while males stay as close as possible to fertilize the eggs.

Horseshoe Crab

This ritual has gone on for 400 million years, and just look: horseshoe crabs are still with us, despite overharvesting and other human challenges to their existence.  And children on the beach still scream shrilly and try picking them up by their tails when they encounter these prehistoric-looking creatures.  

Animal shelter’s new facade

If you’re into art and animals, and most of all, adopting animals, plan to drop by the Trenton Animal Shelter (TAS) this Saturday, 11am-2pm.  You’ll easily spot the building, now spiffed up with a colorful giant mural in front showing dogs and cats, and inviting pet adoptions.

Jose Munoz, shelter manager/division chief, credits the volunteer group “Trenton Animals Rock” – who work on behalf of the shelter’s dogs -- for its successful grant to install the mural, painted by area artists Leon Rainbow and Sophie Ban.   

Trenton Animal Shelter

Besides a shelter tour, the “Shelter Open House & Painting with Pups” event will include music and an ice cream truck (12-2pm).

After turning into Escher St., you’ll see bright turquoise coming up on your left.  That’s the place you’re looking for – and where resident animals are looking for you!

#

What do you think about the subjects here?  Please tell us at 1moreonce.blogspot.com.  

Are cicadas ours to eat?

The animal shall not be measured by man.  In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extension of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear.  They are not brethren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of the earth. -Henry Beston, naturalist and author (1888-1968)

                

 “It’s good!  Another cicada smoothie, please.”

What’s this?!  A new creature appears in the world, or revisits it briefly, and some people’s first thought is to eat it.  Inquiring minds want to know – er, taste.

A story about a Princeton High School “Insect-Eating Club” (you read it right) in last Monday’s Times of Trenton covered members’ event to catch and taste the Brood X cicadas now emerging by the billions.  

The kids were motivated by their faculty mentor’s belief that human population growth will lessen protein sources, so people better start eating insects now. ** One student, a “big bug enthusiast” who sees most insects as “cute,” describes eating them as “a humane way to get protein.” 

Humane?  Say what?  “We catch them and then we freeze them.  It doesn’t harm them at all.  It’s really just like anesthesia or taking a nap.”

Oh.  In that case, does the golden rule apply here?  

Eating cicadas raises issues worth thinking about. . . .  

   In a world turning to plant-based foods, these students went out of their way to eat meat.  Not readily available meat, either – but that of very short-lived cicadas whose sole mission is to mate and reproduce, then that’s it for 17 more years.

·         These insects are sentient beings, despite their pathetically short life span and despite the bug enthusiast’s scary belief about what’s humane.  When they’re frozen, they’re gone forever!

·         Protein abounds in non-animal sources – think beans, peas, legumes, lentils, chickpeas, quinoa, eggs, seeds, broccoli . . . .

·         Partying while catching and eating cicadas (who have only this one shot at continuing their line) seems like needless exploitation of helpless animals. Cicadas have already been thwarted by humans, who pave, build or chop down trees in the areas where underground nymphs wait out their 17 years before emerging.  But they can’t.

·         How about conservation as an alternative focus for student activity?  Started early, it could become the commitment of a lifetime and really make a positive difference.  

·       ** In today’s TT, that same “faculty mentor” referred to how Princeton’s “many old trees” have allowed the town’s cicada population to remain “relatively undisturbed,” saying “they need to emerge from the ground in huge numbers.”  (Right, and then they’re captured and eaten by his club members – “humanely,” of course.)  

Avian divers  

                 Brown Pelican                                          Siegal pic      

 Now, moving from subterranean to high sky, imagine a bird that can dive from 65 feet up into water and emerge with fish and gallons of water in its pouch.  Its folded wings make its “plunge dive” look arrow-like as it speeds downward.

This would be the brown pelican, about four feet tall and smallest of the world’s eight species.  I’ve tried, and failed, to photograph that dive from the beach while watching and hoping each bird won't re-surface with a broken neck.

The news about these awesome birds is that they’re back in force after years of being on the endangered species list.  DDT – finally banned in 1972 -- had contaminated fish, pelicans’ main food, and in turn their ability to breed was hampered because their eggshells were too thin to allow successful incubation.

With the dramatic change for the better, today there are more than 2,500 pelican pairs in the Chesapeake Bay area alone.  (Picture all the plunge dives!)   

https://tinyurl.com/2fuamwnt

 Spring babies

Opossum           Cappaert-MSU

She’s baaaaack!  Margaret Renkl’s inspiring columns about nature foster a wish to do things right by our world and take care of its animal inhabitants.  Let’s do it!     https://tinyurl.com/2tksjn26

 

#

What do you think about eating cicadas?  Please comment at 1moreonce.blogspot.com!