Nature Abhors a Vacuum

In nature, one food source displaces another. For instance, the Virginia Mountain Mint that had all the insects gathered at the fence line in the spring  has now given way to bright yellow bidens flowers.

A Monarch in flight

I've come to expect the Monarchs at this time of year, and so I watch for their arrival on my side of the fence.

The Monarch butterflies suddenly appear at the fence line and are drawn to the yellow blooms, but many of the other insects that were there are all along, so excited about the Virginia Mountain Mint a few months ago,  are now just as happy to feed on the nectar of the beggar-tick bidens.

If I had not watched this compilation of nature clips that I had made over the past few months, I might not have noticed how the predominant white of the Virginia Mountain Mint gave way to the overpowering yellow of the beggar-tick  bidens. From a distance, they remind me of the safflower fields in the movie Only Yesterday. 

If all the same flowers were blooming throughout the spring and summer, how different it would be for the butterflies and bees! Wouldn't they neglect some flowers in favor of others? Bow is like that, too. I had to learn to buy fewer apples when there are pears to be had. And when handing out a snack between meals, it is important that it not be calorie dense, or else Bow will not be ready for dinner at the usual time.

That's why Pickle Ice is such a wonderful snack! Bow enjoys it very much, but I don't have to worry that it will spoil his dinner.

Because there are no calories in Pickle Ice, just water and vinegar and salt, Bow finds it refreshing, but it does not alter his diet. It does not displace other foods.

I remember when he was little, and we brought him to Orchard House to be tested on his literacy and language skills. It was an objective test, and he was offered chocolate, if he did it right. But even though Bow has always liked chocolate, he did not even try to do well on the test. In fact, he stubbornly insisted on answering every single question wrong. When a test subject consistently does that, and his wrong answers exceed chance, you know he is resisting. And one of the interns asked me: "Didn't he just have breakfast?" Well, yes, of course, he had. What mother would bring her child in to take an academic test on an empty stomach?

And what were they thinking?  That I should deprive him of breakfast? That I should starve him before the test? That he would skip breakfast and then fill up on chocolate? I was never going to allow that.

So here's a question that I have for researchers who use food as an incentive to do well at a task: does the reward food displace the everyday ordinary meals, or do the test subjects have bottomless pits for stomachs? I sometimes wonder if the same basic issues that plague academic economists in understanding the free market are at work in the studies of behavioral researchers. Nature abhors a vacuum. You cannot change what's available without changing the balance of things.

But... if I were to offer Bow an incentive to do well on a test today, I wouldn't offer chocolate. I'd offer Pickle Ice, because Bow likes that a lot, and he can even enjoy it on a full stomach. So there's a thought.

Cowboy Meets Nala

Anytime something interesting happens outside, I share the footage with Bow.

The most interesting thing that happened yesterday was a chance meeting between Nala the kitten and Cowboy, the neighbor dog.

I was just out there enjoying the wildflowers by the fence and watching the insects that buzzed and fluttered around them.

The kitten, Nala, has taken to following me wherever I go, and on hot days, she naps in the shade while I chase butterflies.

While I was on the lookout for Monarchs, and searching between the blooms of the bidens artistosa, along came Cowboy, the neighbor dog.

Everybody in the neighborhood knows Cowboy by name, and we all accept him on our land, because he is an exceptionally well mannered dog. He does not chase livestock. He does not tease my dogs, and in general he seems to understand the rules of civilized behavior. But Nala had never met him before, and she was very defensive.

It took quite a few minutes before the standoff was over. Cowboy was friendly, but he did not force himself on Nala. He just circled her at a discreet distance, with his tail wagging.

Eventually, a truce was established. Nala rested in the shade, and Cowboy stayed far away from her.

This arrangement left me the time to watch a Monarch butterfly on my side of the fence as it made its way to the other side.

Should dogs be allowed to roam free, even when they are owned? It depends on the dog. If he is well behaved, why not? There was a time when all dogs roamed free, and when they behaved badly they were shot. This left only well behaved dogs roaming the streets, the fields and the pastures.

It seems counter-intuitive, but a laissez faire policy -- both toward the dogs and towards the people who have to defend their property from unruly dogs -- is ultimately much more humane and results in a much happier situation for both dogs and humans than a policy of zero tolerance for strays and zero tolerance for property owners defending what is theirs with a gun.

I saw a situation where strays wandered free when I lived in Taiwan: The Strays of Tamsui. The dogs were well behaved and would not even accept food from a stranger on the street. They stayed well clear of passers-by, and they never formed hostile bands. Some people that I spoke to about how idyllic this situation was told me I was naive. There had been great cruelty to dogs that led to this well behaved population of strays. I was not being naive. I understood that a balance has to be struck.

I understand that dogs can form gangs. I have seen this with my own eyes here on my land. I have had one dog killed by other dogs, and I have had to stand my ground and defend against attacking dogs, long before there was an animal shelter in this county. I am not naive.

But here is the takeaway: if you want to be able to allow nice dogs like Cowboy to roam, you need to take the risk that every once in a while, a stray may have to be shot by a landowner. This is part of the process that creates a balance. Balance is not some kind of hippy notion of peace and flowers. Balance means the give and take that allows us to move freely among others, with each individual respecting the rights of others. If you take away all the guns and the freedom of motion, that balance can never be established. And that's true about free range children, too, and maybe someday chimpanzees as well.

After all, we did the same with humans in general. We didn't just miraculously become more enlightened until it became safe to walk among strangers in peace. We just culled out those among us with the more violent tendencies. Sometimes people forget that.

Unauthorized Happiness

Sometimes it gets very hot here. The temperature goes up to a hundred degrees or thereabouts, and everything outside seems droopy. But Bow loves the heat and the sunshine, and luckily for us the outer pen is facing east, which means that in the late afternoon it is shaded by the house. Bow can go out there and enjoy the heat and the light of the sun, but it's not too much to bear.

The bidens by the road seem to be the only flowers entirely unaffected by the heat.

Nobody authorized those flowers to grow there. Nobody planted or watered them. And if they die, nobody will weep for them, either. But when I went to check the mail yesterday afternoon, there they were, happy and cheerful, ready to greet me.

There are official flowers, and then there are weeds. But you can't count on official flowers to be there for you in a pinch. It's the weeds that help in an emergency, because they take care of themselves. Likewise, there are official fleets and there are "pirates", but who really comes to the rescue, when the government does not care if you win or lose as long as the taxes are paid?

http://www.historiaobscura.com/the-british-visit-to-laffite-a-study-of-events-200-years-later/

There are official conservationists and then there are amateurs, but who really gives a damn about the Monarch butterflies?

http://kathyfreeze.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-monarchs-meet-government.html

There are official apes, and there are illegitimate apes. There are apes whose existence is authorized, and then there are "illegitimate pregnancies". One of the most astounding claims in the Slate article that I linked last time was that Dr. Savage-Rumbaugh was accused of allowing an unauthorized pregnancy to take place among the bonobos. Unauthorized by whom?

If the pregnancy took place during Savage-Rumbaugh's tenure as chief researcher, who else could authorize it but her? And what exactly was she supposed to do? Set up a puritanical set of human-based mores to teach to the bonobos to keep them from conceiving? In the name of conservation, no less?

Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and Teco

They're talking about little Teco. They think he should not exist. By what right?

The fact is that if you are an "official" researcher and have access to "official" apes, then you come under a very strict set of Federal laws, and your establishment is run by a committee, and your employees get to tell you what to do. For instance, the veterinarians and the caretakers do not answer to the person that hired them They answer to the Feds. Once you understand this arrangement, you start to understand why both the bonobo and the gorilla researchers are constantly under fire by their own underlings.

Even though their establishments are ostensibly private institutions, because they have succumbed to temptation of public funding, even if it's just in the form of a non-profit, they have allowed their apes to be nationalized. They have lost the most basic rights of ownership and control. The sanctuaries and zoos, likewise, are not really private institutions, even though they fall within the "private sector." All these apes are under the government thumb.

Bow is not an official chimpanzee. My research with him is not "authorized". I am just a private person, like any other. We are not an institution. It's a home. This means, among other things, that we are not merely banished from the Federal funding system. We are also not allowed to meet with any ape within that system. I don't think the public in whose name this is being done knows that, and I do think it is time that they knew.

We are free, and we are separated, but our seclusion is not something we have chosen. Instead, it is another kind of segregation that the government has put into effect. Illegitimate chimpanzees are not to mingle with official apes.

However, in a pinch, just like the privateers and the weeds at the side of the road, an unofficial ape can come in handy, can save the day, can bring happiness.

So here's to unauthorized happiness and to wildflowers wherever they may grow!