Recommended Winter Reading

Snow days or no-snow days, winter does tend to keep us inside more, so here's a worthwhile read. If you enjoyed David Suzuki's Nature of Things episode on the animal mind recently, you will definitely want to delve into biologist Marc Bekoff's book. The Suzuki episode was just a teaser on this profoundly important topic.
And here's an intriguing passage that tickled my "tiny green" fancy:

In my musings about animal emotions I also can't help wondering, What about the insects? Do even mosquitos have emotional lives? Of course, mosquitos have tiny brains and lack the neural apparatus necessary for the evolution of emotions, so it's doubtful they do. But in truth, we just don't know. One day, perhaps we'll figure out a way to determine this. More important, however, would it make a difference to us if they did? It should, just as it should make a difference to us that other animals have emotions. Knowing that animals feel - and being able to understand them when they express joy, grief, jealousy, and anger - allows us to connect with them and also to consider their points of view when we interact with them. Knowledge about animal passions should make a difference in how we view, represent, and treat our fellow beings.

Those Birds in Black

How fitting that just as I finished the final paragraph of Crows by Candace Savage, a pair of these raucous rabble-rousers flew in for a morning visit, joyously announcing themselves from the tall pines. I have lovingly dubbed them Heckle and Jeckle (I know, I know, they were magpies). They first arrived a few weeks ago and became frequent visitors at the feeders, heavy snow and the scarcity of food probably driving them in. I don’t see them as often now that the snow is finally, albeit slowly, receding.

I have always felt honoured to be visited by crows. When a crow flies in, there is a moment of magic. The atmosphere suddenly changes, and all things seem possible. It’s as if they come from another world, another kingdom, where animals talk amongst themselves and share a knowing chuckle about our so-called human superiority. Crows can be disconcerting. Humbling.

Yet they are definitely part of our world, if we would only take the time to pay attention to them and to realistically acknowledge the extraordinary evolutionary journey the Corvidae family has taken.

I am glad for their presence in my life. I realize, however, that many people do not share this view of the crow. More’s the pity. They would do well to read this informative book, which deftly shifts between science and lore, thus giving us a 360° perspective on this highly intelligent creature with whom we share the planet.

Noisy? Well, so are we humans. And I would much prefer to listen to crows gabbing overhead than hear car horns, drills, heavy machinery, bulldozers or football fans any day.

Savage’s book has been on the shelves since 2005, so I regretfully confess that I just got around to reading it this month. And while I eagerly recommend this book to fellow Corvidae enthusiasts everywhere, critics and curmudgeons who regard crows only as pests and nuisances ought to read this too.

Here is a tantalizing excerpt to tease your curiosity, or unsettle your disdain if you are not yet a fan of “the bird in black”:

It is disconcerting to find so much of ourselves reflected in a feathered reptile: a bird. Disconcerting, but also revelatory. Our kinship with crows reminds us of the irrepressible creativity of evolution, that endless free-form expression of the miraculous that has shaped all of Earth’s beings, including us. In the vernacular of creation, crows and humans are a kind of living pun, two species with different meanings but the same vibration. It’s the kind of double entendre that the mythic Raven would have loved, a cosmic witticism that both puts us in our place and raises our spirits. When a crow leaps into the air, our hearts take wing with it and we join in the rowdy revel of existence.

Crows, Encounters with the Wise Guys of the Avian World
Candace Savage
Douglas & McIntyre Ltd., 2005
www.greystonebooks.com

And thanks to Wikimedia Commons for the photo.

Ecology and Education

Education has been on my mind a lot lately. Perhaps because another academic year is about to begin. I don't know.

But in the spirit of this new season of learning, I would like to share this passage with you. From Lewis Thomas, the eminent science writer:

"Teach ecology early on. Let it be understood that the earth's life is a system of interliving, interdependent creatures, and that we do not understand at all how it works. The earth's environment, from the range of atmospheric gases to the chemical constituents of the sea, has been held in an almost unbelievably improbable state of regulated balance since life began, and the regulation of stability and balance is accomplished solely by the life itself, like the internal environment of an immense organism, and we do not know how that one works, even less what it means.
Teach that."