The Urban Pantheist

I could do something productive while I wait for Alexis to come home, but I think I'll share some links (and clear the tab-clutter away) instead.

Everyone likes multi-species interactions in zoos. That's why this photo of a zebra eating stuff out of a hippo's teeth made the BBC's website.

Speaking of animal photos, a camera trap in a small chunk of Southeast Asian forest caught a record 7 cat species. Kind of amazing biodiversity of predators, considering there are also other in the same forest, including dogs and civets.

Another photo essay from that part of the world shows a biodiversity of living animals in the local market, including dogs (but no civets).

Contrast that with this Portland farmers' market, which includes at least three species of mushroom.

Mushrooms are big business in Tibet, where they apparently make up 8.5% of the GDP. I haven't seen any comparisons, but this must be some kind of record. More interesting than that, is Tibet's second biggest mushroom crop is the insect parasite Ophiocordyceps sinensis (referred to as Cordyceps in most sources). The fungus infects adult moths, who pass the infection to their offspring. The insect lives a normal life (3 or 4 years, according to this article) until it's a full grown caterpillar, then the fungus consumes its body, and changes its behavior. Instead of avoiding dessication by burrowing deep into the soil, the caterpillar stays just under the top layer. When the infection is complete, the caterpillar dies, and the fungus sends an antenna-like mushroom to the surface to release more spores. Tibetan harvesters look for these tiny mushrooms and dig out the caterpillar-shaped fungal mycelium, which is used for medicinal purposes.

I have a number of creative posts in the back of my head, but they don't seem to be making their way to my fingertips. I did however spend some time looking at the aggregator Fark, and did some metaaggregating for your convenience:

Firstly I learned the poor saps in Great Britain are deprived of hummingbird moths, one of my favorite lepidopteran families. Fortunately it's Global Warming to the rescue as North African hummingbird moths drift up to Britain in increasing numbers. Naturally, the hottest spot for recent sightings is in London.

Second, some sparty-pants geneticists have investigated just where and when in human history our bodies started tolerating milk from cows. A mutation which allows some of us to eat the stuff without explosive diarrhea, obnoxious flatulence, projectile vomiting, or death, was traced to the middle of Europe about 7500 years ago. Hopefully a domestic animal researcher or two will use this data to help trace the history and use olivestock--a pet subject of mine.

Speaking of pet livestock, another group of researchers have opened up a controversial can of worms by positing an alternate theory of how and when and why dogs were domesticated. They put the date at no more than 16,300 years ago (which jibes with mainstream thinking); the location: China; the purpose: deliciousness. Personally, I think that the Coppinger village dog hypothesis (dogs domesticated themselves when some wolves who happened to be smaller and more docile started hanging around people and eating their garbage) still makes more sense, but this other theory could be dovetailed into it. That makes more sense than the idea of someone trying to round up wolves in a pen to be made into dog foo yung. They better be damn tasty to be worth all the risk.

Baboon adopts chicken at zoo

VILNIUS (Reuters) - A lonely baboon in a private Lithuanian zoo has adopted a chicken he saved from certain death last month and the two have formed a fast friendship, the zoo's director said Friday.

The chicken was intended as food for other animals in the zoo, but escaped and was sheltered by Mitis, a six-year-old Hamadryas Baboon, Edvardas Legeckas, who runs the zoo near the port city Klaipeda in western Lithuania, told Reuters.

Mitis has been fed chicken meat before, but this time he fell in love with his food, Legeckas said.

"He plays with the chicken, cleans its feathers, sleeps with it, and takes care as if it was his own baby child," the zoo director said.

"But I am not sure how long this affair would last, because baboon may finally realize this is food."

Baboons, with their distinctive long dog-like muzzles and heavy powerful jaws, are omnivorous, but usually prefer fruit. In the wild, they live in close-knit social groups.

"Obviously this baboon needed someone to communicate with," the director said.