Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Sometimes it isn’t
so bad, as yesterday we went on a nature trail, and-?
And nothing, and everything, and all things in between. The
nature trail, (actually, plural, as there were three of them, of which we
completed one, and half-completed another), isn’t that different from the park
back home… the park has just a paved path and as such, it is easier to get
through.
…But what about the authenticity! – one can just hear the
cry. True, but what authenticity? The nature trail may look real – as in wet,
swampy, hard to get through, (especially for younger children), but it is
largely safe, (provided that parents are there to prevent the children from
getting too far into the water, period).
To elaborate: the wildlife there is safe – there are
songbirds, (a cage bald eagle, raised in captivity, or two), chipmunks, (also
squirrels, probably), waterfowl, (at this time of the year it were ducks),
frogs, and snakes – as in garter and water snakes, naturally. The trail itself
was peppered with children-friendly log piles, teepees, what else have you, so
that the children wouldn’t get bored – and I doubt that there were any
poisonous plants either, because children tend to put everything into their
mouths, so poisonous plants are a no-no, parent supervision or not. What else?
Enter honeybees. I do not know if the Asian giant hornets
were involved – we are on East coast right now, and so far, the giant hornets
were found only on West coast instead – but the local honeybees were swarming,
or doing something similar: a swarm of theirs was buzzing and flying around a
hollow in a conifer tree.
…Honeybees, in particular North American honeybees, are not
as aggressive as the Asian giant hornets, let alone the Africanized ‘killer’
bees, but when they are riled up, they can be quite aggressive on their own,
especially when children are involved – hence I reckon that they won’t be
around that nature trail for too long… or they will be, as the buildings were
closed, and the staff appeared to be gone, period. The nature trails remain
currently unsupervised, which raises, (for me), a question – how long until
life finds a way and the nature trails will need to be reset? I have no idea…
and this brings me back to our own park. It’s actually more dangerous than this
nature trail complex, because aside from waterfowl, songbirds, squirrels and
rabbits, our park also has hawks, (ok, they will never attack humans, unless
the latter are bothering their nests, which is unlikely, given a number of
factors), red foxes, (which can attack people, if provoked, cornered, or sick),
and coyotes, (same as red foxes, but as larger animals that are more dangerous
to humans, proportionally). Is it bad? Yes, but this is how nature is – it is
not always safe for humans, period. What next?
Today I actually wanted to talk about pandas instead. There
are two species of them – the giant panda, which is a ‘true’ bear, just the
most ancient one of the modern species, and the red panda, which is a bear
cousin, but has its’ own family. It is the size of a small racoon or a large
marten, but just as the giant panda, it feeds on bamboo, and has false thumbs
on its’ forepaws to better grip and handle the bamboo.
Pandas are not the only mammals that have false thumbs – so have
the ‘true’ moles, for example, only their false thumbs have evolved to make
their forepaws better digging shovels instead.
…The latest edition of Luke Hunter’s guide to the ‘true’
carnivorous mammals of the world that I had access to claimed that there are
two species of the red panda rather than one, but most other sources id them as
subspecies instead. There are also two subspecies of the giant panda, (aka the
panda bear) – the well-known black-and-white one, and the more obscure
cinnamon-brown-and-white one, which is found only in China. Isn’t real life
surprising? In addition, sometimes, it does not even suck!..
…Well, this is it for now, I think. See you all soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment