In my latest foray for the Chronicle Review (“Creature Consciousness,” Oct. 18, 2009), I take a look at the field of animal studies, which has taken hold in many corners of the humanities and social sciences. By animal studies I don’t mean animal rights, articulated so forcefully by the likes of Peter Singer and Tom… Continue reading »
Archives for Flora & Fauna
The Acorn Files
What’s happened to all the acorns? The D.C. area, famous for its trees, is usually full of nuts this time of year (no jokes about Congress, please). Not this fall, the WaPo reports: The idea seemed too crazy to Rod Simmons, a measured, careful field botanist. Naturalists in Arlington County couldn’t find any acorns. None…. Continue reading »
Pity the Lemming
…already unfairly maligned as suicidal, and now hit hard by climate change. The BBC reports on a new study that finds wetter winters in southern Norway, “a bleak prospect for the region’s lemmings.” Scientists think that the snow is no longer stable enough to provide the animals with winter shelter. And the suicide myth? Rather… Continue reading »
Whales to Humans: Don’t Start Your Engines
The BBC has a thoroughly depressing (but worth reading) article on its website today about how human activity is making the oceans too noisy for dolphins and whales to communicate, with serious repercussions for their breeding-and-feeding habits. The Beeb reports on a new report from IFAW, the International Fund for Animal Welfare: Noise generated by… Continue reading »
Writing Spider
She’s an Argiope aurantia, also known as a writing spider because of the stabilimenta or zig-zag patterns the species weaves into its webs. You can see some of them in the pic. My son spotted her on our lavender plant a few weeks ago, and she’s come to be kind of a family friend. But… Continue reading »
