Friday, July 14, 2006
The Coolness of Mammals
I am going to make a wild guess and say that this post probably is best understood by people that have spent at least one night in a tent somewhere far enough from civilization that there are no switches to turn the light on, or off. I am going to talk about wildlife and the appreciation it gets from us self-domesticated humans.
For some reason it always seemed to me to be cooler to have spotted a medium to large mammal in the wild than it was to have caught sight of a bird. Or a bee. Or that's what I always thought, growing up in Finland.
My first encounter with wildlife here were the hummingbrids of Berkeley - I think it counts, since I didn't know they have hummingbirds here. The second was the opossum living somewhere near our trashcans. His appearance gave me an irrational fear of taking out the trash, especially if I was wearing sandals (opossums, to me, resemble somewhat cute but very large rats).
Other fellow mammal encounters include the pair of coyotes we saw while on a day hike, on the inland side of the Berkeley hills.
Luckily I saw them before the dog did (he's a very mellow and somewhat senior dog) and had time to put him on a leash. The coyotes seemed to be working as a pair, one of them standing guard with only its ears visible beyond the ridge, and the other jogging by us in full view, most likely in search of ground squirrels.
I guess I should include the deer that, on another hike, had been hiding in tall grass and only jumped up to run away when we were right by it - it took a few leaps and then remained standing in the sun-dried, orange yellow field, intensly watching our next move - or the rabbit that took its leave about five seconds after the deer and from the same spot. It seemed like we had accidentally come across a late afternoon conference of the two species and greatly disturbed it by our human presence.
The encounter my brother had with raccoons is worthwhile of mention as well; he was visiting us, and went for a evening walk by himself, just around the neighborhood. Upon return he had a story of two raccoons first staring at him from behind a tree and then charging at him, and video to back his story up. I also saw one raccoon a little later, lounging about in Berkeley, as tame as most cats are.
Now, despite all these encounters with mammals, I have to confess that the biggest and most awesome (in the original meaning of the word) wildlife sightings have been birds. LARGE birds. The kind that could eat you alive if they wanted to (am I getting my cool points yet?). The first bird-event was on a day-hike again. We were making our way through a bushy part of the trail, when we spotted something really big ahead of us. My first thought was "An ostrich!" and then "I'm sure they have ostrich farms here" and then "Let's follow it!". So we did, which probably wouldn't have been a good idea had it indeed been an ostrich. The beast turned out to be a wild turkey, actually three of them, all splendidly large and somewhat worried about our presence. I found a description of wild turkey that bluntly states: "It is so big that it's impossible to confuse it with other birds". Except, as it turned out, ostriches.
The second time we were walking on a high ridge by the ocean, when from a rock ahead of us something big rose and spread its wings. It was a turkey buzzard. And it was gliding right by us, next to us, almost within touching distance, above the ocean but on a level with the path on the ridge.
With one adjustment of one of its wing feathers it could have attacked us, but it was only interested in whatever dwelled on the side of the ridge - more ground squirrels? - and we walked away. All Andre said was " Wait 'til you see a California Condor".
So I'm re-directing my coolness points to cover all species, and reformulating my theory: it is the size of the beast that really matters, and, more specifically, the size within its own family in the animal kingdom. Hawk vs. eagle, deer vs. moose, cat vs. lion, you get my drift.
In case anyone wants to comment, how about sharing your own coolest ever wilderness encounter? I'll count the cool-points and announce the winner according to methods approved by FIFA, WWF, the opossum by the trashcan and me.
-All photos in this post are copies from the public domain, and none, alas, taken by the author -
For some reason it always seemed to me to be cooler to have spotted a medium to large mammal in the wild than it was to have caught sight of a bird. Or a bee. Or that's what I always thought, growing up in Finland.
My first encounter with wildlife here were the hummingbrids of Berkeley - I think it counts, since I didn't know they have hummingbirds here. The second was the opossum living somewhere near our trashcans. His appearance gave me an irrational fear of taking out the trash, especially if I was wearing sandals (opossums, to me, resemble somewhat cute but very large rats).
Other fellow mammal encounters include the pair of coyotes we saw while on a day hike, on the inland side of the Berkeley hills.
Luckily I saw them before the dog did (he's a very mellow and somewhat senior dog) and had time to put him on a leash. The coyotes seemed to be working as a pair, one of them standing guard with only its ears visible beyond the ridge, and the other jogging by us in full view, most likely in search of ground squirrels.I guess I should include the deer that, on another hike, had been hiding in tall grass and only jumped up to run away when we were right by it - it took a few leaps and then remained standing in the sun-dried, orange yellow field, intensly watching our next move - or the rabbit that took its leave about five seconds after the deer and from the same spot. It seemed like we had accidentally come across a late afternoon conference of the two species and greatly disturbed it by our human presence.
The encounter my brother had with raccoons is worthwhile of mention as well; he was visiting us, and went for a evening walk by himself, just around the neighborhood. Upon return he had a story of two raccoons first staring at him from behind a tree and then charging at him, and video to back his story up. I also saw one raccoon a little later, lounging about in Berkeley, as tame as most cats are.
Now, despite all these encounters with mammals, I have to confess that the biggest and most awesome (in the original meaning of the word) wildlife sightings have been birds. LARGE birds. The kind that could eat you alive if they wanted to (am I getting my cool points yet?). The first bird-event was on a day-hike again. We were making our way through a bushy part of the trail, when we spotted something really big ahead of us. My first thought was "An ostrich!" and then "I'm sure they have ostrich farms here" and then "Let's follow it!". So we did, which probably wouldn't have been a good idea had it indeed been an ostrich. The beast turned out to be a wild turkey, actually three of them, all splendidly large and somewhat worried about our presence. I found a description of wild turkey that bluntly states: "It is so big that it's impossible to confuse it with other birds". Except, as it turned out, ostriches.
The second time we were walking on a high ridge by the ocean, when from a rock ahead of us something big rose and spread its wings. It was a turkey buzzard. And it was gliding right by us, next to us, almost within touching distance, above the ocean but on a level with the path on the ridge.
With one adjustment of one of its wing feathers it could have attacked us, but it was only interested in whatever dwelled on the side of the ridge - more ground squirrels? - and we walked away. All Andre said was " Wait 'til you see a California Condor".
So I'm re-directing my coolness points to cover all species, and reformulating my theory: it is the size of the beast that really matters, and, more specifically, the size within its own family in the animal kingdom. Hawk vs. eagle, deer vs. moose, cat vs. lion, you get my drift.
In case anyone wants to comment, how about sharing your own coolest ever wilderness encounter? I'll count the cool-points and announce the winner according to methods approved by FIFA, WWF, the opossum by the trashcan and me.
-All photos in this post are copies from the public domain, and none, alas, taken by the author -
# posted by Aino @ 9:01 AM 
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Hmmm.. excluding the Korkeasaari zoo, I have not really encountered too many wild mammals.
I guess my wildest experience was with a pack (horde/group/something) of reindeers in Lappland. I first smelled them - reindeers tend to smell bad in the summer - before I actually saw them. They appeared from behind the fjell and I was able to see their silhouettes moving on the ridge against the orange setting (well, it was more like just hanging in there) sun.
It was relatively cool, but not really awesome.
I guess my wildest experience was with a pack (horde/group/something) of reindeers in Lappland. I first smelled them - reindeers tend to smell bad in the summer - before I actually saw them. They appeared from behind the fjell and I was able to see their silhouettes moving on the ridge against the orange setting (well, it was more like just hanging in there) sun.
It was relatively cool, but not really awesome.
# posted by 
: 11:30 AM
: 11:30 AM
My coolest, scariest and only (apart from reindeers also mentioned by Lauri) wild animal encounters are from Tanzania.
The funniest one was definitely with a big male baboon. We were driving on a landrover near Morogoro and as it often happens in Lapland with a herd of reindeers, we also had to stop because a large group of baboons had blocked the road. One of the males was sitting in the middle of the road right in front of our car. All the other baboons moved politely towards the bush but the male was looking at us somewhat nonchalantly and arrogantly. He just kept on sitting tigth and masturbating - "Nobody move until I come!" We started laughing and the baboon just went on and on. What a show-off. Avara luonto, please make a documentary.
My scariest encounter involved the notorious black mamba snake, very fast, very poisonous. I was visiting a maasai village near Olkesumet. It was my first overnight stay in a village like that, only mud huts and a big enclosure for the cows in the middle. As the sun had set down around 7pm, me, another Finnish student and two Tanzanian girls accompanying us stayed outside the huts admiring the starry sky, spotting satellites and trying to remember the figures. Before going to sleep we had to go to the toilethut, which was located on the outside corner of the small village. As we all know, girls seldom go to the ladies room alone and thus we also walked together through the dark kraal. We kept still looking at the stars as we made our way with some torches to light the path. Not looking where you step is maybe the stupidest thing to do when you're walking in Africa in the dark. As you all guessed already, we almost stepped on a black mamba. We were one step away from it when Miriam, one of the Tanzanian girls, noticed it across our path. I thought the next thing I'm going to feel is a mamba biting my leg. What a relief to realize that the snake was not moving at all but peacefully sleeping. It hadn't even noticed us. (Later on I was explained that snakes can be really slow if their body temperature has dropped in the cool night air). As the word of our encounter spread, an elderly maasai woman emerged from a nearby hut and killed the snake with a robust wooden stick. As soon as the stick hit the snake, it tried to turn and bite the woman. She was clearly experienced in the business and kept on hitting until the snake died. I spent the rest of the night sleepless, scrathing flea bites and wondering deep existential questions. So guys, never question again why ladies need to go together.
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The funniest one was definitely with a big male baboon. We were driving on a landrover near Morogoro and as it often happens in Lapland with a herd of reindeers, we also had to stop because a large group of baboons had blocked the road. One of the males was sitting in the middle of the road right in front of our car. All the other baboons moved politely towards the bush but the male was looking at us somewhat nonchalantly and arrogantly. He just kept on sitting tigth and masturbating - "Nobody move until I come!" We started laughing and the baboon just went on and on. What a show-off. Avara luonto, please make a documentary.
My scariest encounter involved the notorious black mamba snake, very fast, very poisonous. I was visiting a maasai village near Olkesumet. It was my first overnight stay in a village like that, only mud huts and a big enclosure for the cows in the middle. As the sun had set down around 7pm, me, another Finnish student and two Tanzanian girls accompanying us stayed outside the huts admiring the starry sky, spotting satellites and trying to remember the figures. Before going to sleep we had to go to the toilethut, which was located on the outside corner of the small village. As we all know, girls seldom go to the ladies room alone and thus we also walked together through the dark kraal. We kept still looking at the stars as we made our way with some torches to light the path. Not looking where you step is maybe the stupidest thing to do when you're walking in Africa in the dark. As you all guessed already, we almost stepped on a black mamba. We were one step away from it when Miriam, one of the Tanzanian girls, noticed it across our path. I thought the next thing I'm going to feel is a mamba biting my leg. What a relief to realize that the snake was not moving at all but peacefully sleeping. It hadn't even noticed us. (Later on I was explained that snakes can be really slow if their body temperature has dropped in the cool night air). As the word of our encounter spread, an elderly maasai woman emerged from a nearby hut and killed the snake with a robust wooden stick. As soon as the stick hit the snake, it tried to turn and bite the woman. She was clearly experienced in the business and kept on hitting until the snake died. I spent the rest of the night sleepless, scrathing flea bites and wondering deep existential questions. So guys, never question again why ladies need to go together.
# posted by : 3:58 AM
: 3:58 AM << Home
