“…Whoa!…Wow!…WOW!…Holy shit!…WOW!!!…”
(my wife and I watching the first episode of Sir David Attenborough’s “The Blue Planet” tonight)
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All this time in Los Angeles and I had never been to Palm Springs, or the nearby Desert Hot Springs, or the slightly nearby Joshua Tree National Park. Now I have done these things. These things have been done by me. You can do lots of soaking at Desert Hot Springs. We did soaking. We soaked in boiling water. We soaked in 98.6 degree water (37 celsius). We soaked in room temperature water. We soaked and soaked. We soaked well. We were happy to soak. We soaked at night, with a spotlight gibbous moon overhead, and cool desert air on our faces. We soaked with the soaking plaza all to ourselves… …except for the Black Widow spider taking an evening constitutional around the edge of our soaking pool.
And the Black Widow slunk back into its crevice to bide its time till a less canny pair of victims came along. We were too strong, too mighty. We fled to the next pool. One evening we drove through Joshua Tree National Park, where you can see many Joshua Trees, as well as rock formations that are – literally – older than your grandmother. I think I saw Bono lurking in a dry river bed. As night fell, we pulled to the side of the road and we stood staring up into a sky gray with stars, surrounded by deafening desert silence. As we drove out of the park, a Kangaroo Rat hopped out of the desert and into our headlights. (thuppa-thump) My wife shrieked. She insisted we go back to see if we had killed it. We went back. We saw. We had killed it. We confessed our crime to the Park Ranger at the gate. We apologized. She said, “Well, the coyotes have gotta eat too.” – which made us feel better. That night I dozed off watching my favorite tv show. In this episode, young Kumiko Kobayashi, the only Japanese woman to have been admitted to a certain famous French culinary school (the name of which I’ve forgotten) challenged Iron Chef French, Hiroyuki Sakai. The ingredient was Mishima Beef. Kobayashi lost, 3 to 1. We departed Desert Hot Springs, rested, cheerful, groggy, happy, dry-lipped, me with a belly full of pork products injested at the hotel’s breakfast buffet. As we headed up a supernaturally straight stretch of barren road, my wife proudly proclaimed her sighting of a dead hog. She insisted we go back, so I could see it. We went back. I saw it. Big hog. White hog. Dead hog. Many many flies. No evidence of blood. Had the hog been left as a sign by one of San Bernardino County’s many bizarre religious cults? Or had it leaped from a passing truck in an eleventh-hour attempt to escape the carniceria? Or were one of the local white supremacist terrorist organizations interrupted while preparing for a midnight trip to the local mosque? We would never know. We decided to agree that seeing a dead white hog in the desert was a sign of good luck. And I added an amendment that the amount of good luck increased, somehow or other, with the number of flies that could be counted on the corpse. We would be very lucky indeed! A luxurious drive back to L.A., via Joshua Tree, me gawking at gigantic nature and veering dangerously, while my wife read aloud interesting passages from a book about the geologies and ecologies of the park. Arriving home, we were shunned by resentful cats.
—  Readers know that I am fascinated by the natural world. My wife and I can hardly be asked to dinner without steering the conversation toward the brilliance of David Attenborough’s various nature series. So here’s post #1, of who knows how many, about the world’s coolest animals.The Cutting Hare of South Asia – which was named the “Wolf Hare” by Europeans (a designation expressed in its taxonomic name Lepus lupus) – is one of only a handful of venomous mammals in the world, and the only venomous member of the order Lagomorpha (which include rabbits, hares and pikas). The male Platypus, also the only egg-laying mammal, has a sharp, hollow spur on the inside of each ankles, which is connected to a gland which produces a very strong toxin. The primitive Solenodon of Haiti and Cuba has grooves in its front teeth which channel venom. Short-tailed Shrews too have venom that is used to paralyze their prey for later eating.
(false-color electron microscope image of envenomation spurs on tongue of Lepus lupus – courtesy PsiTec Images)
The Cutting Hare has thousands of microscopic “spines” on its tongue, making its texture a little like a cat’s tongue – but you don’t want the Cutting Hare licking you for too long. The spines in the tongue help to retain an envenomed saliva, which is secreted when the Cutting Hare feels threatened. Anyone who was nipped as a child by a pet hamster knows that a pair of well-exercised incisors can deliver a nasty bite. The Cutting Hare when cornered by predatory animals such as Eagles or Owls, or even snakes like the Indian Cobra or Python, becomes, for a moment, the most unrabbit-like of the rabbit family. A Cutting Hare will dig in with its powerful incisors, sometimes clinging for three or four seconds, and with tongue thrusts it will “scrub” its toxic saliva into the bite wound. Only then does it fall back into line with the behavior of its relatives and dash like mad for safety. At least one Cutting Hare was seen to cling to its would-be Eagle predator even as the fleeing Eagle was taking to the air. The toxin is not strong enough to seriously threaten a predator. But there is enough irritation caused by the combination of bite and venom that predators are unlikely to stick around for a second try and will be occupied in soothing the burning wound rather than hunting, and will probably move along to look for easier pickings. This may explain why birds of prey are seldom seen attacking fully grown adult Cutting Hares. In fact, birds of prey and Cutting Hares have occasionally been seen sharing the same patch of ground, apparently observing an uneasy truce. It has been suggested that the Cutting Hare’s own toxin helps give it a limited immunity from the venom of some of its predators, such as the Indian Cobra. Cutting Hares have been reported to survive Cobra bites that would likely have killed other mammals of similar size. The Cutting Hare is listed as Endangered. Much of its natural habitat has been lost due to human cultivation and settlement, forestry, grazing; also predation by dogs. LEPUS LUPUS FACT SHEET
I offer you the only – and I feel quite confident in saying this – the only poem in existence about a pod of feeding Ichthyosauri. It appears in the Aug./Sept. 2005 Issue (#73) of “Prehistoric Times”, the world’s best magazine by and for paleontology enthusiasts (not just paleontologists – I mean ENTHUSIASTS!). Many thanks to editor Mike Fredericks for producing a venue where a guy can get his prehistoric nature poems published.
ICHTHYOSAURS FEEDING An Ichthyosaur cow and her pod have cornered With a nod, the cow’s snout swings wide, - making way for the rest to deftly plunder - zooms back in to further undo, Upcoast currents deport the silver school at last - Sun lulls the pod, fish-drunk, to spend The cow parries dopey, double-belly suitors,
I am a liar. Such a liar. Oh, why can I not stop lying? It’s like a…a sickness, a disease, an ailment, an affliction, an ague, etc. I keep lying and lying, even though I am in danger of losing my credibility, of becoming known as a “Boy Who Cried Wolf Hare”. I must now openly declare to one and all – to all my loyal, trusting, sweet, innocent, unsuspecting readers – that not only is there no such thing as the Cutting Hare (Lepus lupus, aka the Wolf Hare), but that there is also no such thing as the African Brush Hare (Lepus saurensis, native of Tanzania). I have lied about it all. All of it! Heaven have mercy on my wretched soul! The animal that has been pictured in both of these my vile dissemblages (from Old French “dissemblages”) is in fact the common, good ol’ American Black-tailed Jackrabbit (Lepus californicus) – which is a type of a hare actually. My apologies to God, my family, the Cutting Hare, the Brush Hare, and most importantly to the Jackrabbit himself, who has been a pillar of fortitude and patience throughout this trying time. Let us all join together to give the Jackrabbit an ovation – a standing ovation – lest we forget that without the Jackrabbit, there would be no…  (image used without any permission from Warner Bros. Inc. whatsoever)
…BUGS BUNNY.
I am forced to confess – pressured by great public outrage – that there is no such thing as the Lepus lupus, the Cutting Hare, aka the Wolf Hare. But there should be. I apologize to everyone. But most especially to God and to my parents. For those interested, the electron microscope photo of the Cutting Hare’s tongue was in fact an artsy picture of a cactus. Hence the name of the image file “cactus.jpg”. The animal depicted is quite a wonderful little critter however. It is the common African Brush Hare (Lepus saurensis), one of the fastest of the Lagomorphs. It can attain 40 mph in short bursts! It lives in Tanzania. Check out the cool pics!  Lepus saurensis
The Cutting Hare of South Asia – which was named the “Wolf Hare” by Europeans (a designation expressed in its taxonomic name Lepus lupus) – is one of only a handful of venomous mammals in the world, and the only venomous member of the order Lagomorpha (which include rabbits, hares and pikas). The male Platypus, also the only egg-laying mammal, has a sharp, hollow spur on the inside of each ankles, which is connected to a gland which produces a very strong toxin. The primitive Solenodon of Haiti and Cuba has grooves in its front teeth which channel venom. Short-tailed Shrews too have venom that is used to paralyze their prey for later eating.
(false-color electron microscope image of envenomation spurs
on tongue of Lepus lupus – courtesy PsiTec Images)
The Cutting Hare has thousands of microscopic “spines” on its tongue, making its texture a little like a cat’s tongue – but you don’t want the Cutting Hare licking you for too long. The spines in the tongue help to retain an envenomed saliva, which is secreted when the Cutting Hare feels threatened. Anyone who was nipped as a child by a pet hamster knows that a pair of well-exercised incisors can deliver a nasty bite. The Cutting Hare when cornered by predatory animals such as Eagles or Owls, or even snakes like the Indian Cobra or Python, becomes, for a moment, the most unrabbit-like of the rabbit family. A Cutting Hare will dig in with its powerful incisors, sometimes clinging for three or four seconds, and with tongue thrusts it will “scrub” its toxic saliva into the bite wound. Only then does it fall back into line with the behavior of its relatives and dash like mad for safety. At least one Cutting Hare was seen to cling to its would-be Eagle predator even as the fleeing Eagle was taking to the air. The toxin is not strong enough to seriously threaten a predator. But there is enough irritation caused by the combination of bite and venom that predators are unlikely to stick around for a second try and will be occupied in soothing the burning wound rather than hunting, and will probably move along to look for easier pickings. This may explain why birds of prey are seldom seen attacking fully grown adult Cutting Hares. In fact, birds of prey and Cutting Hares have occasionally been seen sharing the same patch of ground, apparently observing an uneasy truce. It has been suggested that the Cutting Hare’s own toxin helps give it a limited immunity from the venom of some of its predators, such as the Indian Cobra. Cutting Hares have been reported to survive Cobra bites that would likely have killed other mammals of similar size. The Cutting Hare is listed as Endangered. Much of its natural habitat has been lost due to human cultivation and settlement, forestry, grazing; also predation by dogs. LEPUS LUPUS FACT SHEET
SAVE THE CUTTING HARE! Buy the T-SHIRT NOW! Inspired by the discussion “Weird Science…” taking place over at The Screenwriting Life, I have compiled a list of…
I wondered whether or not to put “A Beautiful Mind” (2001) on the list, since the character is a mathematician and not specifically a scientist, but I did some research and was reassured that mathematics is, in fact, one of the purest forms of PURE science (correcting the original post where I had mistakenly written “applied science”). If I had kept “A Beautiful Mind” out of it, you would have probably gotten in its stead “Honey, I Shrunk The Kids” (1989). As a side note, some of the user comments for “Madame Curie” at the Internet Movie Database are quite good and would be helpful for those trying to find out exactly what makes a scientist movie entertaining. Those with a science background will certainly have better informed opinions than most and I welcome these. I still am not entirely clear on the difference between pure and applied science (though, as I understand it, scientists prefer to practice pure science, while corporations and government prefer scientists to practice applied science). For example, saying that Ellie in “Contact” (1997) is practicing pure science in her searching the skies for intelligent life doesn’t feel quite right to me…Does anybody out there have a take on that?…Or am I all alone in the universe?… |
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