Page 15 - Stuart Exposure - July '24

Stuart Exposure, Page 15

bOOk review

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