one monkey minds its own business; the other has mischief in mind
Sneaky Monkey [Haiku]
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Tag Archives: wildlife
High Tree Hawk [Tanka]
the high tree hawk scans for prey from lofty heights; the rat scurries - unaware of far-flung foes, but side to wall all the same
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DAILY PHOTO: Elephants & Cattle Egrets
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Contemplative Gorilla [Tanka]
the gorilla looks deep in contemplation; children are bored, but I can't help but wonder what it is he's plotting?
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BOOK REVIEW: The Chimpanzee Whisperer by Stany Nyandwi w/ David Blissett
I Am Stany: The Life and Loves of a Chimpanzee Whisperer by Stany NyandwiMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Amazon.in Page
Out: February 22, 2022
These are the memoirs of a man who made a career from his ability to read and interact with chimpanzees. However, lest one expect a Gerald Durrell-style book filled with amusing animal anecdotes and witty lessons on how to build a zoo, one should note that Stany Nyandwi faced poverty and many a tragedy in his life that make this animal-interest book also a human-interest story from cover to cover. [Note: There are many chimpanzee stories and insights into how sanctuaries and reserves are run, but they are interspersed with visceral tales of calamity and sorrow.]
The book tells of Stany’s youth in Burundi, a country that would fall into a vicious civil war as he came of age and then got the first job that might pull him out of brutal poverty (into regular poverty,) working as a laborer at a chimpanzee sanctuary. It wasn’t long before the sanctuary had to be shut down because of the dangers of the war between Tutsis and Hutus. Because his work ethic and talent with chimps had begun to show, he was offered jobs first in Kenya and then in Uganda. Traveling with the sanctuary chimps would separate him from his family (a wife and children, not to mention his parents and siblings) during the worst years of the war, leading him down a self-destructive path for a time, but then things seem to improve. Always when one thinks his life is settling into a healthy stability, there’s a spanner into the works. Yet, the author keeps finding the bright side, and being saved by that positivity and his gift for working with chimpanzees, a gift which makes him a man in demand despite his lack of education or resources.
This book is an emotional roller-coaster ride, but throughout we are saved by the author’s indefatigable positivity and humanity – perhaps, the traits that allowed him to get along so well with the chimpanzees. I’d highly recommend it for all readers.
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DAILY PHOTO: Red Pandas: In Action, Zoning Out, and At Rest
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Caged Cat [Tanka]
the caged cat stalks a prey it cannot see, and cannot reach; does the pseudo-prey know? does its heartbeat quicken?
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BOOK REVIEW: Nature is Never Silent by Madlen Ziege
Nature Is Never Silent: how animals and plants communicate with each other by Madlen ZiegeMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Amazon.in Page
Out: Hardcover out February 8, 2021 [e-book is out now]
The central premise of this book is that humans miss the tremendous amount of communication that is going on among and between other species. We miss it because we think of communication in an extremely limited way that revolves around visual and auditory expressions of human style languages. It doesn’t occur to us that different senses (e.g. smell) or other activities (e.g. stinging or passing gases,) could be used to convey messages as overt as, “Don’t touch me!” to as complex as, “There are good flowers to the southeast, roughly four-hundred meters along this line” or “Watch out! Some beetles have started chewing on my bark.”
While one might still dismiss all this communication as extremely simple compared to the infinitely complicated endeavor humans have made communicating, it’s not all just warning signaling. Many species engage in a form of communication that most people would probably attribute to humanity alone, specifically, deception. There are female fireflies who cannot only send a mating signal to males of her species to engage in reproduction, but can send counterfeit signals of other species to attract a male of another species of which she can make a snack.
It’s also important to note that it’s not just the species most similar to us who communicate. There are chapters devoted to both unicellular creatures and plants, species that one might be surprised to learn are quite active communicators.
I found this to be a highly thought-provoking book for the nature-lover, and I’d recommend it for anyone who wants to expand his or her horizons with respect to what is being transmitted in the natural world on those cold and quiet days when it seems like not a creature is stirring, and yet there’s always something.
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Preening Egret [Haiku]
the preening egret twists its head under wing; its birdness wanes
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Bhubaneswar Limerick
A crafty langur of Bhubaneswar lived in the trees above the old bazaar. He'd watch shoppers straggle and shopkeepers haggle, then slip in under everyone's radar.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 