Page 20 - Boca ViewPointe- July '24

Page 20, Viewpointe July 2024
Book Review

FUZZ: When Nature Breaks problem: offerings. While unpleasant for biologists who need to handle them,
“Deepening the
“If you make a gull sufficiently nervous, it will vomit.
The Law Tuesdays and Saturdays, the habit affords easy insight into what the birds have been
the devotees visit eating. Here is a partial list of what a herring gull considers
By Nils A. Shapiro Hanuman temples to edible – that is, things that have been vomited in the general
make a puja. To the direction of Julie C. Ellis, senior research investigator at
Author Mary Roach’s icons inside, they present the University of Pennsylvania: bologna, ants, strawberry
books invariably climb the coconuts and garlands of shortcake, a large mackerel, a whole hot dog, intact mice,
national bestseller lists. She marigolds; to the living squid, a used sanitary napkin, discarded lobster bait, Vienna
has earned among her vast fan representatives hanging sausages, an eider duckling, a paper muffin wrapper, a
base a reputation as “our most around outside, samosas loaded diaper, ana a plate’s worth of spaghetti marinara
consistently entertaining,” and and Frooti mango pop. with mussels.”
“disturbingly funny journalist” Feeding wild animals, as When you consider that large flocks of gulls descend
with an “infectious awe for we know, is the quickest on St. Peter’s Square when crowds gather to see and hear
quirky science.” path to conflict. The the Pope and understand that “droppings” from above are
The titles of her earlier promise of food motivates not blessings from heaven, it is clear why the Vatican has
books are evidence of that: Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary normally human-shy animals to take a risk. The risk-taking hired a Dutchman, Andre Fritjers – who owns the company
Canal; Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex; Grunt: is rewarded, and the behavior escalates. Shyness becomes Vogelverschrikker (Dutch for scarecrow) – to demonstrate
The Curious Science of Humans at War; Spook; Science Tackles fearlessness, and fearlessness becomes aggression. If you his LaserOp Automatic 200, “a sort of monochrome laser
the Afterlife; Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers and don’t hand over the food you’re carrying, the monkey will light show. Lasers are silent, seemingly humane, and they
Packing For Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. grab it. If you try to hold onto it, or push the animal away, it can usually be counted on to unnerve gulls for at least a week
Her latest work attracted me because of its subject matter: may slap you. Or bite you. The Times of India put the number … mainly used to dissuade cormorants, gulls, and vultures
a round-the-world investigation into the wildly diverse – but of monkey bites reported by Delhi hospitals in 2018 at 950.” from roosting on structures where someone doesn’t want
ultimately fascinating – ways in which we humans attempt to So far, the Delhi government’s efforts to control the them – and their droppings – to gather.”
solve the problems we face when the world’s other creatures situation with injectable or oral contraceptives have failed, Black bears in Aspen, Colo., who take advantage of
and natural forces either don’t understand the rules we have set in part because of the unusual sex drive of the male macaque residents’ ignoring rules to keep trash cans shut tight …
… or seemingly refuse to follow them. monkeys that the author discusses in her typical (and quite elephants whose centuries-old pathways in India’s forests are
As the author travels the globe in search of each area’s hilarious) droll manner. being surrounded and blocked by construction, yet are being
problems – working closely with wildlife scientists, researchers Another example of man vs. nature problems is one much blamed and punished for “trespassing onto humans’ property”
and other experts whose insightful findings she passes along closer to home: the efforts in Texas, Arkansas and elsewhere … a page of “poop” illustrating four different kinds of scat
to us – she describes local efforts to solve their dilemmas. It is to literally bomb crows – “black bandits of the air” and that accompanies a chapter on how to track bobcat, ocelot,
here, in situations that local communities often consider even “feathered gangsters” they were called – and other birds out jaguar and mountain lion by identifying their droppings as
dire, that Roach’s sense of humor shines through on so many of the skies from airplanes with sticks of dynamite! During part of a program to protect these animals by keeping them
of these pages. one winter alone 250,000 crows were killed in Illinois. apart from human populations … these as well as others are
Here is just one example – true historical record described Their crime? Doing what crows do naturally in order to among the many odd and fascinating issues faced in this
on the very first page of this book’s Introduction: survive: They were raiding the nests of waterfowl, devouring book’s pages.
“On June 26, 1659, a representative from five towns in a eggs and chicks to the extent that duck hunters would not And not all are about animals. The author devotes one
province of northern Italy initiated legal proceedings against have enough of them to shoot! chapter to dangerous trees, and another to poisonous plants
caterpillars. The local specimens, went the complaint, were Here is one with a gentler touch befitting the locale – … both species which we now know through scientific
trespassing and pilfering from people’s gardens and orchards. Vatican City: evidence to have intelligence and able to wreak havoc on
A summons was issued and five copies made and nailed to trees Gulls are very different from crows, and it is sometimes humans despite our “laws.”
in forests adjacent to each town. The caterpillars were ordered necessary to keep them away in certain situations – but in a Learn and laugh. And join me in the Mary Roach fan
to appear in court on the twenty-eight of June, at a specified way that does no harm. club. 
hour, where they would be assigned legal representation.
“Of course, no caterpillars appeared at the appointed time,
but the case went forward anyway. In a surviving document,
the court recognizes the rights of caterpillars to live freely and
happily, provided this does not ‘impair the happiness of man…’
The judge decreed that the caterpillars be assigned a plot of land
for their sustenance and enjoyment. By the time the details were
worked out, the defendants, having pupated (to butterflies), were
surely through with their devastations, and all parties left the
proceedings satisfied.”
Not all human-animal problem encounters are settled so
easily, however. As we soon learn in the book’s 15 chapters,
some of them can present real predicaments. Take the case that
the author describes in the chapter she titles “THE MONKEY
FIX: Birth Control for Marauding Macaques.”
Roach travels to study the situation and meets with officials
at the Wildlife Institute of India. Newspapers scream such stories
as a baby fatally wounded after a rhesus macaque snatched
him from his mother’s breast … a bunch of monkeys stoned
a 72-year-old to death … eight lethal macaque attacks. The
monkeys are literally everywhere, and the reason is obvious: the
Indian religions, in which animals frequently represent various
gods. For example, the wild boar is an avatar of the deity Vishnu;
the monkey is a representative of Hanuman.

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