Page 22 - PGA Community News- July '24

Page 22, PGA C.A.N.! July 2024 July 2024
Book Review

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

Reminder From
Palm Beach Gardens

Police Department

Adopt These Habits To

Prevent Vehicle Burglaries
• Please lock your vehicle doors every time –
even for a quick stop or at home.
• Never leave items of any kind inside your
vehicle. Hiding items doesn’t work!
• At a minimum, if you must leave items, place
them in your trunk.
• Cell phone/iPod power cords, GPS holders
and other key sets act as neon signs.
• Park in well-lit areas, stay alert and call in Licensed and Insured
any suspicious activities to the police department
nonemergency number: 799-4445.