Seraglio Felis...

Cat Shopping. Today we learned that dogs at the Santa Monica Animal Shelter are much happier than the cats. Strangely so. We also spent a good deal of time at over the Cat Expo at the Civic Center. Tiki themed. Beyond beyond. And to round out the day, we hit up a tiny rescue on Robertson Blvd featuring 180+ full-grown felines lounging about like odalisques in a seraglio (see short film above.) Ah the scent of wet Friskies being devoured at sunset. It's enough to make a tear duct weep. The song clip, Fantastic Cat, is by Takako Minekawa. I'm sure she wouldn't mind us borrowing it for this exposé.

Owl with identity issues....

Clever Hans the math horse...

Clever Hans, or Der Kluge Hans, was one bright German horse. Or was he? He could add, subtract, multiply, divide, work with fractions, tell time, keep track of the calendar, differentiate musical tones, and read, spell, and understand German. His owner, Wilhelm Von Osten, would ask Hans, "If the eighth day of the month comes on a Tuesday, what is the date of the following Friday?” Hans would answer by tapping his foot. Questions could be asked both orally, and in written form.

It was later discovered that Hans was picking up subtle cues from his questioners. After formal investigation in 1907, psychologist Oskar Pfungst demonstrated that the horse was not actually performing these mental tasks, but was watching the reaction of his human observers. Pfungst discovered the horse was responding directly to involuntary cues in the body language of the human trainer, who had the faculties to solve each problem. The trainer was entirely unaware that he was providing such cues.

In honor of Pfungst's study, the discovery been referred to as the Clever Hans effect and has continued to be important knowledge in animal cognition.

Dogs and cats are cinematic condiments...

By now we all know that many Hollywood screenwriters are practicing masochists who lay themselves at the mercy of soul-sapping studio committees with a talent for clipping the wings and de-fanging interesting material into pablum. It's as old as the medium.

Dramatic quagmires in movies are frequently rescued by the insertion of a "cute and crazy" pet. You can see the meeting: "Put a cat in there to liven things up." This is a testament to the effortless watch-ability of our animal cousins, (and a probable sign that clever contrivances aren't working). Don't get me wrong, as much as I love an animal in a movie, I can often feel the cop out, a quick fix to a complex human situation that would have been interesting to explore. A thinking person's battle was lost and covered up by fur.

(Asta from "The Awful Truth")

"Like a drill on an ingrown toenail..."

Dum dee dum... Summertime, sipping soda... What's that? !!! Oh jeez. I've been stung !!!! By what? Oh, Here it comes... Pain!!!!!! Holy mother of !%*$#ing God !!!!!!

Wasps love to climb inside a sweet soda can. But better to be stung in the mouth by a common yellow jacket than anywhere by a Pepsis Wasp a.k.a. the "Tarantula Hawk." Only one man could have described this particular venom as giving "...immediate, excruciating pain that simply shuts down one's ability to do anything, except, perhaps, scream. Mental discipline simply does not work in these situations."

Dr. Justin O. Schmidt, an entomologist recently retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Tucson Carl Hayden Bee Research Center, has come up with a system for ranking the pain of insect stings and bites fittingly called: The Schmidt Sting Pain Index. Dr. Schmidt is a connoisseur of pain. His descriptions, based on a scale of 1 - 4, are deeply imaginative, like a vintner recalling a rare fine wines...

1.0 Sweat bee: Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm.

1.2 Fire ant: Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet & reaching for the light switch.

1.8 Bullhorn acacia ant: A rare, piercing, elevated sort of pain. Someone has fired a staple into your cheek.

2.0 Bald-faced hornet: Rich, hearty, slightly crunchy. Similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door.

2.0 Yellowjacket: Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine W. C. Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.

2.x Honey bee and European hornet: Like a matchhead that flips off and burns on your skin.

3.0 Red harvester ant: Bold and unrelenting. Somebody is using a drill to excavate your ingrown toenail.

3.0 Paper wasp: Caustic & burning. Distinctly bitter aftertaste. Like spilling a beaker of hydrochloric acid on a paper cut.

4.0 Pepsis wasp: Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric. A running hair drier has been dropped into your bubble bath.

4.0+ Bullet ant: Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like fire-walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch rusty nail in your heel.

He describes Pogonomyrmex badius (pictured above) as an average-looking ant whose bite yields "pain that might be caused by someone turning a screw into the flesh or ripping muscles and tendons." More on the science of stings here.

Waterboarding waterschmording! Apparently, the finest tortures come in small, venomous packages.

The Wise Old Mule...

A wise old mule fell into a farmer's well. Well what kind of wise mule falls into a well? An old one with cataracts you see. The farmer came in from the fields and noticed his mule in the well and his heart went out to him. But, the sympathy soon relaxed into complacency. He decided that neither the mule nor the well were worth saving. He called his workers over and instructed them to fill the well in with dirt. They did and soon the mule's back was covered with dirt. His ankles were buried. So this is how it would end thought the mule. He prepared to meet his maker, but then a new thought: what if I shake the dirt off my back and step up? With each new shovel full of dirt, the mule shook it off and stepped up. After a few hours, the old mule reached the top of the well, battered and exhausted. Still, he climbed out triumphantly before the bemused workers. He walked right passed the farmer and gave him a kind but knowing look. The mule had learned something new: What seemed like it would bury him actually gave him the strength to live. His refusal to see problems negatively, no matter how painful or distressing they were, gave him the power to rise out of his predicament. Shake it off and step up.

The farmer thought the mule burgers were a bit chewy.

Resist outrage...

IF you are outraged by the idea of an emaciated street dog being tied to the wall of an art gallery and left there to die in the name of art, you are: HUMAN. IF you are outraged by this act, and have eaten meat at any time in your life, you are: HUMAN. If you understand the hypocrisy of people being outraged at the idea of this cruel art show, but not caring about a dog dying in the street, you are: HUMAN. If you care about a dog dying in the street, but for some reason don't care as much about a person starving in the street, you are: HUMAN.

Regarding Guillermo "Habacuc" Vargas' exhibition, it has in fact, been widely reported that the dog was only tied up for a few hours and that he was fed throughout his time at the gallery. The dog is said to have escaped the gallery after one day. Still, this information is overlooked, since it threatens to assuage people's outrage.

The internet is filled with heartfelt, venomous clips insisting that the dog died, they even use images of the dog with it's head down, to imply that it is dead. No one bothered to research the reality, because the idea was so deliciously outrageous. Are you seeing what I'm seeing here?

Yes animal cruelty is wrong. Yes, people are prone to fall in love with their own outrage. Yes, dogs die in the street every day. Yes, art can lose itself up its own ass. Yes, everyone perceives things differently.

But what if the dog had died in the gallery? It would surely cast the artist and the gallery owners in an unfavorable light as exploiters of cruelty. But the waves of international outrage would have also carried another message: suffering, cruelty, and death can only outrage us if they are extracted from the shrouds of denial we place around these things.

I think one variety of successful art manages to trigger our outrage in the hope of moving us beyond it to a larger truth. The artist puts a frame around something and asks us to evaluate it from all angles. In this case you have to ask yourself is the frame around the dog or around our sliding scale of denial when it comes to acknowledging suffering, cruelty, and death.

If you like this sort of button pushing animal art, or you love hating it, can I point you in the direction of Adel Abdessemed?

Bozo the Cobra says...

"My tiny tricycle routine is worse than my bite!"

Last Hour Cat...

A cat called Oscar who lives at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, RI has a chilling knack for curling up with terminally ill patients who have between two and four hours left to live. Oscar's accuracy (currently standing at more than 25 reported instances) led the staff to institute a new and unusual protocol – once he is discovered sleeping with a patient, staff will call family members to notify them of the patient's (expected) impending death.

Breaking away...

Animals are so patient with our experiments in civilization. Even so, every now and again, an animal says, "Enough!" This is always the point where it gets interesting.

Mouse mouse...

The ancient art of taxidermy has finally entered the digital age. This intricately wired dead mouse will keep your fingers warm and your inner animal on full alert as you surf the internet.

(via Instructables)

"Woman Attacks Polar Bear"

"All of Berlin Zoo’s polar bears are safe after thwarting a home invasion on Friday. An apparently unstable woman invaded their habitat by scaling a fence, wall and line of prickly bushes. Acting quickly to prevent her from climbing ashore, an elder bear bit the woman’s arms and legs until zookeepers arrived to remove the human attacker."

(Source and the real story)

Antinaturalism...

Antinaturalism is a movement started in France that denies Nature any "sacred" status that must be preserved for its own sake. They believe that animals (epecially humans) have a right to live oppression-free and that it is OK for humans to ignore so-called Natural Law, especially in terms of eliminating predator/prey imbalances. To this end they encourage veganism in humans and, quite shockingly, in predator species as well. I'm not sure if you can train a carnivore to eat veggies, or if they're physically capable of making such a switch. I wouldn't want to be the first to offer an arugula salad to a hungry jaguar.

Seek Monkey Boners...

I'm very proud to announce a new skill set. Hunting down pictures of erect monkey penises for artists in need. I even contacted the LA Zoo to see what they could turn up... You might be shocked to learn that the mighty gorilla doesn't swing much lumber, especially when sized up against his slighter cousins: the chimp and the man. You might also take some aesthetic delight in the blue balls of the Vervet Monkey and the fire engine red member of the Proboscis Monkey. Why not? These colors exist to spike our attention and consider the fever of spring that is in the air (through the foggy lens of hot monkey sex).

("Space Monkey" by Walton Ford)

Animals defy our systems of logic...

But then again, so do many of the beliefs we hold so close to our hearts.
I recommend that people keep an antenna outside of human civilization. It can't hurt and it can only enhance the absurdity of our dominion on Earth.

Earth laughs in flowers...

Curiosity is an emotion that many animals exhibit. The appreciation of beauty is always limited to individuals regardless of their species.

White Diamond...

The scent you're in...

"Dogs read the world through their noses and write their history in urine."

- J.R. Ackerley from "My Dog Tulip"

Nulcear Fish and Chips...

Enneapterygius pusillus has found a creative way to communicate with other fish in a world dominated by blues and greens: The fish literally glows red.

A core relation...

Have a look at Robin Schwartz' wonderful Amelia's World project. It's a haunting exploration of the profound relations that can occur between a pre-society child and a host of amazing lifeforms. Robin is the newest honorary member of the Hypnogogic Zoo. With this series she takes me back to all the petting zoos of my childhood. Come to think of it, the one at the Bronx Zoo may be the place where I first hatched the notion that people weren't real. They wore masks and were probably aliens from another galaxy. I have a distinct flash of this feeling while petting a devil-eyed goat kid in overalls.

"Dogs can't wear condoms"...

...announced Pam Anderson upon hearing of the imminent slaughter of countless stray dogs in Mumbai India. Appears the mongrels are out of control and have become a public nuisance of the highest order, a charge which includes the biting of monkeys it seems. City government has decided that a mass culling program is the only way to go. The Baywatch star/animal activist doth protest, much to the chagrin of prideful Mumbaiers who don't like to be advised by such folk.

Speaking of biting monkeys on the Subcontinent, I've learned that the deputy mayor of New Delhi was recently killed by a mob of angry macaques. Pushed off his balcony. Aggressive city monkeys are indeed prone to fight, especially when they think you've got food. But in all fairness, they will always give you fair warning before ripping your arms off and using them as drumsticks on your head. Here are the signs:

"First, the animals will look at you in the eyes, open their mouths, and bare their teeth. Rhesus macaques, the aggressive monkeys that cause a lot of the trouble in Delhi, will then warn you with a grunt. Next, they might fake a lunge toward you; this often causes a victim to lose his balance. If you're still withholding food, they'll grab at your knees and legs, and put their mouths on you so that you can feel their teeth. Finally, if you still won't cooperate, they'll sink their canines into you. The study in Bali found that most macaque bites don't break the skin, but a wound could allow transmission of herpes B, which can be fatal to humans." (reported by Michelle Tsai)

So now you know. And for the record Ms. Anderson, dogs can wear condoms.

Eagles not fond of hen peckers...

...get the full story here.

News Flash: Handsome Pterosaurs Not Fit to Skim...

You know who's full-blown amazing? Dr. Mark Witton, that's who.

Access his work here. Google him elsewhere.

His pterosaurus art is alarmingly triggery. Viewing them has put goosebumps on my inner pterodactyl in ways I couldn't possibly have imagined. Mind you, these are not fantasies. These are thoroughly researched, precision renderings of these amazing giants that once filled our skies and bobbled upon our seas. The image you see here was included in a recently published peer-reviewed paper that presented research suggesting that pterosaurs such as Thalassodromeus (seen here) could not skim-feed in the manner of the skimming bird, Rynchops (also seen here). Read his ripping account of the perilous experiments that yielded these findings here.

Mark is a visionary young man with a full quiver of complementary talents - including a biting sense of humor and a dizzying sense of purpose. I'm proud to welcome his science-backed art into the humble realms of the Hypnogogic Zoo.

("Why should everything be made to look like insane escapades?" by Mark Witton)

Gyotaku fish prints...

"Gyotaku is believed to have originated during the 1800’s by Japanese fishermen as a way to preserve the memory of a prize catch. There are two basic methods of gyotaku, the indirect (kansetsu-ho) and direct (chokusetsu-ho). Indirect printing is done by covering the fish with paper or silk, which is then painted with water-based pigments using a silk-covered cotton ball called a 'tampo.' Direct printing is done by applying black sumi ink directly to the fish. Shoji paper is then pressed against the inked surface to get an exact mirror image. After the initial impression is made, watercolors add life to the printed fish."

(Above text and image: "Vermilion Rockfish, Sebastes miniatus" by Ken Okutake)

Crazy Cat People Syndrome...

CCPS is rampant in cities and towns across the globe. Could the microscopic bacteria Toxoplasma gondii be to blame? If you believe the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the answer could be Yes. Reporting on this mysterious parasite, the NY Times states that "... more than 60 million people in the United States are infected with Toxoplasma gondii, a bacteria that may migrate into their brains and alter their behavior in a way that — among other things — may leave them more likely to be eaten by cats.

The basic facts: Toxo can infect many species, but it undergoes sexual reproduction only in cat digestive tracts. Once the parasite reproduces, the cat passes it in its feces, where the next unwitting host picks it up by digesting it (intentionally or unintentionally). Then the cycle starts again. In the long run, Toxo must find its way back to a cat’s stomach to survive. So the parasite has evolved a complicated system for taking over its hosts’ brains to increase the likelihood that they’ll be eaten by cats.

How? Scientists are still figuring that out. Research conducted this year by Toxo expert Robert Sapolsky of Stanford, and also by Joanne Webster, professor of parasite epidemiology at Imperial College London, has found that Toxo actually causes rats to become attracted to the smell of cat urine.

Might Toxo explain why some humans develop an unhealthful attraction to cats and apparently become immune to the smell of their urine? And might that explain the mystery of crazy cat ladies? “That idea doesn’t seem completely crazy,” Sapolsky says. “But there’s no data supporting it.” Not yet. But Jaroslav Flegr, an evolutionary biologist at Charles University in the Czech Republic, is looking into it. He has spent years studying Toxo’s impact on human behavior. (He found, for example, that people infected with Toxo have slower reflexes and are 2.5 times as likely to get into car accidents.) He won’t have results of his study for a while and refuses to speculate. But Joanne Webster says the connection isn’t much of a stretch: “In our evolutionary past, perhaps we were eaten by cats, too,” she says."

("Le Gachot, Amoureux des Chats" by Sarah Bay Williams)

Give us a kiss love...

After a gory duel for dominance, the triumphant elephant seal bull advances, bellowing, towards his harem, where he'll seize the first available female and mate. After which he'll put on his velvet bathrobe, light a pipe, and thumb through back issues of Playboy. The articles are very good.

(photo by Yva Momatiuk and John Eastcott for National Geographic)

Zoo is not a dirty word...

My friend Brenda Posada, Director of Publications at the LA Zoo, is knee deep in the current, much publicized controversy over the new elephant enclosure being built at the zoo. A vocal group of animal activists has called for halting construction, and the city council is to vote tomorrow on the fate of the project. As of this moment, things aren't looking so good for the new exhibit.

As I have stated many times before, I believe that zoos are extremely important aspects of our urban environment. Live animals trigger something in us that bypasses our civilized selves and connects with our deepest existential core. Developing children need to experience animals, smell their smells, analyze their ways of moving and interacting. Adults need to be reminded of their essential animals selves as they wend their way through the marketplace and the imaginary world of money. And what of the animals' welfare? As we willfully destroy their natural habitats, I think it is our obligation to provide our animal cousins with quality homes that meet their individual needs. Zoos can do this.

So what's really going on with the elephant project over at the LA Zoo? Like Brenda, I believe, that animal activists have their heart in the right place, but they are failing to understand what a zoo is in 2008 and the level of care they provide.

It's true that elephants are notoriously difficult to keep in captivity. This new enclosure attempts to address these very issues. More importantly, the big question is if the enclosure isn't completed, where will Billy the Asian elephant or any other potential pachyderms go? What are the best options for the animals? Weighing all the choices, completing the enclosure is clearly the best way forward.

Please read Brenda's fine piece from the Huffington Post found here.

PS: If you are interested, please email me and I will tell you how to contact the city council to express your pro-elephant-enclosure sentiments.

Mucous Pajamas...

The rascally parrotfish is the iconoclast of the sea. For starters, it excretes sand. It's many tiny teeth scour coral reefs, breaking off chunks which are swallowed whole and broken down and released in colorful bits (and that's where Fruity Pebbles come from kids). But that's nothing compared to the fact that it can change sex at will, and will do so several times in its seven year lifespan. But wait we forgot about the pajamas! The parrotfish (clearly) needs its beauty rest, and so when it tucks itself among the crags of the reef for a nap, it secretes an all encompassing bubble of mucous which prevents its scent from attracting hungry eels while it sleeps. Mucous pajamas - now you know what to get Julian Schnabel for Christmas.

Interspecies Tango...

The whole porpoise of the military...

"Today the Supreme Court heard arguments in a case testing how far the president and his agencies can go in setting aside environmental laws in the name of national security — and how far the courts can go in intervening in such a controversy."

"At issue is the long-running dispute over the Navy's use of mid-frequency sonar in training exercises off the California coast. Environmental advocacy groups contend that federal law requires the Navy to assess the damage that could be caused to whales and dolphins and to adopt steps to minimize that damage."

Some of the dialogue among the justices...

Chief Justice Roberts: We should stop the Navy from doing this just because we think there is a likelihood they might be inflicting unneeded damage?

Justice Kendall: Yes ... the Navy cannot be the judge of its own cause. There's a limit to deference. ... The evidence is overwhelming that beaked whales are being stranded by sonar and killed. Autopsies show they are hemorrhaging and dying.

Justice Breyer: The whole purpose of the military is to hurt the environment. You go on a bombing mission — do you have to prepare an environmental impact statement?

Justice Kendall: No, of course not in combat. But here in a training exercise, the military is supposed to minimize the damage.

Full report here

Day of the condor...

Sarah and I were returning from Big Sur on the Pacific Coast Highway last week when we spotted a group of large birds on the sea side of the road, just hanging out. Were they turkeys? No. They were California Condors. Sixteen of them. Just loitering like a group of deaf old men at a sweater convention, unphased by our presence. Every now and then, one would push another off the cliff and there would be an enormous flapping of wings so large they seemed to block out the sky for an instant. We could feel the wind whipped up by those wings.

I'm not sure if you understand how strange this all was. Condors are so rare - it might as well have been sixteen pandas sitting there. Note how the guy on the right with the black head is tagged #01. He must have sold the most albums.

(photo by Paul Gachot)

Frère le Tigre...

I believe I have discovered a mad anthrozoological brother in arms and imagination in the right honorable Robert Zhao Renhui. You will marvel at his involvement in the mysterious Institute of Critical Zoologists. You will gather enthusiasm upon visiting his art collective, A Dose of Light. Like your host, Pablo Gazpachot, Robert believes "that we live admist animals in our dreams and fantasies & not in reality." Among other activities, his Medicinal Tiger project seeks "to develop tiger farms to promote the conservation of wildlife resources as a form of medicine and spectacle."

Robert, I hereby offer you and your posse residency at the Hypnogogic Zoo. We are located in Venice California USA. There is a tremendous calling for tiger farms and critical animal gazing here. The sun shines every day. The ocean sparkles. The animals are modern. The minds are ripe. Let's make something happen. Pablo Gazpachot.

(Photo from Robert Zhao Renhui's series found here)

Rats and bees to the rescue...

Trained African giant pouch rats (Cricetomys gambianus) are being used in the field to locate buried bombs and landmines, while others are using common honeybees to screen large areas for unexploded ordinance. I am happy to see animals working to help people. It seems perfectly natural. It must give them a a sense of purpose to save us from being blown to smithereens. I do fear for their insurance premiums though...

(Photo: snug little bomb sniffing bees courtesy Inscentinel)

Acridophagy...

Grasshoppers were an essential part of settling the West. A reportedly tasty and protein-rich food source. They were overly-abundant and required little effort to catch and prepare. An 1864 account of cricket collecting along the Sevier River in Utah describes an occasion when a small group quickly gathered “fifty bushels” by driving the insects into the stream with willow branches and scooping them up in carrying baskets.

According to the historical accounts, grasshoppers and crickets were usually roasted and ground, then mixed with pine seeds, baked, and eaten as cakes. Another method of preparing them is to roast great quantities of them in pits filled with embers and hot ashes. . . . When the insects are abundant, the season is one of many festivities. When prepared in this way these insects are considered very great delicacies.

Claudio is Dead...

Gorilla mother Gana carries her dead baby at the zoo in Muenster, western Germany, on Aug. 20, 2008. The baby died on Aug. 16, but can only be recovered from the enclosure once the mourning mother leaves the corpse behind, zoo spokesperson Ilona Zuehlke said.

HUMAN RIGHTS FOR APES...

In stunning contrast to the last post, and the speciest hubris of the Bush administration, comes this huge piece of news: Spanish parliament has passed a resolution stating "Non-human hominids (great apes) should have the right to life and freedom, and not be tortured." It is the first national legislation to enshrine human rights for chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and bonobos. Funny that such legislation would come from the land of bullfighting. Odder still, who's been torturing great apes in Spain to begin with? That said, an amazing, although still hierarchical, step in the direction of honoring all of our living roommates on this planet.

Thanks Ted for the article.

Sonar Wars...

The Navy says it can't perform its sonar training off the coast of Southern California if they have to shut down operations whenever there's a whale or aquatic mammal in the vicinity. As you may have heard in the news, mechanical sonar can disorient or kill several ocean species. Earlier this year a federal court barred the use of sonar "close to marine mammals." But the Navy says no way, we need to train our boys and girls to use sonar even if it's at the expense of a few fish. The Bush administration appealed the decision and the case will now go to the Supreme Court. I suppose we have the right to protect ourselves from ourselves, but to what extent does that right exclude the rights of other species?

Diving Animals...

Gene Alba claims to have the world's only SCUBA diving cat. Obviously, he's never been to Russia where this sort of thing goes on regularly. Not to mention sky diving. Actually, diving animals seem to crop up everywhere. Animal cruelty activists - on your marks...

Animal Totems (Condor)...

My brother, who works as an ecologist in Central California, came across a young California Condor sitting in a nearby tree while checking Gypsy Moth traps at Lake San Antonio. What significance should one bring to such a rare encounter? The notion of animal spirits or totems is timeless, found in ancient cultures on all continents and in many today, perhaps most notably in Native American tribes.

The condor is said to be a symbol of death and rebirth and new vision. Coincidentally (?), my brother and his wife had just attempted to rescue a puppy, which turned out to be very sick with Parvo. The dog's health declined rapidly, and eventually they had to put it to sleep - a devastating decision for them of course. I wonder if this condor is somehow connected to that event. I'm sure there are plenty of Native American's who would say "Duh!" to that. Similarly, there are equally as many men in lab coats who would say the connection is all smoke and mirrors. In which camp do you pitch your tent?

Karni Mata Temple of Rats...

Karni Mata temple is a 600-year-old Hindu temple at Deshnoke, Rajasthan, India. Karni Mata is believed to be the incarnation of Hindu goddess Durga. The peculiarity of this temple is that thousands of rats are worshipped here. The rats are seen as holy, owing to the belief that the souls of the followers of Karni Mata are in these rats and thus they must be looked after. If one of the rats is killed, it must be replaced with one made of solid gold.

via Wikipedia

Karni Mata Temple

Horseplay...

We don't generally consider the horse's sense of humor. They seem fairly serious. Or at least I thought so until I had a good look at what horseballs can do for a sober pony.

See for yourself right here


(Horses & Headgear image by Tim Flach)

"The imagination of nature is far, far greater than the imagination of man."

- Richard Feynman

("Maureen Gallagher and Late-Night Feeder, 2 am, Feb. 1987" by Peter Beard)

Boombox Babies...

Baby birds brought to the British RSPCA are being cared for with CD recordings of the dawn chorus. Apparently, the ability to sing is vital for survival, and is taught by parents, so the hope is that they'll be able to pick out their own kind from the morning singing. Read all about it here.

Honing Anthropomorphism...

Here we see an "animal studies and action analysis" class underway at Disney Studios around 1940. One of the kingpins of this era was an animator called Clair Weeks, who was the son of a missionary stationed in India. According to one expert: "Weeks not only exhibited mastery of construction and posing, but also the ability to embed the spark of life that makes a drawing come alive. His technique allowed for both analytically realistic depiction and cartoony stylized caricature." This Disney-born hybrid of realism and cartooniness - the oversized, over expressive eyes and cutified skulls - of so many 20th Century animated characters was probably inevitable, but also probably responsible for several generations worth of deep confusion about the nature of animals.

(source material with nice sketches here)

Taxidermy...

Isn't it ironic that taxidermy is Greek for "moving skin"? What I love about taxidermy is the way the makers get things wrong, the elements that are slightly too expressive or just plain off. I have fond memories of long hours spent in the dark, cavernous halls of The Natural History Museum in New York, enraptured by those strange, frozen sculptures of beasts and Neanderthals going about their daily routines as if the city around them and the gawking crowds had yet to exist.

("Bjork and Polar Bear" by Jean-Baptise Mondino)

Plastic Air Bears...

Lovely Noo Yawk street art by Joshua Allen Harris. Love the way they keel over and "die" only to come right back to fully animated life. Emotional engagement with plastic bags - now that's some primo anthropomorphization.

Breaking News: Lemmings NOT Suicidal...

Despite what you may have learned from watching Disney as a kid, lemmings do not share a mass suicide compact.

OK, technically, in their annual mass migration frenzy, some (on rare occasions) do jump off steep cliffs fully convinced that they will swim to greener pastures. That doesn't always happen in the frigid oceans of northern Finland. But it's determination that is their fatal flaw, not depression.

Learn all about it here and here.

In fact, there are rumors that just maybe some of those lemmings in the Disney film were pushed for cinematic effect. No kidding!

(Leaping Lemmings knit sculpture by Aprill Newman)

Creativity...

It doesn't get any more creative than this. Reminds you how much life is really about these little shapes or forms that emerge and fight against the ravages of time and space to just to exist.

(Visuals: "Genesis" Music: "In My Room" Beach Boys)

Pachyderm love...

Elephants prefer privacy for the love-act. They will seek out woods and secret places behind huge rocks or trees or in caves. Oftentimes these huge creatures will prefer to mate in water so that the male's weight can be more easily supported. He will mount her with grace and ease and remain with her for four minutes.

Sacred Cow Samba...

A cow in India is more sacred than a hamburger in the USA. They rule the streets and the traffic. If a cow wants to lie down for a spell on a major highway, it does, and you wait. If a cow wants to eat plastic bags, it does, and then it dies - even though the government is supposed to be regulating the thickness of bags so that rag pickers will be interested in selling them for scrap (paid by weight, get it?) It's all infuriatingly magnificent! Must get to India one of these days.

Human Condition (as depicted by monkey)...

From "Animals are Beautiful People" by Jamie Uys.

Look at us: This is who we are!

Who's afraid of the big bad wolves? Not I. It goes without saying... I fully expect animals to drop their killer instincts, to shelve the "wild" act, for little old me Me ME! I expect wolves to lick my wounds, tigers to nuzzle at my neck, orcas to do back flips as I proudly walk the aisles of Trader Joes in my track suit. After all, I get animals, I'm on their side. Animals like me! I mean, they'd never do anything to hurt me, right?

People who have given up on people often resort to animals. In extreme cases, outside the realms of crazy cat ladies and ferret fanatics, the Timothy Treadwells of the world believe they have a special bond with truly dangerous creatures who can snap their necks without a thought. To some extent, I do believe that we can communicate with animals. I do believe that animals generally kill by choice not by blind impulse. That said, I generally eat chocolate by choice... We all have our slip ups.

Cruelty or Destiny?

Well looky here... now if that isn't the suavest cowboy monkey I've ever seen I'll eat my tiny Stetson. What's going on inside the minds of these animals? I'm sure that PETA would have their panties in a bunch over this, but will you look at those faces? I mean really, that's all we have to go on - two of the happiest dern critters this side of the Pecos. Granted these two probably didn't choose each other, but aren't most of the world's marriages arranged?

Lynx of note...

This commercial is based on a true story

Near death macaque walks tall

Curious Expeditions make for nice lives

Movies with misleading titles

Put the cage on the human

Place your bets

Elephant talk

Who scratched these negatives?

It's been almost a year since those squirrels were arrested for spying in Iran. You've got to wonder what's happened to them. More to the point, this photo poses an interesting question: If a squirrel could take pictures, what would it take pictures of?

The Aesthetics of Power...

Fact is, leaders and animals have some deep and weird ties... Let's face it, animals are pretty conservative at the end of the day - generally, they adore routine, understand and obey power structures, kill when they feel threatened, and don't mind lounging around throne rooms so much.

Let's look at some dictator-animal relations:

Stalin
Hitler
Mussolini
Pol Pot
Saddam

Matadora...

Elizabeth Moreno, 26, is one of three successful female bullfighters in the world. Full of potential and grace, Moreno found few allies when she decided to become a bullfighter in her hometown of Mexico City.

Pioneers of Space (Soviet Inebriation Style)...

(Первые на Луне "First on Moon" by Aleksey Fedorchenko)

The Ship Sank...

If you've not read Yann Martel's Life of Pi, find a ten year-old, a tree, and a blanket, and get going. There are many achingly cinematic scenes throughout, and the sinking of a cargo ship loaded with zoo animals during a massive sea storm certainly counts as one of them. This depiction of that event is really nice. Wish the picture were more high res, but I think you can make out the beauty and the horror of this moment. Talk about a psychic trigger!

("The Ship Sank" by Andrea Offermann")

The Lost Sheep...

If a human must be remembered for one thing and one thing alone, let it be something heartbreakingly real. Thank you Adriann Munsey. Thank you. May you find your way home...
(And thanks WF)

("Bette and Franke" by Vinoodh Matadin and Inez van Lamswerde)