Ecoviews Too: Ecology for All Seasons
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About this ebook
Whit Gibbons and Anne R. Gibbons’s Ecoviews Too: Ecology for All Seasons is based on the popular weekly column “Ecoviews,” published by numerous newspapers for more than thirty years. A follow-up to Ecoviews: Snakes, Snails and Environmental Tales, this lively and entertaining book provides a fascinating and thought-provoking look at the ecology of animals, plants, and their habitats, and promotes awareness of pressing environmental issues.
Because nature, in all its myriad and amazing manifestations, can be enjoyed all year round, this collection is conveniently divided into four sections paralleling the seasons and tracking the adaptations and responses of wildlife to the relentless changes that occur at any location over time. The ecological vignettes focus on seasonal happenings in the cycle of life. The authors not only draw parallels between the natural world and human activities but also highlight unique behaviors of various plant and animal species. They often use humor to get across their message regarding the need to protect our native species and the habitats they depend on for survival.
An intriguing and captivating publication, Ecoviews Too is comprised of fifty informative essays that address ecological topics such as camouflage and mimicry, hibernation and estivation, the human need to encounter scary animals, the mysteries of plant dormancy in winter, the comeback of the wild turkey coinciding with the decline of bobwhites, the chemistry behind the color change in fall leaves, and the top ten environmental problems facing the world today. Educating, entertaining, and delighting a general audience, especially those with an interest in nature, Ecoviews Too provides a useful resource for students and scientists alike.
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Ecoviews Too - J. Whitfield Gibbons
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Introduction
What Should You Do with a Beached Whale?
Imagine walking out to get your newspaper one morning and finding a live whale stranded in shallow water near the porch. For this to happen, you would of course have to live on the coast, with water close by your front door. Assuming those things to be true, how would you feel about the stranded whale? The first response would surely be wonderment. (If you would not be at least temporarily surprised, then you have led a significantly different life from the rest of us.) But after a moment of disbelief, how would you feel?
Over the past forty years wildlife biologists have addressed and attempted to categorize the disparate views individuals take toward encounters with wild animals. The eleven perspectives listed below are our interpretation of the fundamental attitudes. These divergent views about wildlife are the underlying cause of many environmental conflicts because no single sentiment is necessarily right to the exclusion of the others. A further complication arises because most people’s responses include a combination of two or more attitudes. But virtually no one is going to express all eleven or even the majority of the attitudes about a single situation because some are in direct conflict with each other. However, the same individual might respond differently at different times and in different situations.
Following is our list of eleven classic attitudes humans have toward wildlife:
1. Compassionate—characterized by a nurturing response toward wildlife. Such a person would seek help to move the beast back into the ocean to save its life. This animal welfare approach conflicts with some other environmental attitudes.
2. Scientific—characterized by a desire to study and understand wildlife. A scientist is objective and impartial. What species of whale is it? Why is it stranded? Does it have an inner ear parasite that caused disorientation? Perhaps we should let it die so we can dissect it. A research ecologist fits easily into this category.
3. Environmental—characterized by the view that an individual animal is of less significance than the species. Some ecologists might think if a whale is dumb enough to beach itself, it will be better for the species if its genes are not passed on. Concern would focus on whether something is causing a die-off of whales in general.
4. Aesthetic—characterized by an interest in the symbolic or artistic aspects of animals. Having such a magnificent animal in your yard would be a pleasurable experience. A few photographs or an oil painting could be appropriate. On its demise, a poem might be in order.
5. Utilitarian—characterized by an interest in the practical value of the animal. What good is it to me and how can I take advantage of this newfound commodity? Can I charge scientists to study it or artists to depict it? On a broader scale, could some aspect of a whale’s anatomy lead to a cure for cancer?
6. Dominating—characterized by a desire to pursue wildlife for sport, sustenance, or both. The hunting instinct could emerge if the whale began escaping into deeper waters. A hunter might want to herd it back, capture it, and then possibly let it go. If no regulatory consequences were likely to be forthcoming, some hunters would kill the animal.
7. Negative—characterized by fear or dislike of animals. For almost everyone, wildlife can be bothersome in certain situations (think blood-sucking mosquitoes and garbage-strewing raccoons). But some people avoid the outdoors because they find wildlife consistently annoying or threatening. For such people, a fifty-ton whale would almost certainly be considered a nuisance animal that should be removed by the wildlife department.
8. Managerial—characterized by a desire to manipulate and control all aspects of one’s environment. The consummate manager would probably want to take measures to ensure that whales could no longer do this stranding thing to themselves because no one is in charge and it annoys coastal residents.
9. Indifference—characterized by a lack of interest in wildlife. Sadly, this attitude is not uncommon, although it would seem an unlikely response to finding a stranded whale in one’s yard.
10. Naturalistic—characterized by an enthusiasm for wildlife and the outdoors. A beached whale would obviously invoke wonder, but pleasure would also be found at the sight of shorebirds and woodland foxes, wildflowers on dunes or along mountain paths, and fireflies in one’s own backyard.
11. Religious—characterized by a belief in a higher power that is connected to everything in nature. Some people might seek to deal with the situation through prayer; others might ascribe the whale’s plight to predestination. Some might deem a whale in the yard an omen worthy of further consideration.
Obviously, a stranded whale isn’t an everyday ocurrence, even if you live near the ocean. But the environmental attitudes described above are applicable to even the most mundane encounters with wildlife.
The environment has now joined politics and religion as a controversial and potentially divisive topic of conversation. Accepting the views of others is not always easy, particularly when those views are directly opposed to our own—but it’s something to strive for.
Instances of cooperation to further the common good have produced some of our nation’s greatest political environmental achievements: creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and passage of the Endangered Species, Clean Air, and Clean Water Acts, as well as legislation to protect wetlands. Targeted attacks to weaken environmental laws and regulations are generally ill founded, with rewards benefiting the special interests of only a few individuals or companies. Most federal environmental programs need strengthening, and none of us should have to endure concerted efforts to weaken or eliminate environmental safeguards. The broad intent of political efforts to protect natural habitats is in the best interest of the human population of the United States and the world.
Our goal for this book is to encourage, maybe even inspire, others to appreciate natural habitats and the native wildlife that populate them.
Spring
Every Day Is April Fool’s for Some Species
A fish spies a wiggling worm under the riverbank. Free meal? Yes, but not for the fish. April Fool’s. The would-be worm was actually the tongue of an alligator snapping turtle, and the giant jaws slammed shut when the fish went after the bait. For almost any identifiable human behavior, including playing jokes on April 1, an equivalent or near-equivalent can be found somewhere in the plant and animal kingdoms. For many species, playing tricks is a daily routine. But doing so is definitely no joke; it’s a matter of life or