Evolution

Evolution

by Margaret Ross

 

 

 

The corpses weigh nothing, nearly nothing, even your breath is breeze enough to scatter them

We steamed them in tupperware with a damp sponge then we tweezed the stiff wings open

The wing colors would brush off if you touched them

3,000 butterflies raised and gassed and shipped to Evolution, the store in New York rented by an artist hired to design a restaurant

He wanted to paper the walls with butterflies

Each came folded in its own translucent envelope

We tweezed them open, pinned them into rows on styrofoam flats we stacked in towers in the narrow hallway leading to the bathroom

Evolution called itself a natural history store

It sold preserved birds, lizards, scorpions in lucite, bobcat with the eyes dug out and glass ones fitted, head turned

Also more affordable bits like teeth and peacock feathers, by the register a dish of raccoon penis bones

This was on Spring

The sidewalks swarmed with bare-armed people there to see the city

You could buy your own name in calligraphy or written on a grain of rice by someone at a folding table

Souvenir portraits of taxis and the Brooklyn Bridge lined up on blankets laid over the pavement

The artist we were pinning for had gotten famous being first to put a dead shark in a gallery

For several million dollars each he sold what he described as happy pictures which were rainbow dots assistants painted on white canvases

I remember actually thinking his art confronted death, that’s how young I was

We were paid per butterfly

The way we sat, I saw the backs of the other pinners’ heads more than their faces

One’s braids the color of wine, one’s puffy headphones, feather cut and slim neck rising from a scissored collar, that one bought a raccoon penis bone on lunch break

Mostly we didn’t speak 

Another life glimpsed in a detail mentioned, leaving or arriving 

She lived with a carpenter who fixed her lunches

Come fall I’d be in college

I smelled the corpses on my fingers when I took my smoke break leaning against a warm brick wall facing the smooth white headless mannequins in thousand-dollar shift dresses

The deli next door advertised organic toast and raisins on the vine

Mornings, I tried to learn from eyeliner and shimmer on faces near mine on the train

Warm fogged imprint on a metal pole where someone’s grip evaporated

Everyone looking down when someone walked through asking for help

At Evolution, talk radio played all day

A cool voice giving hourly updates on the bombing of another city which it called the conflict

The pinner in headphones sometimes hummed or started a breathy lyric 

“Selfish girl—”

I watched my tweezers guide the poisonous exquisite
blue of morpho wings

Their legs like jointed eyelashes

False eyes on the grayling wingtips
to protect the true face

The monarch’s wings like fire pouring through a lattice

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(Originally published in Poem-a-Day on October 22, 2020, by the Academy of American Poets.)

Monarch sanctuary in Mexico

                        

Alert to readers:  Expect AnimalBeat II posts to resume next month after exploration of alternative blog platforms.  (Till then, stay safe and VOTE on Nov. 3!)

2 approaches to living with wild animals

Hey, thanks, Gov. Murphy: 286 dead bears in the first of two hunts this year. Just think how many more bears December’s hunt may net. The grand total will probably make it hard to ever stop bear hunts in New Jersey, even though you’ve said this year’s will be the last. 

 Then again, while running for office, you also said you’d end bear hunts – but that proved impossible to do, either promptly or completely. So here we are as your re-election campaign gets underway, still wondering what your word is worth. And also wondering how many of those 286 dead bears were innocent, vulnerable cubs. How many were moms, needed by cubs? And how many bears were lured into range because they were baited – attracted by easy food left out just for them?

Killing cubs and baiting bears are unsportsmanlike, inhumane practices permitted in very few other places; leave it to NJ to permit both of them. But when we have bear hunts here, we pull out all the stops. So for instance, numerous out-of-staters were allowed to travel here for the trophy hunt -- in the midst of a worldwide pandemic – jeopardizing NJ residents with a killer virus on top of the perils inherent in archery and muzzle loading rifles.

 

Way to go, Gov. Murphy! A well-meaning letter writer from Connecticut urged in Monday's Times of Trenton “New Jersey opponents should make their voices heard and demand that bear hunting end in their state.” She’s obviously unaware of years of such protests, with marches, demonstrations, billboards, letters and phone calls (etc., etc.), with establishment of a statewide coalition against the hunt and with proposed rule changes that would remove bear hunts from the state’s bear management plan. What does it take?

The other side of this coin was illustrated on Saturday, as the Wildlife Conservation Network (wildnet.com) wound up its 2-day virtual expo. As was the case on Oct. 10, the program consisted of scientists and other experts, including local people committed to the animals featured, reporting to participants and donors about the progress of their work. Once again, I “attended” as many sessions as possible: Yellowstone wolves; elephants, Grevy’s zebras, pangolins. Each session ran for about an hour, with Q&A periods afterwards. 

Yellowstone Wolf

 

In all cases, those involved in the presentation spoke from wherever in the world they’re stationed, often with subtitles, and yes, the technology made all that look easy. As one African leader described his work with elephants, they moved around in a savanna area behind him. Wearing beautiful beaded collars, village women explained their unique contributions to animal welfare. A young man who began as an intern told us how he gained knowledge and greater responsibility; post pandemic, he will leave for Ph.D studies. 

 

Grevy's Zebra

I consistently heard and witnessed how Westerners made team-members and partners of the people living in areas with threatened animal species. “More conservation that’s Africa-led, for Africans,” was how one speaker put it. 

Ideally, progress comes through changing hearts and minds, rather than law enforcement. That’s why, as his motivations and needs were considered, one pangolin poacher became a pangolin protector. Local people often join animal-guard corps in forests and sanctuaries, or work with automated tracking systems for animal movement all over the continent. 

Why should we care about all this, one speaker asked, then answered: “because the future is going to become coexistence.” Eating wildlife, including pangolins, is thought to be behind Covid-19, and commercial wildlife trafficking must end! That conclusion leads to a New Yorker article about pangolins that will sadden you while informing you about the origins of the coronavirus via wild animal consumption. Its print title, “The Sobbing Pangolin,” sets the tone much better than the online title.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/08/31/did-pangolins-start-the-coronavirus-pandemic

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Bear hunt status (not good) & wildlife expo (notable)

                                                              Kehoe pic

Bear hunts just won’t go away in NJ.  

If only Governor Murphy had done what candidate Murphy promised to do – end the bear hunts, period; if only DEP’s Division of Fish & Wildlife were not dominated by hunters; if only decision-making bodies (thinking of you, NJ Fish and Game Council) included a fair cross-section of citizens, instead of hunters and their sympathizers; if only bear-proofing recommendations were enforced . . . our black bears might enjoy the unthreatened lives year after year that they deserve.   

But no.  Despite Herculean efforts by myriad individuals and organizations to end NJ bear hunts, the first week of the scheduled hunt started today.  It is, as described in an op-ed by Senators Lesniak and Torricelli, an “unpopular, baited trophy hunt during the worldwide pandemic.”  What worse a time than now?  https://www.insidernj.com/governor-murphy-ban-2020-bear-hunt/ 

Gov. Murphy’s surprising tweet last Monday announced that the 2020 bear hunt will be the LAST.  That’s terrific, but . . . this year’s hunt (this week and another in December) is needless, risky and overall ill-advised.  Why, given all the precautions against the pandemic, should NJ permit a hunt go forward? 

Curious minds want to know: could the current bear hunt be intended to appease hunters, while the “no more hunts after that” declaration be designed to win animal advocates’ support, again, in Murphy’s re-election campaign next year?   

Anyway, the bow hunt segment of the hunt started today, so nothing has changed for 2020.  The Bear Group (a program of APLNJ) and the League of Humane Voters (LOHV) of New Jersey urge activists to keep up with developments on Facebook.  

All animals, all weekend!

It was way more than “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!”  It was rhinos, wild cats and okapis, along with painted dogs, Andean cats and lions – and so many more.  “It” was the first day of the (virtual) Wildlife Conservation Network Expo, all day Saturday.

Okapi

Previewed in my last post, the Expo featured video stories from conservationists in the field and wildlife champions around the world.  Throughout the videos I watched, both mutual respect among the scientists and local people involved and great regard for the animals being protected were readily apparent. And of course, I saw animals in their natural habitats while learning more about all of them.

Just ask me about the painted dogs of Zimbabwe or the rhinos of South Africa and Indonesia.  I saw wild cats I didn’t know existed (nor, till recently, did many of their discoverers) and sharks, and watched an okapi simply melt into the dense foliage of his habitat.  

One speaker dwelled on involving area people where the painted dogs live and sensitizing kids to these animals: “If you don’t know something, you don’t care about it.”

Another pointed out that “Conservation is really a social science: we work with people to better their lives, and they in turn help reduce threats to animals.”

Painted Dog

I couldn’t see all the videos I wanted to (elephants!), but they’ve been saved for viewing as convenient (along with earlier years’ reports).  And the Expo continues next Saturday, beginning around 10:30 am. (You could probably still register; name your own fee.)

Cat maintenance

Last Friday I attended a virtual Princeton Adult School class on “The Cat's Meow: Home Maintenance for the Cat Owner.”  Besides seeing numerous cats bathed (something I’d dread doing), I picked up some tips on grooming, including (1) with all combs, make sure the teeth are ground down (cats have very sensitive skin); (2) de-matting rakes, mat breakers and scissors are not recommended for cat coats; (3) “Every cat should feel like a show cat” (to which I’d add: “but shouldn’t have to be a show cat”)!   

                                                                                                   Catster pic

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Animal feeds, wildlife expo & a ‘burning (blog) question’

Giraffe

“Cut Stress By Watching Animals,” read the headline in today’s NYTimes “Home” section.  Well sure, in last week’s post, I mentioned binge-watching animal stories on The Dodo as my projected way of escaping all the dark-cloud issues pressing down on us.  

And now, what do you know: this NYTimes article concurs: “A new study has found that watching footage of cute animals can reduce your anxiety, blood pressure and heart rate.” 

Aside from the fact that there are always “new studies” of some kind and aside from the descriptor “cute” that I think is condescending toward the animals, I agree.  

I subscribe to the daily Dodo, which arrives automatically, but I could also send myself links to the 8 animal feeds mentioned in the Times (link below). Then I could simply open that one email and click to watch giant pandas in China, gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo, sea creatures featured by the Monterey Bay Aquarium or hippos, giraffes and others at the San Diego Zoo.   

And kittens and cats too, of course!  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/03/at-home/best-animal-feeds.html

Wild Animal Expo

I’ve often written about elephants here, mentioning Save the Elephants as my support organization of choice, and its Elephant Crisis Fund as the US-based way to donate through the Wildlife Conservation Network, in San Francisco (wildnet.org).

That estimable organization is sponsoring a “Virtual Wildlife Conservation Expo 2020” on two Saturdays – Oct. 10 and Oct. 17, 8 am-2 pm (PDT) -- coming up very soon.  The expo will feature conservationists in the field, wildlife champions from around the world, presentations from all WCN’s conservation partners and updates from each of WCN’s wildlife funds.

Q&A sessions and a talk with Dr. Jane Goodall, DBE are also on the agenda, as are two screenings on Wednesday, Oct. 14 of Birth of the Pride, a documentary story of an incredible pride of lions, by Dereck and Beverly Joubert.  

Jellyfish                Jeffrey Hamilton pic

Just imagine learning more about wild animals like painted dogs in Zimbabwe, Malaysia’s dolphins, the wolves of Yellowstone, Uganda’s mountain gorillas, pangolins in Asia, elephants on the African plains, lions on the African savannas, polar bears and grizzly bears and three other bear species on multiple continents. . . and more. 

A full speaker schedule is at WCNEXPO.ORG, which is also the place to register for the Expo.  Since the event begins next Saturday, it’s advisable to register by Wednesday, Oct. 7, when the process will be simpler.  

(The ticket price is $100, but registrants can pay “whatever price works best for you” or join free of charge.  With questions about registering or participating in Expo, contact planners at 415-202-6380 or virtualexpo@wildnet.org.)

Blogger’s 'burning question'

Readers of these blog posts may have noticed inconsistencies in appearance here lately, something that has frustrated me because I’ve been working with format changes I can’t change or control, at least so far.  

I’ve sought help from someone much better at dealing with such things than I’ll ever be, but naturally that can’t continue indefinitely. 

Therefore, this question: Can anyone recommend another, better, simpler blog platform (if that’s even the right word!) than the one I’m now struggling with?  I believe there must be better places to blog than this one so my time and focus can return to the animals I want to continue writing about.

I hope hear from you.  Thanks!

                                  Lucy Gutierrez, NYT illustration

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We can’t blame animal hosts for virus; it’s OUR fault

I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid and self-contain'd, I stand and look at them long and long. . .  --Walt Whitman (1819-1892), Song of Myself, 32 

                                                   Jenny Desmond-HSUS pic

What to do to get through this pandemic – and all the other issues that keep us awake at night and worried all day?  There are myriad suggestions out there to take our minds off current events and scary headlines, and I’m going to try a variation of one of them: binge-watching. 

Instead of movies or TV shows, though, I’m going to set aside a few hours to look at one Dodo video after another, immersing myself in animal stories.  And animals, after all, “do not sweat and whine about their condition,” as Whitman wrote, and “Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of owning things,/ Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago. . .”

I'll have popcorn.  And sheer pleasure.  Join me: newsletter@thedodo.com!

But . . . at some point, “the Dodo escape” will end, as it must.  The “real world” awaits.  (And no, a voluntary coma till early November is not an option.)  I and we have to buckle down and get through all this.  

From the overabundance of pandemic-relief info out there, I’ve found two sources to see or read that put things in perspective and suggest directions for action – because we can’t just sit here and hope for the best.

In order of sheer usefulness, first comes a documentary about “How to stop the next pandemic,” produced early this month by the New York Times.  In 14 minutes, it tracks new infectious diseases from 1940 till now, showing the steady increase in their numbers.  Frighteningly, “It’s not just Covid-19.  Pathogens once confined to nature [i.e., wild animals] are making their way into humans on a more regular basis.”

That’s the fault of choices we have made, the film makes clear.  Making better choices in future might head off the next pandemic.  https://www.nytimes.com/video/health/100000007293397/covid-pandemics-causes-documentary.html    

Next up: what is really an adventure story written in the form of an article about how viruses move from wild animals to humans – told from the viewpoint of one virus doing exactly what it exists to do: extend itself “as much as possible in abundance, in geographical space and in time.”  What could be better for an ambitious virus than to spill over into humans, with practically unlimited potential . . .?! 

Starting out small, very likely living in bats isolated in caves or forests -- its natural or reservoir hosts -- the virus may meet up with a potential new host who preys on bats, captures them or shares the same cave: humans. When a virus moves from a non-human animal to a human being, the virus becomes a zoonosis, and “the resulting infection is a zoonotic disease.”

                                          
                                               Denver Post pic

As the article makes clear, this viral path has become more and more common.  For instance, the AIDS pandemic also happened this way, with a virus moving from a chimp to a human.  And we know the rest.

Author of this article (and the book Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic), David Quammen puts the blame for Covid-19 squarely on the “catastrophic failures of human foresight, communal will and leadership.”  (Only consider what you’ve already read, and rued, about poor preparation despite warnings, selfish 

behavior by myriad humans and lack of a united front.)  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/19/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-covid-evolution.html

The end of this story remains to be written, of course.  Right now, it’s a cliffhanger: will humans get smart, unite and defeat this virus?  Or will the virus prevail, taking its cruel toll indefinitely?  

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Endangered species stamps available again! 

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Crunch time for our bears & debt to our dogs

                                               

We’re in the midst of a killer pandemic, an economic crisis and a school crisis, while also at the start of the (“regular”) flu season.  Do we really need a bear hunt next month in New Jersey?  Sure, we never “need” a bear hunt here, but having one this year is even more misguided than any “usual” year for it. 

And yet, right now, the bowhunt portion of the 2020 bear slaughter is scheduled to begin October 12, about three weeks from now.   

What to do? 

The Bear Group, a program of the Animal Protection League of NJ (aplnj.org), offers a number of steps.  

First, By next Thursday, Sept. 24, phone 609-292-6000 and ask the governor to do two things: 

(1) issue an executive order to cancel the bear hunt immediately on all public and private lands in New Jersey;  

(2) cancel future hunts by granting the rule-making petition filed by APLNJ/Bear Group and a coalition of like-minded groups.  If granted by the governor, this petition would repeal DEP’s current rule (the Black Bear Management Policy), which makes it legal for bears to be hunted.

(If you can’t get through on the phone, please use this webform:  https://www.nj.gov/governor/contact/all/

Twitter: @GovMurphy #SaveNJBears  

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/governorphilmurphy)

Second, sign and share Senator Ray Lesniak’s bear protection petition:

https://www.lesniakinstitute.org/bears/#section1

Third, to keep up with what’s happening, join Monday’s Bear Group Town Hall Zoom Webinar at 7 pm (EDT) Sept. 21.  Register in advance, after which you’ll receive a confirmation email with info about joining the webinar.

https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bEn9R7HVSmyTdiSZGeNjbw

Time is quickly running out for our bears -- please take action now!

A sign of the times  (seen at an area veterinary hospital) 

Returning pet favors

“When we were lonely and afraid and didn’t know where else to turn, our dogs stepped up and gave us the emotional support we so badly needed.  So in our new normal, we must pay them back at least some of what they gave us.”

That couldn’t be better said, could it?  We may clutch our animals (cats included!) for comfort, but do we give thought to giving back to our pets once we feel better and they may need support? Those early pandemic “shelter at home” days have loosened, and some of us now venture out beyond the supermarket.  Or we’re deep in Zoom meetings at home or even back to work (at work!).

Sampa

But what about the animals who were there for us when we needed them?

Able to form strong emotional bonds across species, dogs give unconditional affection.  But “separation anxiety” could set in as the pandemic wanes and people get out more, sentencing their faithful dogs to solitary confinement: not at all a fair return on their love investment!

(You’ll enjoy the many dog-people photos with this story.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/lifestyle/dogs-loneliness-coronavirus/?utm_campaign=wp_animalia&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_animalia

A dog to remember

Speaking of dogs – always easy to do – I came upon a wonderful tribute to a dog, Zuzu, who played a big part in her owner’s life and Washington Post illustrations.  “A wonderful ambassador for her breed,” Zuzu “so effortlessly filled my world and unleashed in me a bottomless supply of love,” Nick Galifianakis wrote.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/19/AR2010081906354.html?tid=lk_inline_manual_55

True flight of fancy

 When the trumpet vine covering our backyard arbor came to blooming life this summer, I learned its red-orange flowers are trumpet-shaped (silent) standouts that attract hummingbirds. In that case, I hope recent visitors to the flower bunches spread the word and come back next year. 

No wonder I could barely see these birds: they beat their wings up to 80 times per second, I’ve read – an exhausting lifestyle!  To insert their long thin bills into flowers to extract the nectar, hummers hover in midair.

They also enjoy bee balm, salvia, coral bells, columbine and hostas before flying south for the winter.  (And given our recent cold snap, I hope they’re already en route.)

And finally, lest we forget:

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A call to re-start active animal advocacy

Summer’s pretty much over, school’s pretty much starting and at least some people are (pretty much!) getting back to work.  The weather will cool off soon, and there’ll be a brisk snap in the air.  It’s time for animal activists to get a move on!  

The Animal Protection League of NJ (aplnj.org) is ready and waiting for us.  Here’s what’s been happening.

It all starts with an issue: New Jersey black bears . . . and the bear hunt scheduled for next month (Oct. 12-17), with two more in December.  That’s right: Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, with all its horrors, bear hunts will go on – unless those of us who are against them for myriad strong reasons can prevail over Gov. Phil  Murphy and the state Division of Fish and Wildlife (DFW).

                                                                                 APLNJ pic

The groundwork to fight NJ bear hunts has been laid.

A new coalition against the hunts is the first thing to know about.  “The New Jersey Black Bear Coalition”  includes former state senator Raymond Lesniak (long a fighter for animals here), Robert Torricelli, former US senator, and over a dozen state and national organizations, including the Animal Protection League of NJ and its Bear Group program, the Humane Society of the US,  the Sierra Club NJ chapter, the Animal Legal Defense Fund and New Jersey Voters for Animals.   

In a July letter to Gov. Murphy, the Coalition urged him “to issue an executive order to stop the 2020 hunt in its entirety because the hunt is not consistent with your prior actions to ensure public health during the pandemic, is not based on science, and ignores public opinion against the hunt.”

A Lesniak-Torricelli op-ed published last month in InsiderNJ vividly describes the hazards of bear hunts in the midst of a pandemic, closing with “Our coalition’s request to suspend the 2020 black bear trophy hunt would remedy these problems, maintain the credibility of the governor’s prior efforts to flatten the curve, and protect public health.”  

https://www.insidernj.com/governor-murphy-ban-2020-bear-hunt/

Senator Lesniak has produced a petition against the bear hunts that everyone is invited to sign.  Here’s the link: https://www.lesniakinstitute.org/bears/#section1.  Please sign it now, and pass the link on to others you know would want to sign.

“Only a knucklehead would kill a bear,” billboards around the state will declare, urging people to “Tell the governor . . .  Stop the hunt."    

This month, each organization in the coalition will hold independent-but-standardized ZOOM meetings with members, so watch for APLNJ’s meeting notice.  Angi Metler, the organization’s founder and executive director, anticipates a ZOOM rally at some point after the meeting. 

The coalition is developing several initiatives, starting with a rule-making proposal for the Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) to change its approach on bears.

‘Fish gotta swim. . . '

A writer who looks on hawks, squirrels, lizards and moles with equal respect and affection, Margaret Renkl writes a regular column for the NYTimes about flora, fauna . . . and living.  Her latest piece describes the animals specified here, all doing their thing.  She understands why the hawk must chase the young squirrel, why the lizard keeps a careful eye on her and why the mole must dig. 

                       Eastern Mole                                            Getty pic 

Renkl agrees with poet William Blake that “every living thing is holy” – illustrated again in her earlier column (linked inside this one) with her reaction to the death of a feral cat. 

And since we’re mounting a statewide defense of our black bears, the belief that “every living thing is holy” is especially timely.  

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/31/opinion/hawk-lizard-mole-human.html?campaign_id=39&emc=edit_ty_20200831&instance_id=21773&nl=opinion-today&regi_id=20760274&segment_id=37211&te=1&user_id=a360dad7b26df61ea65737080d3deedd

P.S.  If you didn't sign and share Senator Lesniak's petition (above) with others, please do it now! 

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