Creatures on the move...places to go, bodies to bury...
A Herd
of…Wooden Elephants?
by Paulh
About a month ago I went into Copley Square in
Boston to see the elephants on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall.
Editor:
Elephants? In Boston? On the Mall? I hadn't heard of this.
It turns
out there are 100 of them. They're only there for a couple more days. The
'herd' migrates from city to city to spread their conservation message: that
humans and wildlife can coexist in harmony.
The wood
the elephants are made from comes from an invasive plant, Lantana camara;
the artists come from the Nilgiri Hills in southern India. The initiative is a
project of Elephant Family, an NGO dedicated to protecting Asian elephants.
The
current CEO is a blonde lady named Ruth Ganesh. I found the name puzzling – in case
you don't know, Ganesh is the elephant-headed god of wisdom in Hinduism – so I dug a little
deeper: the CEO's original name was Ruth Powys. Her late partner, Mark Shand,
founded the group. Mark Shand is the late brother of Queen Camilla of the UK. So the effort has royal patronage.
Starting
in October, the herd will be visiting Livermore, California.
Bambi
Sighting
by Paulh
This white-tailed deer gave Paulh a skeptical
look from across the river and then moved on.
Sexton
Beetle
by Paigetheoracle
Nicrophorus vespilloides
Editor
here: I just get these photos. Not much explanation. When I asked how big it
was, Paige wrote, 'It's about half an inch long. If it hadn't been scuttling
away, I could have thrown a penny coin down beside it.' He said they
also call it a 'burying beetle.' I'd never seen one (such beetles are rarer in the US),
so I looked it up.
About the name: In the
olden days, children, most people were buried in churchyards (even in the US).
The caretaker was called a sexton. These beetles bury dead animals like mice or
birds. They do it in pairs, fighting off rivals for the prized food source.
Then they lay their eggs and use the carrion to feed their larval offspring.
I'd
better not hear any of y'all saying, 'Eeww!' This is how a well-regulated
ecosystem works. It's a much-better arrangement than politics, AI, or plastics. So appreciate
the nice, shiny beetle, please – and be glad Nature cleans up after itself,
unlike that sloppy neighbour you keep complaining about. And unlike the Hooverville trash collectors, they don't charge. Not even a thrown penny.
And Then
There Are Geese
(Video)
by Paigetheoracle
From a couple of years ago – but the geese will
be migrating again soon. It's good to have regular reservations.
Mind how you go, Dmitri Gheorgheni, Editor
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