Actaet Seni eel-eedl Py wy Wi Ser a ae rp irr mer rere ee ads lea erewersy Serer Poh ee hy ith ODP i BOE Eate i eee tee we eee et ton por ead TPP PTL Le ade eT ae ere ae elas PP ES IOP ee Ta eee re rer rea) corer ny cere fat ee eae Pee a Paar eee Pee err yoe air ere ri Pee at eee Pee ee rer A BBE M or nh Wer er a ree ire ed Cees a PT, a oon ers cre " ‘ en te inet rend Pare oes Pe a nas tia eee eae) ad Pee ae ern rrr ree ties eS were ny Se ee ree err ee rarer eee re ere e S| rae Sere) Orvacrriererne iL eves r rer ener rr ae g Peer Sa Cees NR Aa Te y eee rey ear ie oT i ee eae r sith ani Aid eae ares Le he tae eee vere er oe Sere as a Nee | cate a ee ee a CT ee eae Pa Pn aie Pt eter a O eA rh, Beh te he, Se ae oes ree oe a Spe OT he edi eee ee eae ee arte ape Stee « a ere : Pere a aed Sra Pac a eae Cai See Rear Parry oy ae Set aan are Soa Rarer h iy eree Bena Sr es « Beare ost et eae ee Te eines ieee i ee Sa LT aaa’ peer eee te ates eet ed aad Pose ee taht este Se hae See as ris See e a . era one pare Se ee rae ra error ea ee aa oe Bday oe ‘ tanta BRON ee wns er ea tea ore pane are ee ae Laas pee TTT at eevee peeerere th Sn Seren Nala Vi 102 - . x 5 ? s . : . ‘ - , 7 - - - wi’ © * = ~~ ar s “bays t re al / 2 e 4 . yi »* - % te, - Lae i- - haa ae ees P 2 i ! a % mis =o Fs Te ee ae “ - he . ‘ m x +f “ a 7 aa 4 54th r« _ uae a 4 “4 aT = @ as , - ' ' } ; 4 ~ bal 7 d { a 7 uj x ue ‘a 4 - ‘ih my ” . a, ; ~< a ; | ey Te i. ’ t i a 2 é > > . we exe t ¢ > a ( a ~ aie * z - - of te “ _# a > ry yohoe . ; 4 eae “S% AA a ‘oa ee ones < NS r <, A : ie is, s IP re i ¥ ; 1 i nye ¢ a \ : ia ie ony a ’ e og Pen! — , , 7 (am > toga Mia in «ft wr or. eee” ce oe ere Se a Loe es Be = 32O80O8EE0R80E3 -DIGIT 482 -21LBR 31842 5MCN9X 98 11 NOV93 NAT ED MARYGROVE CLLG LIBRARY 8425 W MCNICHOLS ROAD DETROIT MI 48221-2546 cM A strange sporting event took place the other day. A man in a fetal position under a hurdle caught a runner in midair. out of his car, then flung his body under a hurdle and waited. Was it worth it? What do you think? a (i Antonis used an N6006 to exper- Antonis Achilleos, Is this fun, or what? pro busboy, amateur shooter, dove under a iment with and expand creativity. hurdle to catch afly- To Antonis Achilleos, part-time ing woman with his NikonN6006. Please It autofocuses quickly and pre- dont try this at home. busboy, full-time amateur photographer, it is. In fact, to Antonis, making great photographs is more fun than making touchdowns, jump shots or holes in one. Homestretch by Antonis Achilleos, busboy One afternoon, while driving to get a Slurpee, he spotted a vision of beauty ~ in sweat socks flying through the air. Something clicked. He grabbed his Nikon N6006, leaped ee USS Ue cisely in light as dim as a single candle. There’s Spot Metering, Center-Weighted Metering, and Matrix Metering, for rapidly changing light condi- tions or fast-moving action. “Hey, Mister, duck!” _ Thisis it.The Nikon N6000. There's a powerful POP Autofocusing, a built-in flash, interchangeable Nikkor lenses. Its how amateurs get their stuff in magazines. Just ask Antonis. For a free booklet up flash with 28mm coverage. Here Antonis brightened the which fires the flash just before the shu { Nikon — We take the worlds | greatest pictures? ter closes, and he shot at 1/ 15th. Even though the flash isn’t designed to cover the entire frame, Antonis chose a 24mm AF Nikkor | to exaggerate the angle. He could have | picked any one of nearly eighty legendary ~ lenses. The same lenses most pros use | behind the dugout or in the end zone. The N6006® however, is the Nikon for people who don’t have press credentials. Or sideline passes. You see, this is the Nikon | that amateurs show their stuff call 1-800-NIKON-35. foreground by increasing the flash one stop. And he underexposed one stop to maintain the ominous sky and provide contrast to the brightly lit foreground. To create a sense of motion (as if she needed it), he used Rear Curtain Sync, See the N6006 at authorized dealers where you see this symbol. For more on the exclusive Cy Nikon MasterCard, call 1-800-NIKON-35. eo Weithaed with. This is the Nikon for people witha passion for photography who just happen to be dentists, plumbers, or busboys. This is the Nikon photo buffs make part of their everyday wardrobe. Because who knows what you'll see flying in the air on your way to 7-Eleven? Detroit, Michigan 38227 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE NATURAL HISTORY VoL. 102, No. 1, JANUARY 1993 COVER: The sharp-eyed praying mantis is a fearsome predator, but it also has to avoid some oe hungry enemies. Story on page 28. Photograph by (ee Laura Riley; Bruce Coleman, Inc. 2 LETTERS 4 Tus VIEW OF LIFE Stephen Jay Gould A Special Fondness for Beetles 14 SPECIES IN A BUCKET Edwin Philip Pister When attempting to save an endangered species, try not to put all your eggs in one basket. 20 CELESTIAL EVENTS Gail S. Cleere Close Encounters 22 THIS LAND Robert H. Mohlenbrock Flagpole Knob, Virginia 26 SCIENCE LITE Roger L. Welsch What, Me Quarry? 28 CoMING IN ON A WING AND AN EAR David Yager and Mike May While it may not have a prayer, the slow-flying mantis does have helpful random behavior to avoid hungry bats. 34 THE DEATH OF WINTER Text and photographs by Alexander S. Milovsky After centuries of Christianity and decades of communism, pagan rituals still survive in the former Soviet Union. 42 GROWING UP IN THE CLAN Laura Smale and Kay E. Holekamp A hungry group of hyenas reduced the 300-pound carcass of an antelope to a few scattered bones in thirteen minutes. 46 Born TO KILL Laurence G. Frank and Stephen E. Glickman 54 Low, LEAN KILLING MACHINE Text and photographs by Fred Bruemmer On New Zealand’s Enderby Island, the odd skuas are friendly to humans, but a terror for baby rabbits. ‘ 62 REVIEWS Richard M. Ketchum Have Camera Will Travel 68 A MATTER OF TASTE Raymond Sokolov A Two-Faced Grain 72, AT THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 76 THE NATURAL MOMENT Photograph by Carl R. Sams II Egret vs. Egret 78 AUTHORS 5000. Pag les Box 5000, Harlan TA 519. 2 NATURAL HIstTory 1/93 : Hee itegteas N FORGOTTEN OKAPI Terese and John Hart describe in their article, “Between Sun and Shadow” (Nat- ural History, November 1992), how the okapi first came to the attention of profes- sional zoologists in the early 1900s. It was familiar to the Mbuti Pygmies of the Congo Basin long before then, and it may well have been known more widely in an- cient times, as evidenced by a wall carving at Persepolis. Persepolis was the capital of Persia for a brief time. Begun about 512 B.c. under Darius and extended by Xerxes, it was burned by Alexander in 331 B.c. and never rebuilt. The eastern staircase of the Apadana Palace is decorated with carv- ings of people from various parts of the vast Persian empire, bearing offerings or produce from their respective countries. During a visit to Iran in 1976 I pho- tographed one of these carvings, which shows an African, possibly an Ethiopian, carrying an elephant tusk on his shoulder and leading a neatly harnessed male okapi. Was this okapi actually transported to Persepolis, as suggested by the carving, or was it drawn on the basis of animals seen in Africa? Was the okapi widely known at that time, or was the one on the wall a unique specimen? Other animals in the same assemblage include lions, rams, bulls, horses, camels (bactrian and drome- dary), and donkeys, none of which was particularly rare. By whatever means the Persians came to know the okapi, it apparently forgotten outside of Africa the next 2,000 years! JosEPH G. G Carnegie Institution of Washin; YEW GOT A FRIEND I was taken aback by the article “D and Taxus” (September 1992) for it d grates the historic perception and mo reputation of the yew. The yew is a favorite of landscape p ners for its dense foliage lends itself t manner of sculptural treatments. That yew adorns grave and churchyards speaks its entirely functional character relatively hardy and low maintena shrub quite appropriate to that kin landscape setting. To enhance the reputation of the ye would note that one of the oldest kn wooden artifacts, a fifteen-inch fragr including the pointed tip of a spear snow probe?), is a piece of yew from C ton-On-Sea, England. Apparently, English appreciated the yew early on their appreciation continued, for the was the favored wood for all sorts of uses. Perhaps most importantly, the provided the wood for the legendary | lish longbow. At the Battle of Aginc Henry V’s forest of yew brought dows flower of France in that very one-s and classic engagement. In a metapho sense, several thousand men with b lances and spears, all with shafts of could be regarded with some morbid- ut the qualities of the yew led to Eng- CCesses. the seventeenth century, the technol- yf the yew longbow and steel-tipped 7s with English fletching was still dered a military secret. Early Span- nd French explorers recounted the ess of American Indian archery. That people were impressed could be ; because they both had long aban- d archery and shifted to the crossbow. use the English still had the yeoman ion, they respected Indian archers but not their bow-and-arrow technol- Fearful that the Indians would find what a “real bow and arrow” was t, the English at Bermuda interrupted e shipment of several thousand bows housands of sheaves of arrows con- d to the colonies. J. RICHARD SHENKEL University of New Orleans OSER LOOK 1ank you for the eloquent pho- phs by Scott Altenbach and fascinat- iece by Anne Brooke on fishing bats ober 1992). I thought the enclosed ) will give your readers a feeling of accurately Brooke describes the k pouches of Noctilio that can resem- ‘small balloons tied beside the bat’s neers for a magazine that will not stop rising and captivating us. Roprico A. MEDELLIN Program for Studies in Tropical Conservation EXPERIENCE CLASSIC CRUISING! 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You'll also get a special bonus certificate. When you place a deposit with your travel agent by April 15, you'll get your choice of either free airfare from major U.S. cities to Miami or a discount worth up to$1,500 per cabin off the cruise-only rate. Book now — an incredible continent awaits you. caLL 1-800-926-3800 _ Ask for brochure 52SA 6%4 FANTASY CRUISES * Price p.p. dbl. occ. min. accom. Port charges extra. Early booking — airfare/discount (varies by cat.) offer valid Cat. E-M, dbl. occ. Registry: Panama. THIS VIEW OF Lik A Special Fondness for Beetles — Haldane apparently had an inordinate liking for his quip, but never wrote it down by Stephen Jay Gould Just as the Lord holds the whole world in his hands, how we long to enfold an en- tire subject into a witty epigram. The quotable one-liner is a mainstay of culture, not an innovation in our modern era of sound bites. How could we grasp the eter- nal truths of nature and humanity if we couldn’t ask Sam to play it again or didn’t know that nice guys finish last. The most widely quoted one-liner in evolutionary biology brilliantly captures the central fact about life’s exuberant vari- ety and composition. According to an older tradition that Darwin overturned, we should be able to infer both God’s exis- tence and his benevolence by studying the organisms that he created. This idea of “natural theology” dominated British zo- ology, at least from John Ray in the late seventeenth century to William Paley in the generation just before Darwin. The natural theologians sought God’s handi- work not merely in the good design of or- ganisms but especially in the supposed arrangement of nature to reflect human su- periority and domination. As a powerful corrective to this arro- gant tradition of natural theology, evolu- tionists argued, early and often, that na- ture’s undoubted order is neither benevolent in our terms (but “red in tooth and claw”) nor established with us in mind or at the helm. The kind of God implied by nature’s actual composition might not be a deity worthy of our worship. At this point in the argument, almost any evolutionist will turn to our canonical one-liner for epigrammatic emphasis and support. J. B.S. Haldane (1892-1964), author of the phrase, was a founder of modern Darwinism (see his 1932 book, The Causes of Evolution) and a distin- guished man of letters as well. I cite the fa- mous words from the standard source— not Haldane himself, but a footnote on the first page of the most widely read paper in A WNatrmat Hretory 1/03 modern evolutionary biology: “Homage to Santa Rosalia, or Why Are There So Many Kinds of Animals” (American Nat- uralist, 1959), by G. Evelyn Hutchinson, world’s greatest ecologist and the only twentieth-century British biologist who could match Haldane in brilliance and wit. Hutchinson wrote: There is a story, perhaps apocryphal, of the distinguished British biologist, J. B. S. Hal- dane, who found himseif in the company of a group of theologians. On being asked what one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of his creation, Haldane is said to have answered, “An inor- dinate fondness for beetles.” Lovely line, but did Haldane utter it— and if so, when, where, and how? The standard source illustrates the problem— not hard copy with a byline, but a sec- ondary report, frankly labeled as “perhaps apocryphal.” Haldane was a brilliant and copious writer, but he was an even more fluent barroom wit—and great comments in this venue end up either scratched into soggy napkins or dimly remembered in the midst of a hangover. Haldane’s line—an inordinate fondness for beetles—is now so famous and stan- dard that we really do yearn to pin down the source. Yet nothing is so elusive as a canonical well-turned phrase, for the vast majority of such quips are either misstated or misattributed (see Nice Guys Finish Seventh: False Phrases, Spurious Sayings and Familiar Misquotations, by Ralph Keyes, Harper Collins, 1992). I tried to slip two of them by you in my first para- graph. Leo Durocher did not confine an- gels to the cellar; and Humphrey Bogart (as Rick in Casablanca) never told Sam to play it again (although Woody Allen pur- posely used this standard error as the title for a film). Thanks to a charming, if somewhat cranky, English tradition—lengthy and | 4 passionate exchanges in letters to the’ tor on the minute details of smallish s jects—we finally have both as good a olution as we can get, and a catalog of usual mistakes that make canonical qu tions so hard to trace. It all started in October 5, 1989 issue of Nature, when friend (an Oxford professor) Bob May viewed a meeting on interactions bet ants and plants under a title that paro Haldane’s quip—“An Inordinate Fe ness for Ants.” May began his arti “Haldane’s best-remembered remark, God has ‘an inordinate fondness for | tles,’ was elicited by Jowett’s questiot high table at Balliol, as to what his stu had revealed about the deity.” This elic a firestorm—for reasons that will soo: obvious—and the “letters” column both Nature, Britain’s leading professi journal in general science, and The nean (newsletter of the Linnean Societ London) have featured a burgeoning | now finally petering) exchange on the ject ever since. I do not trace the history of this can cal line in the interests of antiqua pedantry, but because the enterprise yield such rewards in teaching us a crucially important, and often unre nized, biases in our modes of thought styles of storytelling. (Since so muc scholarship is, in effect, storytelling, t biases often permeate the supposedly 1 thoughtful and rigorously objective ¢ investigations.) The pervasive errors r in citing and attributing canonical qu tions are not random, but follow a « and sensible pattern. Basically, most e are agerandizements in three categori misattributions to more famous peopl casting to render a quote more pith pungent, and alteration of circumsta to make the relatively mundane either nier or more heroic. Let me illustrate Haldane’s quip about beetles has Prayer to the Great Spirit Prayer to the Great Spirit Mlle, LIMITED EDITION PiateNo 2 99) ea Individually numbered by & hand with 24 karat gold. A Limited Edition Collector Plate. Hand-Numbered and Bordered in 24 Karat Gold. The Franklin Mint Please mail by January 31, 1993. Franklin Center, PA 19091-0001 Please enter my order for Prayer to the Great Spirit by Paul Calle. I need SEND NO MONEY NOW. I will be billed $29.50* when my plate is shipped. Limit: one plate per collector. *Plus my state sales tax and $2.95 for shipping and handling. fonds Ss os protect them. SIGNATURE Only an artist of rare talent and vision could capture the mystery and ALL ORDERS ARE SUBJECT TO ACCEPTANCE rama of this centuries-old ceremony. Paul Calle, whose works are eagerly a aos ee ursued by knowledgeable collectors of Western art, is such an artist. ADDRESS APT. # “Prayer to the Great Spirit” is crafted in fine porcelain, then hand- Ee Are Basbered and bordered in 24 karat gold. This imported Limited Edition coe TELEPHONE ¢ ( ole plate also bears the artist’s signature mark on its reverse side. ears ae Return Assurance Policy. If you wish to return any Franklin Mint purchase, you may do so within 30 days of your receipt of that purchase for replacement, credit or refund. riced at just $29.50, it will be closed forever after just 45 firing days. ¢ exclusively from The Franklin Mint, Franklin Center, PA 19091-0001. lowed in all three categories of usual error, and how—happy ending—we can home in on an accurate resolution that still leaves Haldane with a bloody good line. Who said it? Haldane was sufficiently famous to win exemption from the “mag- net effect”’—the directed migration of good quotes to more celebrated mouths. No biologist of Haldane’s generation could have made the quote more notable by assuming false parentage. But any evo- lutionary one-liner in English must even- tually wander toward that greatest of all prose mongers in our profession, Thomas Henry Huxley. I have four misattributions of the beetle line to Huxley in my files (this essay has been gestating for more than a decade), and the same error may have prompted the howler that unleashed the recent round of discussion in Nature and The Linnean—Bob May’s statement that Haldane made the quip to Benjamin Jowett at Balliol. Jowett was the greatest English classi- cal scholar of his day. His erudition and ar- rogance, as master of Balliol College, prompted a notable couplet in the annals of humorous verse: I am the master of this college; What I know not is not knowledge. The pious and conservative Jowett would have been a perfect foil for Haldane’s re- mark—but for one small problem. Jowett died in 1893 before Haldane had even reached his first birthday. (My freshman philosophy course in college still used Jowett’s translation of Plato’s Republic.) Jowett must have entered the story through misattribution of the beetle quote to Huxley (a contemporary who died in 1895), or perhaps to Haldane’s father, a fa- mous physiologist in his own right. Bob May is an Australian, not an upper class English Oxbridgian. But his re- sponse to learning about his mix-up. of generations, published in Nature on Octo- ber 26, 1989, was both gorgeously arch and blessedly brief: “Mundane constraints of time and space do no apply to stories about Oxford.” In what circumstances? As May noted, good stories require the transmutation of the mundane into the charming, the amus- ing, or the dramatic. Haldane, as we shall see, made the quip several times, but al- ways among friends. Yet the story im- proves immensely if the line can be recast as a spontaneous riposte to a specific taunt or to a query from a worthy adversary. Most versions therefore add this common element of myth. May used the shade of Jowett as an impossible foil. Hutchinson reported that Haldane had uttered the line in response to a specific query from the- ologians. A. J. Cain, another distinguished British biologist who knew Haldane well, wrote in 1987: “It was Haldane, not Hux- ley, and he told the story to me himself... Some solemn ass asked him what could be inferred of the work of the Creator from a study of the works of Creation...and got the crushing reply ‘An inordinate fond- ness for beetles.’ ” With what words? The flurry of letters in Nature and The Linnean have validated Haldane as the source of our finest one- liner; at least no earlier version has been uncovered. Moreover, we can be fairly confident that Haldane did not utter the line in the “best story” situation of a ri- poste or retort; at least no victim or wit- ness has come forward. But as we resolve these questions of personality and circum- stance, the basic issue of Haldane’s actual words remains elusive. Strange adventure: Haldane was a great writer and author of several popular volumes of scientific es- | Veer | FRUITS oes =~ | PESTICIDE FREE/ 7 6 NATURAL History 1/93 says (most based on his columns it Communist Daily Worker—anothe triguing aspect of his iconoclastic ca but best saved for another essay). Hi parently loved his quip about beetles used it often in casual conversation public addresses. But no one has found any evidence that he ever wrot line down—and we therefore do not k exactly what he said (or if he variec words). The closest thing to an “official” sion emerged as a result of all the re correspondence. On April 7, 1951, dane filled in for an indisposed collea the great physicist J. D. Bernal, to de an address to the British Interplanetary ciety. He did not publish his remarks, report of his speech, written by the s ety’s secretary, did appear in volume 1] the Journal of the British Interplane Society—a publication that will no found in your local library, not to mer your corner drug store (and another reé for delayed documentation of Halda remark). I present the full citation: Coming to the question of life being fc on other planets, Professor Haldane ar gized for discoursing, as a mere biolo on a subject on which we had been ext ing a lecture by a physicist. He mentic three hypotheses: (a) that life had a supernatural origin (b) that it originated from inorganic terials; (c) that life is a constituent of the 1 verse and can only arise from pree: ing life. The first hypothesis, he said, should taken seriously, and he would proceed t so. From the fact that there are 400,000. cies of beetles on this planet, but only 8. species of mammals, he concluded that Creator, if he exists, has a special prefers for beetles. Fine. But have we now been depri of the delicious words in our usual ¢ tion? Did Haldane really say “special p erence,” and not the much more puns and ironic “inordinate fondness?” Is. usual version just another example ¢ falsely “promoted” quotation? Or did secretary of the Interplanetary Society ther misremember or downgfade in best tradition of British understateme Or did Haldane say different things at ferent times? We shall never know, bt letter in The Linnean (August 1992) fr Haldane’s friend Kenneth Kermack stores our hope for accuracy of the us version: I have checked my memory with Dc [Kermack's wife] who also knew Hald Joe Montana demands the best. _ That's why he chose Fit-One. Viontana and the Ine skier have one z in common— ‘ve proven them- Ss in competition. ’s so important to hat before he led to team up with One, he demanded a HHS, report. ess Machine of 90's. 2arned that some ex- , ranked cross-country g the best exercise > is. 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Other NordicTrack® models are available at prices starting at $299. well, and what he actually said was: “God has an inordinate fondness for beetles.” J. B.S.H. himself had an inordinate fond- ness for the statement: he repeated it fre- quently. More often than not it had the addi- tion: “God has an inordinate fondness for stars and beetles.”... Haldane was making a theological point: God is most likely to take trouble over reproducing his own image, and his 400,000 attempts at the perfect bee- tle contrast with his slipshod creation of man. When we meet the Almighty face to face he will resemble a beetle (or a star) and not Dr. Carey [the Archbishop of Canter- bury]. So pay your money and take your choice. You can either select the duller “special preference” for beetles alone, or you must share the wittier “inordinate fondness” with all the celestial multitudes. I have made a hybrid compromise in the title of this essay. But what about the facts of the case? How inordinate is God’s fondness, how special his preference, for the Coleoptera? How many species of beetles do inhabit our planet—and what, pray tell, does it all mean? In the best and most recent sum- mary of data, British Museum entomolo- gist Nigel E. Stork reports that the total number of formally named species of ani- mals and plants (excluding the diverse kingdoms of fungi, bacteria, and other uni- cellular creatures) now stands at approxi- mately 1.82 million. (“Insect Diversity: 8 NATURAL History 1/93 Facts, Fiction and Speculation,” Biologi- cal Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. 35, pp. 321-37). Of these, more than half are insects (57 percent)—and nearly half of all named insect species are beetles. Thus, beetles tepresent about 25 percent of all named species in the plant and animal kingdoms—good candidature, I trust we would all agree, for inordinate fondness. But this compendium of available mames is only a beginning, a tip of the proverbial iceberg. All taxonomists agree that the vast majority of earth’s species re- main undiscovered and unnamed. In his recent book The Diversity of Life (Harvard University Press, 1992), my colleague Ed Wilson writes: How many species of organisms are there on earth? We don’t know, not even to the nearest order of magnitude. The numbers could be close to 10 million or as high as 100 million. Large numbers of new species continue to turn up every year. And of those already discovered, over 99 percent are known only by a scientific name, a handful of specimens in a museum, and a few scraps of description in scientific journals. It is a myth that scientists break out champagne when a new species is discovered. Our mu- seums are glutted with new species. We don’t have time to describe more than a small fraction of those pouring in each year. So how inordinate is nature’s fondness for beetles when we try to estimate actual WARNING Astronomy : ii May Be Hazardous | | To Your Sense OF | Secr LmportANce 5 numbers, rather than relying on the p ness of published information? The | for beetles now grows mightil strength—not only for the obvious solute gain in number of species, but marily for increasing domination in tive frequency, or percentage of spe For beetles, by their size and fav places of abode, rank with the most ur counted groups of organisms. A complete census of species will add membership equally and across board—for in some groups we nearly] them all; while in others we have bs begun to count. The worldwide comy of bird watchers, for example, has bee assiduous—while the objects of st tend to be relatively conspicuous—tha expect no great increase in the 9,000 « named species of birds. The influx of bird species has already dwindled to merest trickle, with only a species or added each year. Similarly, the ledge 4,000 or so mammalian species, while so diligently cataloged as birds, will e rience no massive gain in novelty. But beetles are small and mostly int spicuous—and even the prominenc: some as agricultural pests does not lea discovery for the majority, especi since most beetle species have limited ographic ranges in restricted habitat: the world’s most lush and understudied vironments: the tropical rain fore (When we realize how many species main unknown in this abode, and when recognize how many are being lost d as human rapacity clear cuts these rich vironments, usually for the short-te profits of a few, we can appreciate the propriate focus of the environme! movement on tropical rain forests, e though these habitats may seem so dis’ from most of our immediate concerns | locales.) We may get some handle on the pre ble number of beetle species by consic ing the basis for lowest and highest e mates of the world’s fauna and flora. Wilson cited 10 to 100 million as his la ballpark figure. I have read estimates ra ing from 1.87 to 80 million for insé alone—leading to some 3.5 million more than 150 million animal and pl species altogether, if insects are about I the total. The basis for this small biological dustry of estimation lies in some rema able work by the American entomolos Terry Erwin, published in the early 198 (Erwin was the first to give us a reasona quantitative estimate for the incredit ERE SO SURE GEVALIA’ KAFFE WILL BECOME YOUR SWEDISH OBSESSION, THIS ELEGANT GIFT IS YOURS JUST FOR TRYING IT Over a century ago, in the small i YOUR GIFT: port of Gavle, Sweden, Victor THE EUROPEAN-STYLE Theodor Engwall started a com- COFFEEMAKER (RETAIL VALUE $39.95) pany that led to a most demand- ing search. It became a quest that would span generations of Engwalls. 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Engwail & Co. and uncataloged, diversity of tropical rain forests—a vital contribution both to bio- logical knowledge and to strategies of the environmental movement). In 1982, Erwin presented a surprising number that, although hard to believe at first, has since become a standard figure, cited in count- less textbooks and newspaper articles. Erwin concluded that 30 million species of arthropods alone dwell in tropical rain forests—and he based his estimates on beetles. Erwin’s number comes from hard work in the field, not from a pocket calculator consulted in an armchair. He began by rec- ognizing that insects cataloged from rain forest trees are a pitiful fraction of the enormously diverse community actually living in these tropical heights. But how can a scientist census all (or even most) of the species in a tall tropical tree; so many are rare, inconspicuous, and downright se- cretive in their habits. Erwin therefore used a drastic approach: he fogged entire trees with volleys of strong insecticide and collected what fell out. (I don’t mean to sound peremptory or facetious; such work is rigorous and difficult, both conceptually and muscularly. How do you climb trees to fog? How do you collect the resultant bounty? How do you know that you have recovered most of the species [for some die deep in the bark and do not fall out]? Above all, how do you identify the plethora of previously unknown forms, es- pecially since no one can be an expert on all groups?) Erwin reached his figure of 30 million by extrapolating from the beetles on a sin- gle species of tropical tree, the legume Luehea seemannii. Consider this argu- ment in eight steps, and you will begin to appreciate both the difficulty of the enter- prise and the reasons for such a wide range of estimates. 1. Working in all three seasons recognized in the Panamanian rain forest, Erwin fogged nineteen trees of Luehea see- mannii—thus getting a handle on varia- tion among trees and seasons. 2. He counted the total number of beetle species recovered at some 1,200. 10. NATURAL History 1/93 3. Erwin then assigned each species to of feur guilds or ecological roles habitat herbivores (plant eaters), fur vores (feeders on fungi), predators, scavengers. 4. As a key problem in moving from t tles on a tree to insects in a forest, must know how many of these bee live exclusively on one kind of tree, how many are more cosmopolitan. for example, all 1,200 beetles lived ¢ on Luehea, then the total number in forest may be as high as 1,200 times number of tree species. But if all 1, beetles live on all forest tree spec then the total number of beetles may just 1,200, period.) Erwin made his vision into guilds in order to estin this degree of “endemicity” (defi here as confinement to a single tree s cies). He arrived at estimates of 20, 5, and 5 percent, respectively, for four guilds of herbivores, fungivo predators, and scavengers. 5. Applying these indices of endemicit the 1,200 beetle species collected Luehea, Erwin estimated that 163 s cies might be confined to life on L hea. 6. Worldwide diversity of tropical t probably stands at some 50,000 spec If 163 is a reasonable average for demic beetles per tree species, tl tropical trees house 50,000 x 163, 8,150,000 species of beetles. 7. Since beetles represent some 40 perc of total arthropod diversity, tropi trees may house some 20 On S cies of arthropods. 8. This estimate of tropical diversity 0 counts species in tree canopies. En then figured that canopy species mi outnumber ground-dwelling species about two to one—adding another million arthropods for the forest fi and raising the final estimate to 30 1 lion. The lower and higher figures of 1 million and 80 million for rain’ for arthropods arise from other data or difi ent estimates upon figures used by Er for extrapolating, not from challenges his empirical counts in fogging Luel trees. For example, Nigel Stork’s higt estimate of 80 million arises from 1 modifications of Erwin’s figures, both s stantially raising the number of estima species. He believes that beetles repres far less than 40 percent of canopy arth pod species. 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I then need buy only 4 more (instead i (J Charge my introductory movies and future Club purchases to: of 6) in3 years. 1 [J MasterCard (-] Diners Club [1] AMEX [_] VISA (_] Discover Account # 2TM/2TP/2TR I Expiration Date Signature : Name y Address Apt. City I State Phone ( ) ee a ne J Note: Columbia House Video Club reserves the right to reject any application or cancel any membership. Canadian residents 1 will be serviced from Toronto. Offer limited to residents of the contiguous United States. Residents of Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, U.S. territories, APO and FPO addresses please write for separate offer. Applicable sales tax added to all ee | 1400N. Fruitridge Avenue, Terre Haute, IN 47811-1112 ‘S93 mate for rain forest arthropods. Stork also argues that Erwin overestimated the per- centage of species in the canopy versus the forest floor—thus yielding the still higher total of 80 million species when the right figure for ground dwellers is factored in. The lowest estimate of 1.87 million comes from a 1991 article by I. D. Hod- kinson and D. Casson that used for its title a parody on Haldane’s quip: “A Lesser Predilection for Bugs: Hemiptera (Insecta) Diversity in Tropical Rain Forests” (Bio- logical Journal of the Linnean Society, vol. 43, pp. 101-109). “Bug” may be a vernacular term for any creepy-crawly (not to mention errors in computer pro- grams and illicit listening devices). But to a zoologist, “bug” is a technical term for insects of the order Hemiptera (often called true bugs in the literature for proper distance from ordinary usage). Hodkinson and Casson used bugs rather than beetles to make their worldwide estimate, and their sly title is a double entendre, for bugs are not nearly so rich in species as beetles in nature, and the authors’ estimate of total arthropod diversity is also far smaller than most others offered of late. As Erwin extrapolated from beetles on nineteen trees, Hodkinson and Casson worked upward “from an intensive study of the bug (Hemiptera) fauna of a moder- ately large and topographically diverse area of tropical rain forest in Sulawesi Utara, Indonesia.” In broadest outline, Hodkinson and Casson followed the same logic that Erwin had employed. They col- lected 1,690 species of bugs from Su- lawesi and determined that 62.5 percent had been previously unknown. If the 500 described species of Sulawesi trees yielded 1,056 new species (the total of 1,690 species times 62.5 percent for the proportion of newly found forms), then the worldwide figure of approximately 50,000 species of topical trees might yield 100 times as many new species of bugs, or 105,600. Add these to the 81,700 species already described for a total estimate of 187,300 bug species worldwide. Since bugs are about 10 percent of all insect spe- cies, the worldwide fauna of insects might stand at some 1.87 million. How can two estimates based on the same style of argument be so different? The logic, as all people who do this work know only too well, is “iffy” in the ex- treme, for the conclusions are only sound if the premises be true—and why should endemic beetles on one kind of tree in Panama, or true bugs in one small region of Indonesia, be a model or average for es- “Excuse me, but could you direct me to the Hayden Planetarium?” 19. Natiirat Uietrorev 1/02 timating an entire world’s fauna? Ery estimates may be way too high bec legume trees house more species most others (and a figure derived { them alone will vastly overestimate we wide diversity), or because he gre overstated the number of beetles uniqt each species of tree (this has been the 1 common and cogent criticism of Erv estimate). Hodkinson and Casson’s mates may be way too low because | area of Indonesia is relatively poor in cies, or because they did not use so c prehensive a collecting method as fog: trees, and may therefore have miss substantial fraction of diversity. In any case, we certainly learn that ture’s fondness for beetles is vastly n inordinate than a simple count of 400. formally named species (Haldane’s st basis for his quip) would indicate. We understand, from our great difficulty i1 timating the true number of specie: earth, and from the vast differences am figures offered by our best experts, | preciously little we know about the nat history of our planet. The next time so one tells you that taxonomy is a dull : ject because we have just a few detail fill in upon an earth already well know laugh in his face. In the midst of this ignorance, should take comfort in two conjoined tures of nature: first, that our world is credibly strange and therefore supren fascinating (the real point, I think, bel Haldane’s quip that ultimate mear must reside in the unparalleled diversit a group, beetles, that rarely rivets out tention); second, that however bizarre arcane our world might be, nature rem: comprehensible to the human mind. I should end by cementing these cardinal precepts with their canonical liners. Einstein spoke for the possibilit grasping natural complexity when wrote, in a theological metaphor sec only to Haldane’s on beetles: Raffinier der Herr Gott, aber boshaft ist er n (The Lord God is subtle, but he is not 1 licious.) As for the joy of nature’s stran ness, we cannot do better than a fam line by a chap named J. B. S. Haldan and this time we know what he said cause he wrote it down! “My suspicio that the universe is not only queerer t we suppose, but queerer than we can s pose” (from Possible Worlds, 1927). Stephen Jay Gould teaches biology, g ogy, and the history of science at Harv University. kangaroo pockets, | ioator teeth ahd Luckily for ducks, our Lands’ End Original Attache is made of 18-ounce i NW same rugged material sails were once made of. So it can weather wind, rain, snow and whatever Mother Nature can throw at it. And naturally, whatever you can throw into it. Pr You'll find ten pockets “# inside. Each of which we . # fastidiously stitch with 3 durable cotton-wrapped “Jair polyester thread. Unlike 7 ordinary threads, it won't burn uporweakenon 4 the heavy-duty sewing machines that we use. Nifty spaces organize checkbooks, calculators, Vins ae ws eyeglasses, papers, pencils y and other stuff that somehow always needs organizing. There is even aneat_\y Strap to keep track of keys. 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Species in a Bucket For a few frightening moments, there was only myself standing between life and extinction by Edwin Philip Pister [The naturalist] looks upon every species of animal and plant now living as the individ- ual letters which go to make up one of the volumes of our earth’s history; and, as afew lost letters may make a sentence unintelligi- ble, so the extinction of the numerous forms of life which the progress of cultivation in- variably entails will necessarily render ob- scure this invaluable record of the past. It is, therefore, an important object [to preserve them]... If this is not done, future ages will certainly look back upon us as a people so immersed in the pursuit of wealth as to be blind to higher considerations. Alfred Russel Wallace Journal of the Royal Geographical Society (1863) When I retired in 1990, I built a small office in my backyard, equipped it with a phone and word processor, and began to reflect seriously upon a career that began in 1951 and continues even in retirement. I remain keenly aware of the legendary bi- ologist Aldo Leopold’s admonition that one of the penalties of an ecological edu- cation is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Virtually my entire career was spent as a district fishery biologist for the Califor- nia Department of Fish and Game in the state’s vast eastern sierra and desert re- gions. I worked on a great variety of man- agement and research programs—from trying to keep millions of sports fishermen supplied with trout to preserving the bio- logical integrity of desert springs that sup- port life forms totally unknown to most Americans and even to most scientists. Having studied wildlife conservation at Berkeley in 1948 under the tutelage of Aldo Leopold’s son, A. Starker Leopold, I was exposed to the Leopolds’ passionately held values regarding the natural world. Impressed by their view that noncon- formity is the highest evolutionary attain- 14. Namtrat Hietroaryv 1/02 ment of social animals, I carefully avoided the usual career track that would have landed me in one of my department’s major offices in a big city. As a graduate student, I had specialized in limnology, the study of freshwater lakes, and was given the responsibility for nearly a thousand bodies of water extending from the crest of the Sierra Nevada eastward to the Nevada state line. I-was especially intrigued by the diversity of the landscape in my charge; if I left the roadhead near the base of 14,494- foot Mount Whitney at 9:00 A.m., I could make a leisurely drive to the east and have my lunch 282 feet below sea level on the floor of Death Valley. This area’s life forms are commensurately diverse. Today I sit at my desk surrounded by forty little pocket diaries, each one sum- marizing a year of my career. So many memories and experiences are packed into these 2.5- by 4-inch volumes, which, to- gether, fill less than a shoe box. Daily en- tries recall a multitude of experiences: scaling through the usual routine meet- ings, conducting a twenty-seven-year pro- ject to restore the California golden trout within the Golden Trout Wilderness (still in progress), fighting scores of ill-consid- ered and highly destructive entrepreneur- ial invasions of valuable habitats and recreation areas, managing a legendary reservoir fishery where success is mea- sured by tons of trout harvested, then mov- ing 180 degrees from consumption to con- servation by helping save the Devil’s Hole pupfish (Cyprinodon diabolis), a battle carried successfully to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1976, the Court’s landmark decision protected Devil’s Hole—a swimming- pool-sized window into the underground aquifer and a disjunct portion of Death Valley National Monument—and its de- pendent life forms from the impact nearby ranching operation. (The ranc were consuming vast quantities of t plenishable groundwater from an aq that had been undisturbed since the P tocene.) The smallest and most hi evolved of the Death Valley system - fishes, the Devil’s Hole pupfish has | isolated from nearby pupfish populat for approximately 44,000 years. It exis probably the most confined habitat of vertebrate animal in the world: the ter fifty-foot pool in which it has evo since its isolation. Of more than ten thousand entries | tained in my diaries, the date August 1969, stands alone as the most dran and meaningful. Written with naive un statement: “Transplanted Cyprinodo Fish Slough; purchased alkaline D-c $2.00,” this cryptic entry summarizs series of events that, had they not right, would have accompanied the g1 est tragedy of my career. As it turned what happened that day simply un scored the lessons I had learned ea from the Leopolds and other ecolog mentors. Perhaps such an experience necessary for me to fully comprehend a person’s values, which serve as a ¢ pass in uncertain times, are in the long vastly more important than the sport- ing technologies that have often cre. more problems than they have-solved. During the several pluvial period: the Pleistocene epoch, much of the G Basin of the American West was cov by large, freshwater lakes. With the proach of the Holocene, these wa shrank and largely disappeared, and fis were isolated within the few remair permanent aquatic habitats. In Nc America, only the Cuatro Ciénega: Coahuila, México, have as many well. If your surname is listed, you belong to one of America’s 2,867 most distinguished families — and this is your opportunity to own a copy of your family’s history! Sor BLANCHARD CARRINGTON CORNELL DOTSON FITZGERALD HAGEN HOLT AN EL(L) BLAND CARROLL COSGROVE DOTY FITZPATRICK HAGERMAN(N) — HOLYOKE KINCAID) MAE Mes oe PARROTT REED. ied SHERIDAN TURNBULL ERNATHY BLANKENSHIP CARSON COTE DOUGHERTY FLANAGAN HAHN HOOD KINCEAD MAJCVEIGH MILLAR PARSONS REES(E) SHERMAN TURNER ERNETHY BLANTON CARTER COTTER DOUGLAS\S) FLANDERS HAINES HOOK KING MADDEN MILLARD PATE REID ‘SHERRILL TUTTLE RAMS BLEDSOE CARTWRIGHT COTTON DOVE FLANIGAN HALE(S) HOOKER KINKAID(E) MADDOCK MILLER PAT()ERSON REILLY SHERWOOD TYLER HESON BLENKINSOP CARVER COUCH DOWLING FLEM(M)ING HAL(E)Y HOOPER KINNEY MADDOX MILLET) PAT(TON REITER SHIELD(S) TYRRELL KERMAN BLISS CASE COULTER DOWN(E)S FLETCHER HALL HOOVER KIRBY MADER, MILLIGAN PATRICK RENFRO SHIP(P)MAN TYSON KERS BLODGETT CASEY COURTNEY DOWNING FUNN HALLECK HOPE KIRK MADISON MILLIKEN PAUL REYNOLDS SHIRLEY UNDERWOOD AM(S) BL(O)UNT CASSADY COWAN DOYLE FLINT HALLENBECK = HOPKINS KIRKLAND MAGEE MILLS PAYNE RHEA SHOEMAKER VAIL KINS BOGGS CASSIDY COWEN DRAKE FLOWER(S) HALLET(N) HOPPER KIRKPATRICK © MAGOON MILNER PAYTON R IM HO{A)D{E)S SIM(M)ON(S) VALENTINE ISWORTH BOLES CATE(S) COWIN DRAPER FLOYD HALLEY HORN(E) KIRKWOOD MAGUIRE MILTON PEACOCK RICE SIM(M)S VANCE KEN BOLLING CAVANAUGH —- COX(E) DREW FLYNN HALLIDAY HORNER KISER MAHER MINER PEARCE RICH SMART VAUGH(A)N ERS BOLTON CAVE CRABTREE DREWRY FOLEY HALLOCK HORTON ‘KITCHEN MAHON(E)Y MINOR PEARSE RICHARD(S) SNIDER Meet BRECHT BOND CECIL CRAFT DRUMMOND FOLGER HAM(M) HOSKIN(S) KITCHIN MALONE(Y) MITCHEL(L) PEARSON RICHARDSON = SNOW VICKERS BRIGHT BONNER CHADWICK CRAIG DRURY FORBES HAM(M)EL HOUGH KLINE MANN MOBERLIY PEASE RICHMOND SNOWDEN VICKERY DEN BOOKER CHALMERS CRAIN DUBOIS FORD. 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GLEESON HENRY JOHNS) UGHT MCHUGH NOEL POSEY SADLER STRICKLAND WICKHAM ARIFION BUCKLEY CLAYTON DALEY EDWARDS GLEN(N) HENSLEY JOHNSON UGHTFOOT MCINTIRE NOLAN POST SAGER STRONG WIGGIN(S) AR BUCKNER CLE(A)VELAND = DALTON EGGLESTON GLOVER HERBERT JOHNSTONE) LINCOLN MCINTOSH NORMAN POTT(S) ST JOHN STROUD WIL(LJCOX ARTHOLOMEW BULK(E)LEY CLEM(M)ONS DAM(E)RON ELDER GODDARD HERNDON JOINER LINDLEY MCINTYRE NORRIS POTTER SALISBURY STUART WILDER ARTLETT BULL CLEMEN(TXS) DANIEL(S) ELDRED(G)E GODFREY HER(RJON JOLLIEY LINDSAY MCKEE NORTH POUND SAM(P)SON STUBBS WILDMAN ARTON BULLARD CLIFFORD DARLING ELDRIDGE GODWIN HERRICK JOLUFFE UNDSEY MCKEEN(A) NORTON POWELL SAND(S) SULLIVAN WILEY ASS(E) BULLEN CLIFTON DARRA(G)H ELIOT GOFF(E) HERRING JONES LINN©) MCKINLAY NORWOOD POWER(S) SANDERS SUMMER(S) WILKIN(S) ASSeTT) BULLOCH CLINE DAUGHERTY ELKIN(S) GOLD. ~HESS(E) JORDAN UNTON MCKINLEY NOWELL PRATT SANDERSON SUMNER WILKINSON A BULLOCK CLINTON DAVENPORT ELLIOT(N GOLDSMITH HEWETT JOY UTTELL MCKINNEY NOYES PRENDERGAST SANFORD SUTHERLAND — WILLARD ATES BUNNELL CLOSE DAVIDSON ELLIS GOODMAN HEWITT JOYCE UTTLE MCKINSTRY NUN(N) PRESTON SARGENT SUTTON WILLIAMS ATSON BURCH CLOUGH DAVKE)S ELLISON GOODRICH HEYWARD JOYNER LITTLEFIELD MCLAIN O'BYRAN PRICE SAUER SWAIN WILLIAMSON ATTEN BURGER COATIE)S DAWSON ELMER GOODWIN HICKEY JUDD LIVINGSTON MCLANE O'CONNOR PRI(CHARD SAUNDERS SWEEN(B)Y WILLIS AUER BURGESS COBB DAY ELMORE GORDON HICKMAN JUDY LLOYD MCLELLAN O'LEARY PRINCE SAVAGE ‘SWEET WILLOUGHBY AUGHMAN BURK(E) COCHRAN(E) DEAL ELY GORE HICKS JUSTICE LOCKHART MCNALLY O'NEAL, PRINE SAWYER SWIFT WILLS AYLEY BURLEIGH COE DEAN(E) EMERSON GORHAM HIGDON KA()N(E) LOCKWOOD MCNEIL(L) O'NEIL(L) PRITCHETT SCARB(Q)ROUGH SWOPE WILSON EACH BURLEY COEN DECKER() EMERY GOSS(E) HIGGINBOTHAM KAISER LOGAN MCNULTY OAKLEY PROSSER SCHAE)FIFIER SYKES WINCHESTER EACHAM BURNETT COFFEE DEE EMMET(1) GOUGH HIGGINS KATES LONG MCREW OATES PRUETT SCHELL TABOR WIN(G)KLER EAR BURNHAM COFFEY DEKKER EMMONS GOULD HIGHLAND KAVANA(U)GH LONGLEY MCSWEEN(E)Y = OCONNOR PRUITT SCHEN(C)K TALIAF)ERRO — WiNDHAM EARD BURNS COFFIN DELAND. 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WOODRUFF ENNER CABLE CONKLIN(G) DIEHL EWING GRIMES HOBBS KEMP(E) LUNSFORD DeCrMEGE ENNETT CADE CONLEY DIETRICH FAIRCHILD GRINDLE HOBSON KENDALL LUNT nc (0) ENSEN CADY CONNELL DIKE FARMER GRINNEL(L) HODGE(S) KENDRICK LUSK Wo TEN ENSON CAHILL CONNELLY DILL FARNSWORTH GRISWOLD HODGSON KENN(E)Y LUTZ w RDEN ENTON INE) CONNER DILLARD FARR GROVER HOF(FIMAN(N) _ KENNEDY LYMAN ORKMAN ERK(E)LEY CALDWELL CONNOR DILLER FARRAR GROVE(S) HOG(U)E KENT LYNCH WORLEY ERRY CALHOUN CONOVER DILLON FARRELL GRUB(BXEXS) HOGAN KENYON LYNNE) WORTHING’ EST CALLAHAN CONRAD DIXON FAULKNER GRYMES HOGG KEQ(U)GH LYON OTT WRAY TTS CALLAWAY CONWAY DODDS) FAWCETT GUENTHER = HOIT. KERBY LYONS MELTON OVERTON RALEY SHACKELFORD TOOD WRIGHT EVAN(S) CALLOWAY COOK(E) DODGE FAY GUEST HOLBROOK KERN MAAS MELVIN OWENS) RALSTON SHAF(F)ER TOM(P)KINS WYATT JOWELL CALVERT COOKSEY DODSON FERGUSON GUILE HOLCOMB(E) KERR MABRIEY MENDENHALL = PACE RAMSEY SHARP(E) TOMLINSON WYCKOFF IGGIS) CAMERON COOLEY DOGGETT FERRELL GUION HOLDEN KETCHAM M(A)CAULEY MERC()ER PADGETT RANDALL SHATTUCK TOWNSEND WYUE HLL CAMPBELL COONS) DOHERTY, FERRIS GUNN HOLDER KETCHUM MIA)CDONALD MEREDITH PAIGE RANDOLPH SHAW TRAC@)Y WYMAN INGHAM COOPER DONAHOE FIELDS) GUTHRIE HOLLAND KEY M(A)CFARALANE MERIDITH PAINE) RANKIN SHEA TRAVIS WYNN(E) INNS CANTRELL COPE DONAHUE FINCH Guy HOLLIE)Y KEYSER M(A)CFARLAND = MERRILL PAINTER RAPP SHEARER TRENT Y(QAGER RD CAPP{S) COPELAND DONALDSON FIN(D)LAY GYLES HOLLIDAY KIDD MIA)CFARLANE MERRITT PALMER RAWLIN(G)S SHEEHAN TRIPLETT YANC(E)Y SHOP Y. CORY DONELSON FIN(D)LEY HACKETT HOLLINGSWORT KILGORE MACHENRY MESSER PARHAM RAY SHEFFIELD TRIPP YATES LACK CARNE(S) DONNELLY FINNEY HADDOCK HOLLIS KILHAN K MESSINGER PAR(R)ISH RAYMOND SHELDON TROTTER YOCUM LACKBURN(E) ~~ CARNEY CORBIN DONOHOE FISH HADLEY HOLLOWAY KILLAM MACKENZIE METCALF(E) PARK(EXS) REA SHELLIEY TROWBRIDGE YORKIE) LAIR CARPENTER CORLEY DONOHUE FISHER HAGAN HOLMAN KILLAN MIA)CLAUGHLIN MEYER(S) PARKER READ SHELTON TUBES) YOUNG. LAKE CARR CORNELIUS DONOVAN FITCH HAGEMAN(N) HOLMES KIMBALL M(A)CLEOD MICHAEL(S) PARKSON RECTOR SHEP(P)ARD TUCKER ZIMMERMAN(N) Our research staff has completed histories of 2,867 families THESE MANUSCRIPTS MAKE IDEAL GIFTS whose origins began in the British Isles and Europe. Roots Research Bureau, Ltd. Dept. 3025, 39 W. 32nd Street, Suite 704, New York, NY 10001 These Authentic Family Histories Are Guaranteed Each manuscript is a multipage, scholarly GENEALOGICAL and HISTORICAL study of your family from earliest times. It records the origin and growth of your family in Europe; its place among the gentry there; its part in the early settlement and subsequent history of America, Please rush me the manuscript(s) indicated below. I enclose $29.95 ($49.95 for any 2; $69.95 for 3) as payment in full (NYS residents please add local sales tax). It is understood that I will seceive a complete refund if I am not satisfied. Payment can be made by Money Order, Clieck, Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover Card. including service in the Revolutionary War; and its achievements and leading representatives in ! Name this country. The derivation and meaning of your name is traced; recurrent family traits are revealed; and } Address genealogical data on various lines are set forth. City, State, ZIP Each family history is reproduced on fine paper and bound in a handsome black cover stamped in silver. Your copy is suitable for filing among your heirloom family records and documents. Scholarship and quality backed by unconditional money-back guarantee! To order: Call toll-free 1-800-477-8088 or send coupon or letter with $29.95 (Postage & handling FREE; NY residents add sales tax). Save 33%—Any two manuscripts: $49.95; three for $69.95. Most credit cards accepted. Roots Research Bureau, Ltd., 39 W. 32 Street, N.Y, NY 10001 Look For Your Mother’s and Grandmother’s Maiden Names Too! Telephone ( ) Number of manuscripts desired Names OVISA OMASTERCARD OAMEX (DISCOVER CARD Card No. 1 1 ' ' ' ' ' ' 1 1 t ' ' ' ' ' ' \ i ' ' 1 1 ' ' ' ' ' ' 1 ' ' ' 1 i ' 1 ' ' 1 ' ' ' ' ' ' ' 1 1 ' 1 Exp. Date Signature ee teeta fined local populations (species confined to the very small, isolated habitats in which they evolved). The Death Valley drainage area of eastern California and western Nevada is comparable to Charles Darwin’s Galapagos Islands and their finch populations. They constitute, in ef- fect, islands of water in a sea of sand. One such habitat exists in eastern Cali- fornia’s Owens Valley, where the Owens pupfish (C. radiosus) has been evolving since the Pleistocene. Because of major habitat changes and the introduction of predacious gamefishes (a deadly combina- tion) during the early part of the twentieth century, the Owens pupfish was gradually eliminated from a range that once covered vast marshlands. By the time it was scien- tifically described in 1948, the species was believed to be extinct. One of the Death. Valley area pupfishes, all of which evolved in the absence of predatory fishes, the Owens is almost totally defenseless against such introduced predators as large- mouth bass, which I call “chainsaws with fins.” The Owens pupfish was among the first fishes to be designated an endangered species, a status that it unfortunately still retains. Pupfishes (named for their frolicsome, playful behavior) are members of the killi- fish family, a group of fishes very popular among aquarium enthusiasts. The Owens pupfish is the largest of the nine Death Valley pupfishes, occasionally reaching two inches in length; the Devil’s Hole pup- fish rarely exceeds one inch. Habitats are varied. The Owens pupfish thrives in the shallow, warm water that hot summer days bring to desert marshes; this same habitat may be covered with an inch or two of ice during wintertime, when air temperatures drop below zero. Conversely, the Devil’s Hole pupfish lives in the upper reaches of a cavern so vast that its depth has never been determined, and in water at a con- stant 92° F. All pupfishes are feeding op- portunists, consuming immature insects and algae. They are also highly territorial. To survive in these rigorous habitats, pupfishes have evolved specialized adap- tations. Some live in water that exceeds 100° F, and can tolerate up to 113° for short periods; daily fluctuations may be as much as 36°. Others live in pools with sev- eral times the salinity of seawater. The po- tential for research on the pupfishes is ex- citing. What they could tell us about kidney function, temperature tolerance and adaptation, and other areas of verte- brate physiology alone would justify our concern for preserving them. In recent Pr rN own iva (iNen VERY EARLY AUDUBON 16 NatTurRAtT History 1/03 se % years, however, it has been heartening note a shift in emphasis from what fl can do for us to what we can do for th regardless of their potential value. In 1964 researchers located a remn population of Owens pupfish in a de: marshland called Fish Slough, a few m: from my home in Bishop, California. A covery effort was started by gradué reintroducing them into a few apparet suitable habitats, thereby getting a ju on the more sophisticated recovery p grams made possible later under the ] dangered Species Act of 1973. These eg preservation efforts for fishes preceded relatively recent, and highly comme able, formalization of the science of servation biology. However, an unusual set of circu stances that began to coalesce in the | 1960s brought the Owens pupfish to brink of extinction. Without constant s veillance, which even now is very diffic for harried state biologists to maintain, pupfish gradually disappeared from th new homes and finally were confined t room-sized pond a short distance bel Fish Slough’s northwest headwa springs. The winter of 1968-69 f brought heavy rains to the Owens Vall but by August the unusually thick vege tion was throwing off a great deal of me ture, and an unexplained reduction spring flow contributed to the rapid der tion of the pond. It was almost complet dried up when an alert assistant came it my office and announced: “Phil, if don’t get out to Fish Slough immediate we are going to lose the species.” His p nouncement was no exaggeration. It v the hard truth! I stopped work on a trout managem program for a major reservoir (the relati importance of the two projects has lo since served as a source of humor for m shouted a few words of explanation to « receptionist, and bolted for the door. Gre bing buckets, dip nets, and aerators, | were joined by another colleague and i mediately headed for Fish Slough, n mally a fifteen-minute drive north of « office in Bishop (we shaved at least fi minutes off the usual driving time.) | hastened to the drying pond and carefu removed 800 remaining individuals, plz ing them in three wire mesh cages with the main northwest channel of the slous in a diminishing flow already less than t cubic feet per second. We planned to mo them later to safer locations within t same general area. Having done all we could for the m hey were chiefs and sy shamans, hunters, healers, artists and storytellers... Peoples of genius who made the deserts bloom, built medicine wheels to watch the arrived. 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Hillel Burger ment, we decided to take a quick dinner break before returning to move half of the fish (about 400) across the slough to a lo- cation supplied by another spring source. In endangered species preservation work, a cardinal rule is always to place your eggs in more than one basket. We had come very close to witnessing a species extinc- tion or, nearly as bad, a population so re- duced in numbers as to eventually effect the same tragic consequence. Temporarily alone in the marsh, I de- cided to make one final check (sometimes it pays to be a worrier). A glance into the nearest mesh cage showed that we were not yet out of the woods. In our haste to rescue the fish, we had unwisely placed the cages in eddies away from the influ- ence of the main current. Reduced water velocity and accompanying low dissolved oxygen were rapidly taking their toll. When taken from their natural habitat, pupfish are fragile creatures. They were overcrowded in their cages and had been stressed by unavoidably rough treatment on a hot summer afternoon. A number of dead and dying fish were already floating belly up or swimming ir- regularly, and it was clear that both mesh cages and fish would have to be moved immediately upstream to more favorable conditions nearer the springheads. I ran to f you're interested in why a bear has special significance on a beautifully hand-carved totem pole, you belong on the S.S. Universe. We cater to those who are a little more curious than the rest. The difference between World Explorer Cruises, the only 14-day Alaska cruise, and A CS CHA Tsimshian legend tells that the light of the & Sun was given to mortals to open great doors in the east and west. other cruises, is our emphasis on under- standing life in Alaska, instead of the nightlife aboard ship. We stop at more ports — and stay at each port longer — than any other Alaska cruise. 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UNIVERSE DAY ADVENTURE FOR THE HEART, MIND AND SOUL. my pickup truck and found only two i ets (the other two were on their way b to town). However, there were two ae tors available in addition to the all-imp tant dip net. I netted the surviving fish into the buc ets, wincing as each dead one forcefu demonstrated the fragility of life. I then: located the cages and returned to the but ets, trusting that the battery-powered aei tors had not failed during my bri absence. Although the passage of time f obscured my exact words and thoughts I lugged two heavy buckets and their p cious cargo (each weighing more th thirty pounds) over the treacherous mai terrain, I remember mumbling somethi like: “Please don’t let me stumble. If1 dr these buckets we won’t have anoth chance!” I distinctly remember bei scared to death. I had walked perhaps fi yards when I realized that I literally he within my hands the existence of an ent vertebrate species. If I had tripped over piece of barbed wire or stepped into a1 dent burrow, the Owens pupfish wou now be extinct! But good fortune smil upon us, and the recovery continues tod: Efforts to preserve endangered desi life forms never end, but essentially co stitute only a temporary reprieve aquatic habitats gradually declii throughout North America. Indiana U1 versity’s Lynton Caldwell, speaking of o environmental crisis, observed that whi endangered species are part of this lame table phenomenon, “more importantly, t crisis is concerned with the kind of cre tures we are and what we must become order to survive.” We have received adequate warni1 from our prophets. Aldo Leopold’s “Lai Ethic,” published more than forty yea ago in A Sand County Almanac, redefin Gifford Pinchot’s “resource conservatic ethic” (the greatest good for the greate number in the long run) and placed h mans as simply another species within tl global ecosystem. This concept has. sin become painfully obvious as we lea’ more about ourselves in relation to our e vironment. a Having spent much of the past tv decades responding to the cynical que tion: “What good are they?” (in referenc to my efforts on behalf of the pupfish ar similar “insignificant” organisms), I hay made use of an effective counterquer “What good are you?” (a very thoughtf question). I then add a Leopold corollar “To keep every cog and wheel is the fir ! caution of intelligent tinkering.” ank-and-file American citizens have 1 generally apathetic about the conser- on of biological diversity, but one Jd hope not to find similar unconcern 1in the scientific community. Yet there juch complacency among profession- particularly among those biologists ped within a tenure track and faculty ancement syndrome that often ranks ntity over quality in the research en- vor. If such scientists express an inter- n conservation, they usually are of the nion (naively and incorrectly) that ieone else will attend to saving species. he 1992 annual meeting of the Ameri- Society of Ichthyologists and Her- ogists, for instance, only a small per- tage of 385 research papers related to specific area of conservation. Vorkers in the pragmatic field of con- vation biology frustrated by a critical d for answers to questions posed by cies recovery programs, draw analo- ; of mowing the lawn while the house ns down. The possibility always exists, ourse, that any research, no matter how mingly esoteric, may someday be of je in saving a species. Albert Einstein it this way: “I have little patience with ntists who take a board of wood, look its thinnest part, and drill a great num- of holes where the drilling is easy.” fortunately, the deadly serious matter reserving biodiversity generally places in the position of facing unpredictably k boards, full of knots, and then being sed to drill holes with a bit significantly led by the bureaucratic process. \s I walked back to my truck following final transplant within Fish Slough, the had long ago set. In my dip net re- ined a few dead pupfish. I glanced up at darkening desert sky and thought of rre Teilhard de Chardin’s concept of the - nitely large, the infinitely small, and infinitely complex, represented here order) by the Milky Way, the pupfish, i the difficulty in pointing out the para- unt value of such things to an increas- ly materialistic society. [he day had been long. We had won an ly round in a fight that will inevitably tinue as long as we have a habitable net. As a realist, I could not help but ider the ultimate fate not only of the yens pupfish but of all southwestern 1es and species in general. I wondered yut our future. Can the values driving industrialized nations be modified suf- ently to allow for the perpetuation of all species, including humans? Will we ever realize the potential implicit in our specific designation as Homo sapiens, the wise species? I hope the day will come when public policy will be guided by the wis- dom of Aldo Leopold: “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, sta- bility, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” Such recognition could constitute perhaps the first major step toward creating the sus- tainable society upon which our long-term survival obviously depends. That August day twenty-three years ago had been a very humbling experience for me. The principles of biogeography and evolution I had learned many years before at Berkeley had taught me why the pupfish was here; it took the events of those few hours in the desert to teach me why / was. Such are the reflections of a biologist who, for a few frightening moments long ago, held an entire species in two buckets, one in either hand, with only himself standing between life and extinction. Edwin P. (Phil) Pister is Executive Secre- tary of the Desert Fishes Council in Bishop, California. A former district fish- ery biologist for the California Depart- ment of Fish and Game, he now works to develop and promote conservation ethics. The Back Machine” Massage | and Stretches Your Pain Awa‘ Right in Your Own Home! A Conservative Therapy, Comprehensively Applied The Back Machine™ combines the most effective ways to attain relief from back and neck pain into one easy to use, safe unit designed to help you return to a more normal, pain free life. 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VHS BETA ’ am Name Address State Zip ® Evening Phone (___) Back Technologies 2525 West Casino Road © Everett, WA. 98204 1-800-433-5599 ape ene on eee Dept. 790 19 Close Encounters by Gail S. Cleere No other planet in the Solar System has elicited more excitement than Mars. Known since antiquity, Mars is easily rec- ognizable by its color—blood red—and this easily explains its association with the gods of war, Nergal in Babylonia, Ares in Greece, and Mars in the vast Roman Em- pire. This month, the red planet rises in ad- vance of sunset and is well up in the east at the end of evening twilight, near the twin stars Castor and Pollux in the constellation Gemini. Glowing brightly at -1.4 magni- tude, Mars is high above the southern hori- zon about midnight. During the present passage of the earth between Mars and the sun, our planet makes its closest approach to Mars on January 3 (about 58 million miles away). Four days later it reaches op- position, meaning that Mars will be oppo- site the sun in our sky and therefore up for the entire night, making it a great time to look at this planet. In earlier times, such a close approach of Mars would have seized the public’s imagination. One hundred years ago, it was popularly believed that there was in- deed life on Mars. After all, hadn’t the Ital- ian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli:an- nounced in 1877 that he had seen “canals” on Mars? Wasn’t this obviously a sign of intelligence? And hadn’t our own Percival Lowell confirmed this sighting with many of his own observations right here at home in Flagstaff, Arizona? These canals were assumed to be “stupendous systems of ir- rigation” bringing water down from the Martian poles to its “centers of population and industry.” In 1910, the writer Garrett P. Serviss told us in Curiosities of the Sky that “the miraculous feat of engineering” was due to the planet’s lower gravity force. Mars has an atmosphere, albeit thin, some water in its icecaps, and a surface temper- ature that is harsh but does not preclude life entirely. And so obviously, a close ap- proach of the planet was the right time to 20 NATURAL History 1/93 communicate with our brothers on Mars. Their secrets could be revealed “from their own lips,” Serviss wrote, “if we could get into wireless telephonic communication with the Martians.” Mars mania, as astronomer and writer Roger Sinnott calls it, increased during Martian oppositions. In 1898, H. G. Wells penned his classic The War of the Worlds. In 1909, there was a plan to spread an army of 5,000 men holding ten-cent shav- ing mirrors across Texas, ready to flash Mars in an attempt to signal intelligent life there. A wealthy Parisian widow offered 100,000 francs to anyone who was the first to communicate with a celestial body, with the exception of Mars, which would be too easy. During the Roaring Twenties, scat- tered radio signals thought to come from Mars inspired a touch of Mars mania in the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Eberle. He ordered many of the navy’s huge radio stations to shut down transmis- sions for three days in August 1924 and listen for signals from Martians. Standing by to translate was the chief of the code section for the Army Signal Corps, who didn’t crack any codes then but went on, Sinnott tells us, to crack the Japanese diplomatic code Purple just before World War II. Two years later, in 1926, a Dr. Robinson in Hertfordshire, England, said he’d finally been in communication with Mars’ inhabi- tants. During an interview, Robinson claimed that Martians had big ears, long hair, and Chinese features and that they smoked pipes, drank tea, and drove cars with weatherproof hoods. According to Sinnott, reporters walked out when Robin- son started describing Martian “lower life forms.” The notion of intelligent life on Mars had cooled down considerably by the 1930s, but not the notion of life itself. The first successful flyby of the planet Mars was made in 1965 by the Mariner 4 spacecraft. It was the first to trans! close-up pictures of the planet’s surfa Mariner 9 continued the effort in 19 and the Martian features thus documen were given non-Anglo names, such Mangala, Mawrlth, Simud, and M (from Sanskrit, Welsh, Sumerian, 2 Nepali, respectively). Until Septemt with the launch of the Mars Obser spacecraft, the last missions to Mars f been the two Viking landings made 1976. The Viking landers analyzed the s face of the planet. With all their o “miraculous feats of engineering” 2 technology, they were unable to pre conclusively whether life on Mars exist The Mars Observer spacecratt is sch uled to begin studying the planet whet arrives late in 1993. It will be placed i low polar orbit and will study the plane atmosphere, surface, and interior over ' course of one complete Martian yeat equivalent to two Earth-years. In J 1995, with the planned arrival of t Russian spacecraft carrying deployal balloons and surface packages, the M Observer will begin to relay data back Earth from these experiments. This inf mation will sharpen our understanding the similarities and differences amo Earth, Mars, and Venus and will help | the foundations for future expeditions the red planet. Given the curious history our interest in this planet, it is somewl ironic, astronomers point out, that: if : ever get there in a manned mission, ' will be the Martians. THE PLANETS IN JANUARY Mercury rises less than an hour beft sunrise at the beginning of the month a is very low in the southeast just befé dawn. By midmonth, the planet is t close to the sun to be seen, reaching suy rior conjunction (slipping behind the s from the earth’s point of view) on the 2: the end of the month, Mercury is set- y after the sun and is in the southwest- sky at sunset. But it is still too close to sun to be easily seen. Venus is a brilliant -4.4 magnitude this nth in the southwestern evening skies. ly in the month the planet is not far m Saturn. As the month progresses, umn pulls farther and farther away to- rd the east, reaching its greatest elonga- 1 east of the sun on the 19th and leaving ‘urn to succumb to the setting sun. itch as the planet skims the bottom of Great Square of Pegasus all month g. On the 26th and 27th, the waxing scent moon pays a call, forming a par- jlarly attractive grouping on the 26th. Mars rules the night in January and can found in the northeast in the constella- n Gemini about an hour after sundown. e red planet makes its closest approach the earth on January 3, which is also the ht of the Quadrantid meteor shower. | the 7th and 8th, the full moon passes t below Mars. Watch Mars’ changing sition each night near Gemini’s bright rs, Castor and Pollux. Jupiter is that brilliant object due south t before dawn, quite bright this month 2.1 magnitude. On the 14th, Jupiter and > last-quarter moon, together with the st-magnitude star Spica, form a bright angle about halfway up in the predawn uthern sky. Saturn sets about three hours after sun- tat the beginning of the month, rapidly coming more difficult to spot in late Jan- ry skies. Passing on the far side of the n (superior conjunction) on February 9, > ringed planet will be visible in the edawn sky by early March. Uranus and Neptune both reach con- nction with the sun on January 8, hidden hind the sun as seen from the earth. nce last year, these two planets have en inching closer and closer together. On January 26, they will rendezvous (un- fortunately hidden from us) and will be closer than they have been since 1821. They will not be so near again until the twenty-third century. Early in the month, Pluto rises about 3:00 A.M. and is nearly due east of Jupiter just before dawn. At +13.8 magnitude, Pluto is a difficult object to observe. A telescope with at least an eight-inch lens or mirror is needed, as well as some very good star charts. For beginners trying to locate the ninth planet, the maps supplied in the Observer’s Handbook, published by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (University of Toronto Press), are recommended. The Moon is full on the 8th at 7:37 A.M., EST; reaches last quarter on the 14th at 11:01 p.m. EST; is new on the 22d at 1:27 p.M., EST; and reaches first quarter on the 30th at 6:20 p.M., EST. The Quadrantid meteor shower (named for a constellation, Quadrans Muralis, that is no longer recognized) peaks on the night of the 3d-4th, also the night of Mars’ clos- est approach to the earth. One of the year’s best showers, the radiant of this shower is located near the constellations Bootes, Draco, and Hercules, rising in the north- east about midnight. Unfortunately, the moon is up until well after midnight. But the shower is certainly worth an attempt— it has been known to reach rates of 110 visible meteors per hour. The Quadrantids are characteristically blue in color, with fire white or silver long-spreading trails. The parent comet of the Quadrantids is un- known. Gail S. Cleere writes on popular astron- omy and is a founding member of the In- ternational Dark Sky Association, an or- ganization dedicated to preserving the skies for astronomy. Raise your metabolism with NordicTrack and keep weight off forever. - G By working hd your total body, Gi a NordicTrack” skier burns more calories than ordinary exercisers that only work your legs. It also increases your lean muscle tissue, shapes and defines your entire body, and raises your metabolism — so you can burn more calories - even at rest. i i 30-day in-home trial Models priced from $299 to $1,299 Nordic rack A CML Company Call for a FREE VIDEO and Brochure 1-800-328-5888 335s; or write: NordicTrack, 104 Peave Dee 250A3, Chaska, MN ee NordicTrack re: 's the right to change pri © 1992 NordicTrac ck, Inc., A CML cee ae ad ind specificatic Without prior notic All oe resi eat Create the Ultimate Cup Of Coffee Start with our Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Coffee. Its freshly roasted in small batches just hours (not weeks or months!) before we rush it to you. The difference in flavor is extraordinary. We guarantee it! Call 1-800-223-6768 for a FREE $5 GIFT brochure of 50 delicious gourmet coffees or mail the coupon below. 33 Coffee Lane Waterbury, VT 05676 1-800-223-6768 teruficate Yes. please rush my FREE SS ¢ and catalog of all SO gourmet collees Address ' ' 1 1 ' Il 1 : I Name col e | | ' | | I I 1 1 Pp -2gé5g------------ Flagpole Knob, Virginia by Robert H. Mohlenbrock When Bob Glasgow, the wildlife biolo- gist with Virginia’s George Washington National Forest, alerted me to the discov- ery of a virgin stand of eastern hemlocks on Shenandoah Mountain, he promised me that it looked like the “Redwoods of the East.” A few days later I met Bob and forest botanist Steve Croy at the forest headquarters in Harrisonburg and with eager anticipation set out on a twenty-two- mile drive, traveling through Mennonite country and passing huge turkey farms. Our first destination was 4,397-foot Red- dish Knob in the middle of Shenandoah Mountain, where we could get an overview of the entire region. Shenandoah Mountain is one of a series of northeast- to southwest-trending moun- tains that are separated from each other by broad valleys of farmland. Across the val- ley to the east of Shenandoah Mountain is n? The Cow Knob salam the northern section of the Blue Ridge Mountains and its famed Shenandoah Na- tional Park and Skyline Drive. The moun- tain to the west of Shenandoah Mountain is West Virginia’s Cheat Mountain, with its highest point, Spruce Knob, topping out at 4,860 feet. All of these mountains, with their lush vegetation and rounded ridges, are part of the Appalachian system, formed several hundred million years ago. As we approached Reddish Knob, we noticed a few quaking aspens and paper birches, uncommon trees for this area, in the dry, rocky woods. At one inviting spot we stopped and walked into a parklike for- est whose understory had been kept clear by lightning fires. Pennsylvania sedge formed a grasslike carpet over much of the ground, occasionally punctuated by painted trillium, cucumber root, fly poi- son, and false lily of the valley, all spring- ba ander, above, is confined to a zone twenty-four miles long and one mile wide on the crest of Shenandoah Mountain, Opposite page: Eastern hemlocks grow undisturbed northwest of Flagpole Knob. Rob and Melissa Simpson 22 NATURAL History 1/93 flowering members of the lily family. paused to examine a low, craggy, s stone outcrop and found the succul blue-leaved sedum and the related w alumroot and Virginia saxifrage. " wood rat, a pack rat, builds its nest al these types of rocky ledges. Lumberin wood rat territory has reduced the num of the animals nationwide. After driving on to the summit, viewed the rounded crest of the slig lower Little Bald Knob five miles to south. As its name implies, Little B Knob, like the other higher knobs in area, is devoid of tall trees. Instead, ser: gly bear oaks surround a summit of Pe: sylvania sedge. Little Bald Knob has added significance of being at the southe end of the range of the Cow Knob s mander. Recognized as a species only years ago, this secretive amphibian li in a twenty-four-mile-long by one-mi wide zone along the crest of Shenand Mountain. The animal has a black- white speckled body and large round eyé Its flat snout helps it burrow under roc and stones. OA The Cow Knob salamander apparent developed as a distinct species because was isolated on Shenandoah Mountain f thousands of years. The forests on # mountain summits, inaccessible for timb harvesting, provide its ideal living conc tions. Similar but different species of sal manders live in isolation on the adjace mountains. The Cheat Mountain salama der lives to the west, while the Shena doah salamander lives on the Blue Rid range to the east. North from Reddish Knob we followe the Forest Service road toward Flagpo Knob, stopping again to explore a Pen sylvania sedge opening surrounded t gnarly, lichen-covered hawthorns, Tab Mountain pines, and an attractive shri Joe LeMonnier BEEN ES SSS ea Sia Bd Charleston WAS a Dwarf Virginia trillium grows only on Shenandoah Mountain. VIRGINIA NORTH CAROLINA Rob and Melissa Simpson 24 NATURAL History 1/93 | 4 j [gist vincinin VIRGINIA) ery ~ Sema ae ae Flagpole Knob For visitor information write: Forest Supervisor George Washington National Forest P.O. Box 233 Harrisonburg, Virginia 22801 (703) 433-2491 known as the many-flowered pieris. T pieris, a member of the heath family, is full of white, bell-shaped blossoms in mi May that the leaves are nearly hidde This sedge opening and one other, also: Shenandoah Mountain, are the only plac in the world where the dwarf Virginia tf lium grows. This plant’s nearest relatt lives in the Coastal Plain. From a roadside pullout near Flagpe Knob, we blazed our way down the we ern side of Shenandoah Mountain in f direction of a ravine formed by Skidm«¢ Creek. Because it had rained hard t evening before, we had to descend slow over the treacherous jumble of slippe rocks. Soon we found ourselves in a pat like forest that had rarely been disturb by humans. Above a nearly continuo thicket of fetterbush rose the giant easte hemlocks. The grove was like a redwo forest on a smaller scale; the hemloc grew straight and tall, with several of t larger ones approaching a girth of tht and a half feet at shoulder height. Sevei species of birds use the forest for nestir including the red-breasted nuthatch, t brown creeper, and the red crossbill. _- These trees had escaped the mass lut bering that has destroyed the native fore: of the East and soon threatens to consuf all the old-growth forests of the West. ’ prevent the loss of such natural commut ties that remain in the George Washingt National Forest, Bob Glasgow and his ct leagues have joined with the Virginia He itage Program to identify the best are and set them aside as reserves. As Gli gow commented, this approach not on protects biodiversity but also enhances t public perception of the George Washin ton National Forest and relieves logge from any concern that they might inadve tently wipe out important populations plants or animals. Robert H. Mohlenbrock, professor emei tus of plant biology at Southern Illine University, Carbondale, explores the bi logical and geological highlights of t 156 U.S. national forests. DISCOVERY CRUISES ANCIENT TRADE ROUTES Bombay to Alexandria April 1-20, 1993 cient and modern cities, including Bombay, India; Muscat 1 Salalah in Oman; Sana'a, Yemen; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; ra, Jordan; and the Suez Canal and Alexandria in Egypt. ip: 64-cabin Sea Goddess CIRCUMNAVIGATING THE BRITISH AND IRISH ISLES May 9-25, 1993 sdieval ruins, archeological sites and spectacular landscapes the Scilly, Skellig and Aran Islands, Dartmouth and Donegal, 1a, St. Kilda, the Orkneys, Shetlands, Mousa and Fair Isle. ip: 41-cabin Polaris GALAPAGOS ISLANDS AND QUITO June 11-23, 1993 rtoises, turtles, marine and land iguanas, sea lions, a magnifi- nt array of birdlife and dramatic volcanic landscapes. ip: 20-cabin Isabela II THE TIDES OF HISTORY Rediscovering Russia and the Baltics June 14-29, 1993 istoric ports, including St. Petersburg, Kronstadt and uliningrad in Russia; Tallinn, Estonia; Riga, Latvia; Klaipeda, thuania; Gdansk, Poland; Rugen and Lubeck in Germany; d Amsterdam, Holland. 1ip: 41-cabin Polaris. 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Ship: 74-cabin World Discoverer EXPLORING ALASKA’S INSIDE PASSAGE July 10-19, 1993 Spectacular fjords, channels, rivers, glaciers, whales, sea lions, bears and a wealth of birdlife in Alaska’s Inside Passage. Ship: 37-cabin Sea Lion EXPEDITION THROUGH THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE July 19 - August 5, 1993 An historic transit aboard a powerful icebreaker through Canada’s ice-packed Northwest Passage, stopping at remote Inuit villages and islands associated with great Arctic explor- ers of the past. Ship: 59-cabin Kapitan Khlebnikov THE JOURNEY OF ODYSSEUS Retracing the Odyssey in the Mediterranean August 16 - September 1, 1993 Historic islands, cities and sites in the Mediterranean along Odysseus’ route, including Istanbul, Troy, Mycenae, Malta, Jerba, Corsica, Monte Circeo, Naples, Corfu and Ithaca. Ship: 44-cabin Aurora I (800) 462-8687 or (212) 769-5700 Monday - Friday, 9-5 E.S.T. Central Park West at 79th Street New York, NY 10024-5192 What, Me Quarry? You can never have too many 1938 Allis Chalmers WCs by Roger L. Welsch I changed my mind the moment we came over the hill and I caught sight of Stromp’s Dump. Maybe it was a flash of insight, or maybe I’m just getting older, but what I saw in this junkyard was not the same thing I used to see when I saw a junkyard—tural blight, pollution, ugli- ness, junk. For one thing, at Stromp’s Dump there is a double row of ancient, sheet-metal combines flanking the entrance to the place, stretching off to the east and west almost as far as you can see. It reminds me of a Maya monument. I’Il bet that on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, if you stand in just the right place, maybe over there by that rusting steam traction engine, the sun rises right between that double row of combines, and some day archeologists will write about it. We drove slowly into Jim Stromp’s yard. Jim wasn’t home, but we had already been told by several dozen other peopie, who drive hours from all directions to Stromp’s for tractor parts, that we could go ahead and salvage whatever parts we needed and then just check with him when we left. So we—my daughter Antonia, my pal Woodrow, and I—drove across the yard and through the big iron gate that leads to... The Tractor Yard. My 1938 Allis Chalmers WC surprises me a lot—nearly every time I turn the crank, in fact. It starts when it has every reason not to, it pulls better than it should at its age, it runs with almost no care, and it uses next to no gas or oil. Then, earlier this year, I got another 1938 Allis Chalmers WC (as I told my wife, Linda, you can never have too many 1938 Allis Chalmers WCs), and I found myself look- ing for brake parts. Where do you get parts for a 1938 Allis Chalmers WC, I wondered? First, Mel up at the Mobil station in town gave me a cat- alog because, it turns out, you can buy al- most any ‘art you need for almost any tractor ever ‘wade, including a 1938 Allis 26 NATURAL History 1/93 Chalmers WC, new or rebuilt, through the mail. I suppose that should have been ob- vious to me, but like a lot of things that should be obvious to me, it wasn’t: tractors last forever and so there are a lot of 1938 Allis Chalmers WC tractors still running out there and a lot of them need parts, and there are people who take apart tractors that don’t run and make those parts avail- able for people like me who need parts. Mel’s revelation opened a new world for me, but it got better—a lot better. Woodrow suggested that we could find parts even cheaper at Stromp’s Dump, and have more fun at it. He said we could get things like entire front ends that we’d sure never get through the mail, and from the gleam in his eye, I knew he was telling the truth. So we ran up to Stromp’s Dump, a little more than an hour away from my farm, and a whole new galaxy opened. We drove through Stromp’s gate and a scene for all the world like Oz or Wonder- land stretched before us. I gasped. “Wow, Dad,” Antonia sputtered. ““There’s a green hill and a red hill and an orange hill and...” And she was right, because the hill immediately to our left was covered v hundreds of carcasses of orange A Chalmers tractors, and the hill directly fore us was blanketed with the remnant green John Deeres. There were red In nationals, and far away, nearly at the h zon, Cases, Olivers, Fergusons, < Whites and...well, all in all, it was amazing sight: acres and acres of tract in various stages of wreckage. Woodrow, who had been to Strom before, took a moment to enjoy « amazement and then said, “Let’s see y: list.” I handed him the paper listing parts I hoped to find—a belt pulley, a fr end, two full sets of brake parts, an filler cap, that sort of thing—and grabb his bucket of tools, he set off wadi through the sea of cannibalized WCs. / tonia and I grabbed our bucket of tools < set off in the opposite direction acr Allis Chalmers Ravine. The day was cold and cloudy, and worked with some haste, hoping to get « parts and return to the warmth Woodrow’s truck as quickly as possit As we pulled, twisted, hammered, 2 JARTOS 2d, other drivers steered their pickup eks slowly through the yard and pped near likely sources of parts for atever tractor they were in hopes of fix- . [heard occasional snippets of conver- ion over the wind, the sounds of steel ls on steel parts, the unmistakable eech of a crescent wrench burring the ners of a bolt and sliding off, muffled rses, and the sound of sucking on aped knuckles. The Greenies on John Deere Hill spoke their quests—a wide front end, fly- eels, and front steel—and we Orangies Allis Chalmers Ravine combed through - wreckage for ours—a magneto, a fuel liment bulb, the bottom half of an air aner. Occasionally we looked across utral ground at one another, grunted a seting, maybe borrowed a tool, but jile it was clear that we were all there for » same purpose (harvesting parts), we re as alien to each other as ancient wnee and Lakota miners working thin sight of each other at flint quarries. That was it! That was what changed my derstanding of junkyards. I had always yught of places like Stromp’s as terrible aces, ugly concentrations of litter and in, but now for the first time I saw that S was a quarry—a tractor parts quarry. e were all of us—Greenies, Orangies, d Yellowies—engaged in a recycling ocess, salvaging entire vehicles, piece ‘piece, scavenging the abandoned to scue the still serviceable. Like Native mericans at flint quarries, we were shar- ¢ a kind of ad hoc truce with members of her tribes at work in the same quarry. Native American Quarriers: “Boy, look those ugly shagnasties over there hack- g away at the worst flint in the quarry; on’t those bozos ever learn how to make cent weapons? Whatever they’ re eating nells like it should have been buried a ng time ago. Uh oh, here comes one of m. What? You want to trade some of yur elk pemmican for an antler flaker? Yeah, that sounds fair enough. Here, try a little of this dried chokecherry too. What’s that brown flint look like over there? Worth digging?” Us: “Woodrow, look at that. Those dummies are trying to take off a steering wheel with pliers—as if it made any sense to dink around with John Deeres to begin with. Is he trying to adjust that carburetor with a hammer, or what? Uh oh, here comes one of ’em. You want some pene- trating oil? Yeah, sure. Here you go. Help yourself. Blackberry brandy. Sounds good. Will it help break those bolts loose? Hmmm, I’ll bet. Here, try this socket on that steering wheel. Didn’t happen to see the front spindle off’n a square-nose Allis WC over there, did you?” Different worlds, but for the moment, today, here at Stromp’s, we’re staying cool and avoiding discussions of religion, poli- tics, and farm implement lines. That afternoon, as we drove out of Stromp’s with our Allis parts, I wondered if we weren’t missing something by leav- ing so early in the day. I imagined aloud if maybe at night there aren’t little campfires scattered around Stromp’s Dump, perhaps shadowy figures huddled over them, scouring parts with wire brushes or con- versing in muffled tones about a nearly virginal sector gear needing only one more pin pounded out before it can be removed and taken home. Maybe secret songs are sung, inviting the blessings of gods that protect or vex swathers and combines. On appropriate days, are there arcane rituals initiating young apprentices into the se- crets of the Massey-Harris clutch assem- bly, sacrifices to the spirits of internal combustion? “What do you think?” I asked Antonia and Woodrow. “Huh?” said Woodrow. “Let’s eat,” said Antonia. Folklorist Roger L. Welsch lives on a tree farm in Dannebrog, Nebraska. Unique Natural History opportunities in NEW ZEALAND All tours and cruises led by professional naturalists who share their knowledge both in the field and through informal slide illustrated lectures and film. IN SEARCH OF THE SOUTHERN ARK 15 days, the most comprehensive natural history tour available of NZ. Small groups, many exclusive experiences. Departures, Nov, Dec and Jan, Feb. CHATHAM ARCHIPELAGO Isolated in the South Pacific, a haven for endemic flora and fauna. SOUTHERN FIORDLAND CRUISE An atmosphere of grandeur, dramatic landforms and unique natural history in an area seldom visited by people. SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OF NZ They can be numbered among the last unspoilt environments on earth, a cruise with unequalled wildlife opportunities. Special itineraries wepares for individuals or groups.Professional leaders available. New Zealand Central Reservations Office 6033 West Century Blvd. Suite 1270 Los Angeles CA 90045 California (800) 351 2317 Nationwide (800) 351 2323 Operated by Southern Heritage Tours NZ. Sas POLAR BEARS, TUNDRA BUGGIES & THE POLAR BEAR BUNKHOUSE LODGE Experience the gathering of the - Great White Bears in Churchill, Manitoba. View and photograph the bears from the vantage of an original Tundra Buggy and com- plete your visit with a 3-night adventure on the shores of Hudson Bay in our exclusive Polar Bear Bunkhouse Lodge, Prime time departures x Oct/Nov 1993, from $1795 INTERNATIONAL P.O. Box 1637 ‘C, Vashon, WA 98070 Ua ; 368-0077 Da inley + -oming In on a Ning and an Ear uilt-in sonar detector gives some praying mantises an edge in aerial combat David Yager and Mike May ) _male praying mantis flies through the it, searching the breeze for chemical als that could lead him to a receptive 2. Meandering at four miles per hour, mantis suddenly hears ultrasonic s—the sonar signals of a hungry bat ting nearby. In an instant, the bat de- ; the mantis, and the ultrasonic pulses 1e faster and louder. Now the swift and cious bat closes for the kill. This aly maneuverable predator is fifty 2s heavier and flies two or three times xreen, long-winged male praying mantis mates with a larger, faster than the mantis. Can the seemingly helpless insect overcome these odds and escape? Historically, zoologists might have ex- pected the mantis to use its extraordinary vision to help it evade the bat, even in sit- uations with little light. The mantis’s huge eyes and attentive demeanor are reflected in its name: to the ancient Greeks, mantis denoted one who saw the future, a prophet or soothsayer. By habit, the mantis is a daytime hunter at the top of the inverte- rt-winged female, left. A threatened mantis, above, raises its elegs and arches its abdomen in a menacing display. Cheeseman brate food chain. Exceptional vision al- lows it to seize prey, flies and other insects, with precision. Although many insects can hear, hear- ing appeared to be absent in the mantis. Mantises do not produce audible sounds (beyond an occasional soft “whoosh” when handled) and were never seen re- sponding to sounds. Furthermore, experts had found no ears like the ones that are so prominent in crickets, katydids, grasshop- pers, and moths. Scientists concluded rea- sonably that the mantis was deaf. Nevertheless, the thought that mantises might be able to hear resurfaced periodi- cally among mantis aficionados and re- cently prompted a new set of experiments: if the mantis could hear, sound-related ac- tivity in the central nervous system could easily be detected with tiny wires placed inside the animal. These experiments showed conclusively that mantises can hear. When sounds were played, cells within the insect’s nervous system burst into activity. This meant that the mantis has ears. But where? The mantis’s auditory system is seem- ingly unique in the animal kingdom. The mantis is an “auditory cyclops’”—it has a single ear in the middle of its body on the ventral side, or underside. All other ani- mals known to hear have two ears located on the sides of the body or the head. And the mantis’s ear does not look like an ear at all. It is a deep slit, about one millimeter long, with two knobs of hard cuticle at the front end. There are two eardrums inside the slit facing each other from opposite walls. Unlike other insect eardrums, which generally look like membranous drumheads, those of the mantis are a thin, stiff cuticle in a teardrop shape. Neuro- 29 physiological and behavioral experiments showed that the two eardrums act together as a unit. These experiments also sug- gested that having an ear in a deep slit may increase sensitivity to sound of certain fre- quencies. A highly visual insect, the man- tis also possesses a sensitive auditory sys- tem. What role does hearing play in its everyday life? Assuming mantises hear best the sounds most relevant to their lives, we tested which frequencies of sound most stimulated their central nervous systems. Neurophysiological audiograms showed that the mantis does not hear sounds as we do. The vast majority of animals, includ- ing humans and insects, use and hear fre- quencies below 10 kilohertz. (We cannot even hear sounds above 15 to 20 kilo- hertz.) For the mantis, by contrast, the best hearing lies in the ultrasonic range be- tween 25 and 60 kilohertz and up to 100 kilohertz in some species. These results suggested three possible functions for hearing in mantises. They eat some insects, such as katydids, that pro- duce nocturnal, ultrasonic songs. Maybe at night the mantis locates its prey by sound rather than by the daytime visual strategy. Or, it may use sound to commu- nicate with other mantises during courtship «hen the small, slight male has to convince the larger, hungry, and highly predatory © male that he is something other than a «al. Finally, mantises may 30 NATURAL History 1/93 Located on the mantis’s belly, within box below, the single ear is a slit containing two eardrums and protected by knobs of cuticle, at left, magnified 30 times. Eared mantises can hear ultrasound, but they cannot determine the direction of the source. be listening to the most common animal source of ultrasound—hunting bats. Some species of moths and the green lacewing, for instance, are known to listen for bats in order to evade capture. The structure of an animal’s auditory system to a large extent determines its hearing capabilities.’The separation be- tween the two ears allows an animal to pinpoint the location of the sound source—a critically important capability in day-to-day life—by comparing the loudness or the timing of the signal arriv- ing at each ear. The mantis, however, has only one centrally located ear, and both behavioral and physiological experiments showed that this insect cannot locate the source of a sound. The mantis certainly could not locate prey effectively or effi- ciently by using sound cues. Nevertheless, nondirectional hearing could still be use- ful, though perhaps not optimal, in either courtship or bat avoidance. The most decisive clue to the function of mantis hearing came from months spent studying dried specimens in the quiet, dusty research rooms of museums. Ap- proximately 2,000 species of mantises are known. In contrast to temperate zones where mantis fauna consists of fewer than 20 species, tropical regions such as eastern Africa boast up to 350 species that range in size from less than half an inch to more than five inches. Do these different man- tises hear differently? The results of the museum work on the ear anatomy of mo: than 1,000 species of mantises were corr lated with physiological tests on 35 sp cies of living mantises. The comparisc showed that not all mantises -have th same auditory capabilities. While abot 60 percent of the mantises examined hay the type of ear described above and he: ultrasound, some are deaf. Most of thes earless mantises unexpectedly have at other attribute in common—their wins are too short for flight. In other words, if mantis has short wings or no wings at al it also is earless and deaf. This correlatio is so strong that almost a third of all mar species show auditory sexual dimor- sm—the males have long wings and 1 ultrasound, but the females of the ne species have short wings and cannot ir. A mantis’s ability to hear ultrasound ist be related to flight. That led us to ex- ine mantis flight and the insect’s inter- ion with bats. Our exploration into mantis flight rted rather simply. We fastened a mantis a thin wire and suspended it in the gen- wind stream from a fan; essentially, we ced the mantis on an aerial treadmill. th just a bit of coaxing, the mantis ead its wings and flew, assuming a Photographs by David Yager and Mike May The mantis usually flies with its legs tucked in and abdomen flat. When it detects the ultrasonic signals of a hunting bat, the mantis stretches out its forelegs and arcs its abdomen, below, which may cause the wings to stall. The insect then veers and dives away from the predator. A strobe photograph, left, reveals the spiral flight path of one mantis exposed to ultrasound. streamlined posture with its legs tucked neatly against its body. But when we broadcast a batlike burst of ultrasound, the mantis snapped into action in less than a tenth of a second: it thrust its front legs forward and curled its abdomen above its back. Looking more closely, we noted that the mantis also turned its head and beat its wings in larger but slower strokes. The mantis reacted strongly to signals that re- sembled the echolocation cries of a hunt- ing bat. This provoked a bigger question: What happens when a freely flying mantis hears ultrasound? To keep our valuable subjects from flying away, we first sought this an- swer in a large room, about half the size of a baseball diamond. At one end of the room, we hung an enormous drape of black paper as a photographic backdrop. At the other end, we positioned a camera and strobe light to record stop-action pho- tographs. We “shot” at the freely flying mantis with a “batgun”—an ultrasonic speaker mounted on a rifle stock. Between the drape and the camera, we taped the floor at three-foot intervals. The room ac- quired the appearance of a scientific play- ing field awaiting game day. We then began launching mantises into the air one at a time, hoping they would cruise into camera range. One mantis after another flew over, under, or away from the camera. Finally, a mantis set its course past the camera: We turned on the strobe light, opened the camera’s shutter, and “shot” the mantis with ultrasound. In less than two-tenths of a second, the mantis twisted into a steep, spiral dive and plunged to the floor, safe from the simu- lated bat attack. After many weeks of work, the flying mantises told a story. When ten yards or more away from the batgun, where the ul- trasound was weak, the mantis usually ig- nored the ultrasound or, at most, made a simple, level turn. Sometimes the mantis turned away, but at other times, it turned toward the ultrasound (the single-eared mantis couldn’t tell the difference). When the mantis flew closer to the source of the sound, the ultrasound was louder and the insect responded vigorously. In less than two-tenths of a second, it rose slightly up- ward before turning into a power dive that often doubled its flight speed. At times, the mantis shot through a loop before the dive. Or, it turned during the dive. Some mantises dove to the floor for a landing. Others pulled up short and skimmed above the surface. At the closest range, just a few yards from the batgun, the ultra- sound propelled the mantis into a nearly vertical dive, and it often spiraled as it ap- proached the floor. Thus, the mantis can assess the urgency of the threat and re- spond accordingly. Nearer and nearer to the “bat,” its response becomes progres- sively more dramatic, more evasive. The ultimate question remained: Could 31 a mantis escape from a real bat hunting in the wild? To pursue this question, we trav- eled to Pinery Provincial Park in south- western Ontario, a field site for bat biolo- gist Brock Fenton and his colleagues at York University and a place where the hunting patterns of bats have been thor- oughly studied. As a test site, we chose a parking lot near the edge of a forest where tall lights provided some illumination for the aerial encounters to follow. These tests required a team. One mem- ber climbed to the top of a twelve-foot lad- der. Perched above the parking lot, he gen- tly launched a mantis into the dark night air. The mantis quickly opened its wings and flapped across the sky as several ob- servers followed on foot beneath it. Sud- denly, a bat (in these tests, the red bat, a common bat of eastern North America) appeared from the treetops and closed on the mantis at roughly fifteen miles per hour. With every observer rooting for it, the mantis quickly began a steep, spiral dive to the ground. For a few turns, the bat joined the spiral, but it pulled out before crashing into the ground and then flew off in search of easier prey. The mantis could escape from a hunting bat. After more than 200 launches, we had observed eleven bat attacks on the mantis. In five of the bat attacks, the flying mantis used evasive maneuvers and avoided even a brush with the bat. In three other attacks, the mantis performed no noticeable eva- sive action and, in two of the cases, was captured or at least hit by the bat. But, we wondered, was it hearing the bat that gave the mantis the edge? We tried another spe- cies of mantis deaf to red bat cries. We saw three bat attacks on this species. The man- tis never made a move to escape, and the bat invariably caught the mantis. In the end, we had seen six attacks in which the mantis failed to respond. The mantis lost five of those encounters. In the five cases when the mantis did respond to the bat, the mantis won and the bat flew away hungry. The success of the evasion lies in the in- sect’s unpredictability; the mantis some- ‘iraes turns to the right and sometimes to lett, regardless of the bat’s position. 32 NATURAL History 1/93 J. C. Carton; Bruce Coleman A Costa Rican bat consumes a mantis, below. Mantises without ears are easy victims for such nocturnal hunters. A predator in its own right, a mantis lurks in greenery, right, waiting for other insects on which to feed. Brock Fenton But, how does the mantis “decide” which way to turn? An aeronautical engineer saw a pos- sible source of unpredictability as soon as he examined photographs of the mantis’s escape response. The engineer suggested that the aerial maneuvers were inherently unpredictable because they rely on an aerodynamic principle called stall. Lift is the upward aerodynamic force that holds a plane—or a flying insect—up in the air. When one or both wings stall, they lose their lift. A pilot normally tries to avoid stalling the wings of his plane. When hearing a bat, a mantis often loses altitude, perhaps by using stall to its advantage. When a mantis raises its ab- domen in response to ultrasound, this move should make the front of its body lift up, causing the forewings to move to a steeper and steeper angle. At some angle, a forewing will stall, but each forewing is equally likely to stall first. If it is the right forewing, the mantis loses lift on the right side and then dives to the right. If it is the left forewing, the mantis dives to the left. Which forewing stalls first, however, is entirely unpredictable. So if the escape re- sponse does depend upon stall, it makes the entire flight path random. Regardless of the exact mechanism, the mantis’s escape response is a good evasive maneuver, one discovered independently by modern fighter pilots. In a hostile aer encounter with an unfriendly hot on |} tail, a fighter pilot may pull up or tu steeply, quickly changing his flight ps and losing speed. The unfriendly fii below and past his target, only to find } previous quarry now in pursuit. That precisely what the mantis does, except wisely avoids pursuing the bat. The man also dives toward the ground, and sor times we saw it skim just above the gra: Fighter pilots use the same maneuver air-to-air combat, diving and then flyi just above the treetops (rather than t grasstops), attempting to become invisit to the adversary’s radar (analogous to t bat’s sonar) by blending in with the bac ground clutter. When bats appeared some 60 millic years ago, they posed a serious threat nocturnally flying insects. In response, t praying mantis developed an unpr dictable evasion strategy—twisting left right into a spiral dive to the ground. TI mantis, a creature limited to the compt ing power of just a few tens of thousan of nerve cells, thus thwarted its seeming more advanced mammalian predator, tl bat. But limited or not, the mantis offers < advanced lesson in aerial combat strat gies today used by fighter pilots flyir multimillion-dollar aircraft with the late tactical computer technology. [ Maslennitsa, the snow queen, is lifted on poles by Kreshnevo women and set on fire. Masqueraders dressed as devils, cats, and goats dance to accordian music as she burns. The Death of Winter In remote eddies of Eurasia, villagers joyfully kill the old gods so Earth can be reborn Text and photographs by Alexander S. Milovsky For most of my professional life as a journalist, I have explored the nooks and crannies of my native land, the former Soviet Union, searching for survivals of the sacred in a supposedly secular country. When I found a nineteenth- century book on Russian folklore that described certain New Year’s rites, I knew I would soon be traveling again. Its author, A. N. Afanasyev, had written, “The Slavs have an old custom of welcoming spring in the month of March and banishing Death, or Winter. They carry a straw effigy of Death out of the village and down to the river, then drown it or first burn it and throw the ashes into the water, because Winter dies in the burning rays of the spring Sun and the swift streams of thawed snow.” Long after Russia’s conversion to Christianity in the tenth century A.D., many ancient traditions survived and were still fairly common during the last century. The original New Year’s celebrations focused on Kolyada, the newborn sun. Local customs varied widely, but folklorists recorded that some common elements persisted: a ring of bonfires to show the luminary its path through the sky and masked figures to frighten off evil spirits that might obstruct the solar journey. In many villages, poles with disks on top and fried round pancakes symbolized the sun. After more than 750 years of government efforts to wipe out such “archaic” customs, festivals connected with the death of winter no longer existed, even in the remote villages—at QA AlTatrrmar Litreomnpx 1/092 least so I was told by Russian ethnologists. During the mid-1980s, however, I set out for the far corners of the USSR to see for myself what, if anything, remained of the old ways. My first trip was to the rural village of Kreshnevo, in the Vesegonsky District of the Tver Region. Although it is only 250 miles north of Moscow, the deep forest in which the village is situated remains home to lynxes and bears. Following a custom that may stretch back thousands of years, the villagers still create gigantic dolls of the winter spirits, which they “kill” in a ritual bonfire. I visited Anna Sharonova, an aging peasant woman, whose century-old log house was cluttered with a jumble of horned masks, fake mustaches and noses, bits of black fur, colored paper, and balls of thread. Beneath the bright bare lamp, she and her friends and neighbors were busily cutting and sewing. “We are making the carnival costumes,” she explained. “It’s time to hail the spring, even though the snow is knee-deep.” The next morning, four large sleighs entered the village, drawn by horses wearing bright ribbons in their manes and jingling bells on their traces. Singing’at the top of their lungs, the sleighs’ passengers—gaily costumed young men—raced their horses to the nearby town of Vesegonsk, where the “pancake week” bazaar was already in progress. Accordian music was heard everywhere, and jester-clowns entertained crowds in the market square. Festivities continued all day, culminating in the highlight of the week: the execution of Maslennitsa, the snow queen. At sunset, her larger-than-life effigy, resplendent in an orange-gold dress, was driven on a sleigh down the main village street as a crowd followed. Amid laughter, horseplay, and song, she was escorted to the riverbank, where firewood had been stacked. The dry logs blazed swiftly in the dark with an orange flame that resembled the orange of her dress. When the bonfire was high, the doll was raised on poles and placed within it. Instantly, the flames enveloped her paper dress, her straw hair, and her body. The Kreshnevo women, it seemed to me, were sorry to consign to the flames the handsome «loi! they had so assiduously labored ove: but that was her fate from the beginning. Milk was poured on the 36 NATURAL History 1/93 fire, signifying that the weeks of milk and cheese were over, for Lent had begun. Anticipating its imminent defeat, I thought, Winter shed large tears of moist snowflakes that hissed as they turned to steam on the birchwood embers. A year later, at the end of January, I trudged through deep snow to the Dagestan village of Shayitly, perched among the Caucasus Mountains, in Russia’s southwest, to join the winter festival of Igby. Along the way, I followed canine tracks and came upon the bloody site where wolves had recently taken a deer. When I reached Shayitly late at night, exhausted, I found the villagers busily preparing for the holiday. Skins and masks were being refurbished, and the ritual igi bread was being baked, all in preparation for the first appearance of sunshine upon the mountainside facing the village—an event that is considered the beginning of the end of winter. I stayed in the house of the forest warden, who told me that the botsi, or magical “wolves,” would descend from the hills the next morning. Shortly after dawn, with the whole village gathered i the square, I sat and watched the first light illuminate the mountainside and heard the exultant cries of young boys. They had spotted two strange figures coming toward the town. Suddenly, two more botsi appeared. Festooned with colored ribbons, these “wolf spirits” we dressed in sheepskins and tall, conical hats attached to masks. More of them advanced on the town square from all sides, waving long wooden swords, bullying people, and pushing some into > snow. Unrecognizable to their ighbors, they remained silent so as not reveal their identities. Later, they went ym house to house collecting tributes of usty igi breads on their swords. Toward late afternoon, the main aracter of the festival, Quidili, made his pearance by ambling down the same ountainside. He was a tall, shaggy eature, with a large head, expressive ging eyes, and an enormous pink outh with shining copper teeth. His ant wooden jaw repeatedly opened and acked closed. Villagers and botsi alike ere respectful, yet bolder youngsters sntured to tug at his garb or jab a ooden stick into his giant mouth. No 1e could tell me the meaning of uidili’s name or the story of his origin. et all agreed that he was the supervisor Mysterious mud-bedaubed marauders, the beriki rush around the Georgian countryside, brazenly demanding tribute. of this crucial day after which spring began, and that he had to be decapitated if they wanted warm days to follow. Ascending an ice platform, the mysterious visitor was greeted by the village schoolmaster, who announced that “this day the most just Quidili has come down from the hill to praise all hard- working people and to denounce idlers, spongers, drunks, and cheats.” After the spirit figure had solemnly nodded agreement, the best shepherds, dairymaids, pupils, and dancers were awarded an igi bread. Then the village miscreants were named, and the botsi dragged them to the riverside, where they were dunked in ice-cold water. After justice had been meted out, Quidili wished the villagers peace, prosperity, and a good harvest and then followed the botsi to the local river bridge. There he calmly lay down and was “decapitated” by a village elder wielding a violet-red sword, leaving a puddle of make-believe blood in the snow. I remembered the bloodstained snow I’d seen the day before; despite relentless persecution, both the real wolves and the ritual wolves had managed to survive in these woods. Several botsi put the “corpse” on a stretcher and carried it away. Merriment returned quickly, and the wolves shed their costumes out of sight of the crowd and rejoined their neighbors amidst the celebrations. In late February, in the Kakhetian village of Patar Chailuri on the Georgian side of the Caucasus Mountains, I witnessed a similar drama: the Berikaoba festival. Here the traditional masqueraders are known as beriki: four mysterious, whip-wielding characters dressed in skins and colored cloth. They, cover their faces with huge, black sheepskin masks that have turkey feather “horns” and shreds of goat wool for mustaches, eyebrows, and beard. Along with them travels a wild boar personage, covered in white pigskin, with a hideous tusked mouth; a masked drummer; and a donkey and driver. Quidili, the shaggy giant who appears at midwinter in the Caucasus Mountains, is sacrificed. Rowdy and brazen, this bizarre band smeared themselves with mud and rushed around the village creating pandemonium. Their goatskin masks and sheepskin capes, ancient symbols of fertility and fecundity, are welcome harbingers of spring. Although they “invaded” every house, shrieking and demanding gifts from each family, their hosts gladly handed over bread, fruit, eggs, cheese, and wine. Those householders who refused to pay tribute were punished by having mud daubed on their faces. Eventually, the beriki rushed into the village square, where the crowd had been entertained by wrestling matches, and began to enact an annual drama. Circling the tall pole erected there, they began to imitate the sowing of corn by dragging the handles of their whips through the earth. At this point, the pigman began “ruining” the field and was chased and whipped by the beriki until they “killed” him. Finally, all retired to an elder’s house, where they shed their costumes and consumed the day’s haul. Villagers did not begrudge them their booty, for they believe that the merrier the beriki party, the richer the harvest will be. The following year, in search of still more celebrations of the death of winter, I 37 In northern Moldova, Katjusha, the revered goddess of the Malanka festival, is revealed as a male prankster. traveled to northern Moldova to visit the indigenous mountain cultures of the Carpathians. I arrived at Klokushna at the ~ time of their New Year’s celebration, when pranksters in black sheepskin masks stopped my car as I entered the village. They demanded a toll to enter; we eventually agreed upon some of my photographs. The impudent supernatural characters are called moshi, the protectors of the festival. Once inside Klokushna, I found that the traditional mummer’s play called Malanka was being performed at the door of every house, after which everyone exchanged best wishes for the New Year. Here the motif of winter’s death and the birth of spring is expressed by the murder and resurrection of a beautiful girl named Katjusha. She wears a face veil, disguising the fact that the lovely young woman is actually played by a young man. Katjusha stands in the center of a circle of twelve warrior kings all decked out in tall hats adorned with colorful ribbons and artificial flowers, silver foil belts, magnificent epaulets, and swords. When one makes a pass at her, she rebuffs him bluntly; he flies into a rage and murders her. When the crowd rebukes the king for his foul deed, the guiltless girl returns to life. One of the moshi then gov«is the onlookers into 38 NATURAL History 1/93 Playing the king, an Orubad youth gives imperious orders during an ancient Azerbaijan festival. contributing gifts for the victim, which he gathers into a bag. At this point, Katjusha asks him for a cigarette from among the goodies; when she puts aside her veil to light it, the audience gasps in mock surprise as they glimpse the trickster’s masculine face. My last stop was in the old Azerbaijan town of Ordubad, in the Muslim area south of Georgia and above Iran, where another ancient substitution drama is still played out. These villagers celebrate the displacement of winter by enacting the replacement of their khan (king) with a simple youth for the duration of the festival. On their holiday of Khan-khan ojunu (playing the ruler), the traditional drama takes place in the medieval town square, near a mosque and under a gigantic chinar tree. Prior to ascending his throne beneath the ancient tree, the khan and his retinue parade through the town, followed by frolicking children and accompanied by musicians. When the khan finally mounts his seat of power, people try to distract him with riddles and loaded questions. However, he remains regally aloof, answering all questions through his vizier and advisers, for he may not smile or break character. Supplicants ask that their neighbors be severely punished for supposed crimes such as chicken stealing. “Chop his head off,” the vizier says, relaying the khan’s harsh sentence. But an advocate for the alleged poultry pilferer manages to soften the penalty, which is reduced to singing a song and dancing. Soon, everyone is doing the same. When my turn comes, I ask a royal favor. “Most illustrious and just Khan, please permit me to photograph you and your brilliant retinue.” An unsmiling twitch of the eyebrows, a slight nod to the executioner, and the latter raises his whip, but I did get my pictures. Like the king, the snow queen, Quidili, and Winter itself, the ancient connections of Slavic, Carpathian, and Caucasian countryfolk with the land’s cycle are not dead at all, but are reborn every year. O Shellfish bouillabaisse with cilantro. ©E. &J. Gallo Winery, Modesto, CA. Immature spotted hyenas lounge about the clan’s communal den. Joe McDonald oe _ ee i & } J E eC é q : j ; Growing Up in the Clan In spotted hyena society, nothing beats a mother’s influence by Laura Smale and Kay E. Holekamp Sleepy and cramped in our four-wheel- drive vehicle, we watch the rising sun paint the morning clouds with streaks of red and gold. A few yards away from us, seven adult hyenas, all females, doze peacefully near their clan’s communal den. As the females rest, nine cubs are busily occupied around them. Two small cubs, whose first spots are just beginning to appear through their black infant coats, are nursing. Four older cubs sniff a leopard tortoise that has discreetly withdrawn into its shell. Two play tug of war with a vul- ture feather at the den entrance, while an- other quietly chews on a gazelle horn. This tranquil dawn scene in Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve is shattered suddenly as all the adult females leap to their feet and stare intently toward the west. Their abrupt movements send the smaller cubs dashing into the den hole. Now, from behind the bushes, the object of their attention appears. It is another adult female, known to us as Cochise, and in her massive jaws, she is gently holding a tiny black hyena cub. The baby swings limply as Cochise ap- proaches. As the adult females rush to- ward her, Cochise sets her black cub on the ground and crouches over it protec- tively. The other hyenas, their manes and tails bristling with excitement, then sur- round Cochise, sniff her, and groan over the unfamiliar infant. With her forelegs bent back beneath her body and her baby cowering under her, Cochise crawls to- ward the den hole, snapping at a youngster that pokes with excessive zeal at her off- spring. When she reaches the den, her cub scut- tles out from under her and vanishes into the hole, undoubtedly overwhelmed by its sudden arrival at this unfamiliar place oc- cupied by so many strangers. Almost im- mediately, Cochise leaves the area; return- ing twenty minutes later with another tiny cub, she once again creates an uproar of excitement and curiosity. Only when the other hyenas calm down does Cochise call her two cubs out of the den with a gentle groan and begin to nurse them. From our vehicle, we have been video- taping the arrival of these cubs, which we name Sioux (the first arrival) and Cheyenne. Videotaping is one of the tech- niques we have been using for the past four and a half years in an effort to under- stand the development of behavior pat- terns that shape the complex social system of spotted hyenas. Our fieldwork, con- ducted in collaboration with Laurence Frank, has focused on the clan to which Sioux and Cheyenne have just been intro- duced. This tightknit group of some sixty- four hyenas includes twenty-one adult fe- males and their offspring and twelve adult males. All males over the age of five are immigrants from other clans, for while fe- maic spotted hyenas generally spend their entire lives in the same clan, males emi- 44 NaTurRAL History 1/93 grate when they are between two and five years old. The early morning events we have just witnessed represent a major turning point in the lives of these month-old cubs, which until now have spent all their short lives at the secluded den where they were born. There, their social world was small and simple, consisting of just their mother and themselves. In the weeks and months to come, we will watch closely as the little cubs progress through the various stages of hyena development and become inte- grated into the clan. Spotted hyenas are gregarious carni- vores found in many different types of sub-Saharan habitats, including deserts, forests, savannas, and beaches. They live in highly structured clans, in which each aro David Madison; Bruce Coleman, Inc. Kay E. Holekamp A female cub, left, known as Sioux to the authors, leans against her mother, Cochise, to take a nap, revealing malelike genitalia. A mother carries her four-week-old cub, below, to meet the rest of the clan at the communal den. As two cubs nurse, below left, the dominant one gets the best spot, snug against its mother’s belly, forcing its sibling to reach around it. Robert Caputo member holds a social rank. A hyena’s rank has a profound influence on many as- pects of its life, the most important of which is its ability to compete for food. After running down a large antelope, for instance, spotted hyenas often feed in a frenzied free-for-all, each individual try- ing to get as much food for itself as pos- sible, often by attacking its clanmates and attempting to drive them away from the carcass. But even amid a ravenous mob of thirty hyenas feeding on a fresh kill, matters are not as chaotic as they might seem: each hyena only attacks clanmates ranked lower than itself. As with many other ani- mals, the hyenas’ social system is struc- tured around a rigid linear dominance hi- erarchy. However, unlike hierarchies found in most other species, the social rank of a spotted hyena in its natal clan is strongly influenced by its mother’s posi- tion in the hierarchy and not by its size or its fighting ability. The only other species in which “inheritance” of maternal rank has been documented are some Old World primates, such as baboons, vervets, and macaques. Another unusual feature of the hyenas’ social hierarchy is that the adult females normally outrank all adult males. As they grow up in the clan, young hye- nas face the task of working their way into this complex social system, learning to defer to hyenas from higher-ranking ma- trilines and to challenge those from lower- ranking matrilines. Sioux and Cheyenne, for example, must establish rank relation- ships with each of the other sixty-four members of the clan. One of the goals of our research has been to find out when and how a small hyena cub forms these rela- tionships, and how the process differs for young males and females. Our days in the field generally include several hours around dawn and dusk sit- ting in a parked vehicle, from which we observe and record the hyenas’ behavior. Paralleling our work is a series of ongoing studies of captive hyenas at the University of California at Berkeley, conducted by Stephen Glickman, Laurence Frank, and their collaborators. Our hope is that the studies of both the captive and free-living animals will reveal the relative influences of hormonal and social factors on the de- velopment of social behavior of spotted hyenas, starting at birth. After a 110-day pregnancy, which may AS AK # WNTat wat BORN TO KILL by Laurence G. Frank and Stephen E. Glickman In wild spotted hyena society, the first few weeks of life are intensely private. The female gives birth, usually to twins, at the mouth of an abandoned aardvark burrow, and the newborns crawl into the under- ground system, where they are safe from predators. Even the mother is too large to enter. The cubs remain in this den for sev- eral weeks, only coming to the entrance to nurse. One of us, Frank, first began studying spotted hyenas in Kenya in 1979. Through- out the early years of that fieldwork, a puz- zle arose: zoo data showed clearly that most spotted hyena litters are born as twins, but in Kenya, by the time the mother moved her cubs from the natal burrow to the clan’s communal den (generally the first chance for anyone to see the cubs), about half the litters had been reduced to a single cub. Because some of the surviving infants ap- peared emaciated, their backs covered with small scabs and wounds, an early hypothe- sis was that some sort of mange might be killing off the others. Over the years, how- ever, other observations complicated the issue: of the litters that did survive as twins, nearly all were brother—sister pairs. Why were there so few same-sex pairs? Could mange possibly be responsible for this sort of pattern? Solving this puzzle required being there at the very beginning of hyena life. Fortu- nately, facilities at the University of Califor- nia at Berkeley made this possible. In 1984, we established a captive colony of spotted hyenas to study the hormonal processes that produce the highly aggressive and extraor- dinarily masculine females for which this species is well known. (The female spotted hyena has an erectile clitoris the size and shape of the male’s penis, through which she mates and gives birth, and a “pseudo- scrotum” where the vulva should be.) In the course of our work on hormones, we have discovered that the spotted hyena’s arrival in the world is not only a very private affair; it is also strikingly violent. The spotted hyena’s 110-day gestation period is substantially longer than that of other hyena species. As a result, infants are born at an advanced stage of development, with fully erupted front teeth, open eyes, and the ability to move around much more vigorously than other newborn carnivores. When our captive females began to breed in 1987, we were astounded to observe the consequences of this advanced develop- ment. Our first twins were born to Di, our biggest female. The infants were delivered approximately one hour apart, and the mother licked off their amniotic sacs imme- diately. In our Berkeley study, mother and offspring are kept together in one large pen; there is no underground den.) Within min- utes of the second infant’s birth, the first- born attacked it, fastening its sharp front teeth into the skin of the younger cub’s back and shaking violently, displaying the same “bite-shake” attack on the shoulders that adult hyenas use on one another. In another litter, the first attack occurred even before the second cub was free of its amniotic sac. The second soon started to fight back, and intense fighting continued A close look at the shoulder of the cub in the foreground reveals marks strongly suggesting an attack by its sibling. Robert Caputo LiIretaA pv 1/02 throughout the first two or three day Our captive mothers often paid litt tion; in the wild, of course, the figh curs in the depth of the burrow, wi cannot intervene. In both litters, « eventually emerged as dominant « other, and we soon realized that \ had called mange was actually e& scarring on the back. Once established, the dominan tionship is stable, and fighting betw lings decreases rapidly. What happ depends on the sex of the cubs. W cubs are of opposite sex, both usu: vive, although the dominant one faster and always has precedence at In the wild, however, when bo borns are of the same sex, the figh parently continues until one dies. T\ born litters that we hand reared illus process. The first litter consisted of ters, Rabbit and Owl, which were al week old when we found them at th den outside the Mara Reserve. Ral half the weight of Owl, extremely ated, and close to death. She bore badly infected wound on the shou! result of Owl’s incessant attacks. In ond instance, we found Tumo and pair of males, when they were two days old. Talek, larger and dominan refuse the bottle we offered until he tacked his brother. In each hand-rea the smaller twin did fine. In same-si in the wild, however, we believe th is ultimately due to starvation, as th nant is able to prevent the subordin: leaving the den entrance to nurse colony, in the absence of a burrow, ling still becomes dominant, but be per, regardless of their sexes. Our studies of hyena hormonal « ment, carried out in collaborati Berkeley endocrinologist Paul Lic! shown that the period of siblicidal coincides with a period in which ir both sexes produce high levels of an (male hormones). The mascv anatomy and behavior of female hy pear to be the result of a complex pr: which androstenedione, a hormo duced by the ovaries and normally < sor to estrogen, is converted to test in the placenta. The developing emb bathed in exceptional quantities o: terone, and after birth, both male anc cubs continue to produce their ov hormones. Testosterone has been as with aggression in many species, an well have a role in the evolution an tenance of intense a fighting ted hyenas. This sort of Cain and Aba aggre well known among eagles and ma ig birds, such as herons, egrets, and but among mammals, only domes- are known to. ‘engage in neonatal The ecological and evolutionary ions that seern to explain bird sibli- ich appears to be tied to variable ee do not explain the hyenas’ , for in the Masai Mara—where x twins regularly survive—food t seem to be a limiting factor. asic questions remain to be an- Why is the fighting usually fatal th infants are the same sex but not if opposite sexes? What does the win- that offsets the evolutionary cost of ts closest relative? Why does the olerate the loss of nearly 25 percent productive output? Is there any way r cculd manipulate the outcome of ing in the den to influence the sex of ng offspring? fue neonatal fighting evolve in the > spotted hyena’ s transition from a scavenger, like the world’s two hy ith th a to a highly so- hich ae os are famous. hese circumstances, any adapta- | as agetessiveness—that in- et’s ability to insure her cubs o a share of the carcass would be dvantageous. Natural selection for oo may have favored devel- prenatal androgens and also, as oidable developmental side effect, nized genitalia. Neonatal fighting ll have been a similar side effect of e process. Once early fighting be- pore however, traits required to -fights—mobility, pugnaciousness, eth, and large size at birth—would en selected for in their own right. ever the answers to these questions, n to win an often mortal battle at s been a powerful evolutionary force potted hyena. It may also exact a st from the mother hyenas, who ve birth to their large babies through ually small organ, the penislike cli- captivity, first-time mothers experi- ry long labor and a high rate of birth ations. This may help explain why, ild, females often disappear, and are ed dead, about the time they would 1g birth for the first time. Stretching ~ ring of the clitoris during the first owever, do insure that subsequent re much easier for those females that and go on to produce more of the > remarkably precocial infants, first actions are not the least bit in- occur during any season, a female spotted hyena gives birth to one or two coal black infants, each weighing about two pounds. In the wild, the female selects an isolated old aardvark den, sometimes modified by warthogs, in which to shelter her cubs. The natal den, like the communal den, has a narrow opening too small for an adult hyena to enter. These dens can either be short (about nine feet long) with a single entrance or extensive, mazelike structures with many entrances. In general, natal dens are smaller and simpler than commu- nal dens. We get our first look at the cubs when they emerge at about ten days of age. The wild-born pairs we have seen are usually one male and one female. In the captive setting at Berkeley, Glickman and Frank have monitored the birth process, as well as the events occurring immediately after- ward, and have observed that a cub’s ini- tial, and most brutal, rank-related en- counter begins shortly after birth, when it may be attacked or even killed by its litter- mate (see sidebar at left). In the wild, presumably as a result of in- tense fighting within the natal den, rank re- lations between siblings have invariably been settled by the time the mother brings her cubs to the communal den. For ex- ample, Sioux, who turned out to be fe- male, clearly dominated Cheyenne, a male, on the day they were introduced to the clan. We could tell the brother and sis- ter apart because Cheyenne was smaller and was scarred across his back and shoul- ders. As Sioux settled against her mother’s warm belly to nurse, Cheyenne was left to squirm his way awkwardly between Cochise’s hind legs to reach her second nipple. As further evidence of her domi- nance, Sioux stopped her vigorous nursing after several minutes and chased her brother into the den hole, from where we could hear his high-pitched squeals. During a cub’s six- or seven-month stay at the communal den, its social world ex- pands to include not only its group of peers but also the adult and adolescent hyenas that pay frequent visits to the den. During their first weeks there, cubs appear above ground only to nurse, but soon they begin to make tentative explorations of the new world around them. At this stage, the small, black infants are timid, tucking their tails and bobbing their heads submis- sively in response to virtually everything that moves, including a plant waving in the wind, a guinea fowl wandering by, or the twitching ear of a sleeping hyena. Anything unusual, even the fluttering of a small bird, sends them racing back to the security of their mother’s side. Before long, however, the cubs become bolder and much more likely to chew the offend- ing plant or chase the guinea fowl than flee from it. Every small cub also devotes con- siderable time to investigating the various body odors of the other hyenas it meets and presenting itself to be sniffed by them in turn. At the communal den, cubs have little to fight over, since they nurse frequently and have-access to solid food only on the rare occasions when an adult female at- tempts to provision her cubs. Conse- quently, we have few opportunities to dis- cern rank relationships among cubs that are not siblings. Curious to know whether a hierarchy exists among cubs at the com- munal den, we decided to introduce an ob- ject that might elicit competition. One day we stole a Cape buffalo leg from a group of fat, sleepy lions and presented it to thir- teen young hyena cubs (two to four months old) at the communal den. We chose an afternoon when no older hyenas were at the den to influence the outcome of our little experiment. Under these con- ditions, the cubs behaved just like adult hyenas; that is, they squabbled vigorously in their attempts to displace one another from the food. In the process, to our com- plete surprise, they revealed that they had in fact formed their own miniature domi- nance hierarchy but that this hierarchy had nothing to do with their sex, relative size, age, or their mothers’ social rank. Small cubs sometimes dominated big ones, and cubs from low-ranking lineages could dominate cubs from higher-ranking fami- AT R. D. Estes; Photo Researchers, Inc. Spotted hyenas are excellent hunters, as well as accomplished scavengers and usurpers. The hyenas below may be feeding on a lion kill, since an adult giraffe generally would be too much for them to bring down. Right: an adult hyena, flanked by two eager jackals, dines on a flamingo. Clam Haagner; Anthony Bannister Photo Library lies. For example, Ginger, the relatively aggressive and fearless daughter of the clan’s lowest-ranking female, was able to establish a position for herself at the top of the cubs’ hierarchy. Our observations led us to think that, at this time of life, a cub’s position may depend on its personality, ~ particularly on the balance between fear- fulness and aggressiveness. The early dominance relationships we saw that day were not enduring, however. During the subsequent months, cubs’ ranks relative to peers steadily and sys- tematically changed. By the time the cubs reached eight months of age, the rank’ order among them paralleled almost per- fectly that of their mothers. How does this transformation in peer rank relations occur? Thousands of hours of watching youngsters as they grow up in our study clan have suggested various mechanisms by which cubs may “inherit” their mothers’ social ranks. Cubs have many opportunities to observe high-rank- ing mothers harassing and attacking low- ranking mothers, for example, and might learn something about the social hierarchy by observing these interactions. Mother hyenas at the den occasionally intervene 48 NATURAL History 1/93 when their young cubs engage in disputes with their peers, high-ranking mothers doing so more frequently and more ag- gressively than low-ranking ones. For ex- ample, if the mother from the higher-rank- ing lineage is present when two cubs bicker over a bone or play object, she might wave her head threateningly, a ges- ture sufficient to discourage her cub’s op- ponent. In addition, high-ranking mothers sometimes bring meaty bones or chunks of ungulate skin to the den for their cubs and then often intervene to make sure their youngsters maintain possession of the pre- cious item. These provisioning events are rare but may play a key role in the reorder- ing of cubs’ relative ranks within their peer groups. When cubs are seven to eight months old, they begin to leave the relative safety of the communal den to travel throughout the clan’s twenty-five-square-mile home range. At this point many cubs begin to spend their days sleeping in bushes. Some cubs, however, go through a period in which they seek daytime shelter in one or more “transitional” dens located through- out the clan’s home range. Although most are still nursing when they leave the com- munal den, young hyenas begin to ve into the frenzied feeding competitio surrounds the carcasses of freshly ungulates. This competition, cent hyena social biology, involves dra displays of feeding speed and high | of aggression among clan membe one instance, we watched a grot twenty-two hyenas reduce the entir of a topi (a 300-pound antelope) to a scattered bones in only thirteen min- When youngsters first encounter this enge, they are still slow and clumsy srs. They have not yet developed the ous skull bones and powerful mus- ure that enable adult hyenas to tear luge chunks of meat and crunch up s as though they were potato chips. At these first ungulate kills, maternal in- tervention takes on a new importance. When cubs join the competition around a carcass, their mothers are often with them, acting on their behalf. Once, at a topi kill, we saw nine-month-old Whitey chewing on a leg joint abut 200 feet from the main carcass, where his mother, LG, was feed- ing with twenty-one other hyenas. Eighth Notes, an adult immigrant male, sneaked up, stole Whitey’s topi leg, and ran off with-it. Despite her involvement in the chaotically feeding crowd, LG noticed the theft. She burst out of the mob of blood- stained hyenas around the carcass, chased Eighth Notes 500 feet, and tackled him, forcing him to drop the topi leg. LG picked up the leg, trotted back to Whitey, 49 and dropped it in front of him, then re- turned to the fray around the carcass. As a rule, such confrontations with adult males are unusual, for as immi- grants, males generally defer to all hyenas born in the clan, even to cubs that have not yet left the communal den. Cubs’ rank-re- lated interactions with adult females are somewhat more complicated. Rank may be inherited, but older females don’t sim- 50 NATURAL History 1/93 ply move aside to make room for the off- spring of higher-ranking females; the*cubs must assert themselves. This they begin to do about the time they first feed at ungu- late kills, challenging adult females much larger than themselves, as long, that is, as their opponents belong to lower-ranking matrilines. In competition over access to a wildebeest carcass, for example, an eight- month-old female named Baldy attacked OT, an adult female ranked below B mother. OT, three times larger than tacker, initially parried Baldy’s attac tried to regain access to the carcas Baldy persisted until OT backed o her tail between her legs. Baldy defeated the older animal s handedly, but spotted hyena cub: quently join, and are joined by, othe nas in attacks against clanmates of nal rank. Coalitions may. reinforce a n its challenges until lower-ranking s learn to defer to the youngster even it acts alone. eighteen months of age, young fe- ; have worked their way into the adult le hierarchy, fitting in immediately v their mothers’ position and winning eir fights against adult females of - maternal rank. Within a matriline, Joe McDonald Juvenile spotted hyenas at play, left. While one cub (its ears forward in an aggressive, dominant position) attempts to mount a second, a third (its ears pressed back in a submissive position) playfully chews on the muzzle of the first. A four- month-old cub rubs against a sleeping adult, below, probably getting both a sense of well-being and a good dose of the clan’s signature smell in the process. David Madison; Bruce Coleman, Inc. rank shifts over time (younger animals outranking their older siblings), but out- side the matriline, females retain their so- cial ranks for the rest of their lives, which may be twenty years in the wild. Young males also work their way into the adult hierarchy, but the outcome of their efforts is somewhat less certain. ‘Often they succeed in dominating adult fe- males from lower-ranking matrilines. Once, for example, we watched as DJ, the clan’s third-ranking female, brought a zebra leg to the den for her cub, only to be intercepted by Sherlock, the six-month- old son of the second-ranking female. Sherlock grabbed one end of the zebra leg and tugged with all his might. Since DJ was almost four times his size, she easily won the tug of war. But hyenas are extra- ordinarily persistent, and Sherlock then went directly after DJ, assuming the full- blown attack posture, with his head up, ears forward, and tail bristled. Both ani- mals ended up on their hind legs, with DJ parrying defensively against Sherlock’s attack. Eventually she backed away, and Sherlock made off with the zebra leg. Many other times, however, these young males must accept a position in the hierarchy lower than their mother’s rank would suggest. By eighteen months of age, for instance, they win only about half of their fights with adult females from lower-ranking matrilines. The status young males attain during this period re- mains unchanged as long as they remain in their natal clans. But eventually, the males go off on their own, and the minute the young male hyena leaves his natal clan, his social status plummets. Young males dispersing to the home range of a new and unfamiliar clan revert to a cublike pattern, attempting to appease everything that moves. Neighboring clans are often hostile toward one another, and because outsiders are not always wel- come, the young male must somehow break through this barrier. During an en- counter with an adult male in unfamiliar territory, the new immigrant slinks toward the other male and crouches before him with his head twisted and lowered, his ears plastered back against his head, and his lips curled in a submissive grin more ex- aggerated than any we have seen in any other context. Usually he is simply ig- nored by the animal he is trying to ap- pease, but sometimes he is chased all the 5] Spotted hyenas inhabit many different habitats of sub-Saharan Africa, including Botswana’s Okavango Swamp, below. Right: Wherever they are, hyenas greet fellow clanmates by sniffing each other’s genitals, a “handshake” that may last several minutes. Frans Lanting; Minden Pictures Jeremy Woodh way back to the edge of the new clan’s ter- ritory. Often the young male will return again and again, until his presence in the new clan is accepted. Sometimes, how- ever, males give up and move on, explor- ing several clans over a period of several months before finding one to join. A young male in a new clan will be subordinate to all the adult females he en- counters, as well as to all immigrant males that joined before he did and to all the youngsters—male and female—born in the clan. In sum, when a male leaves his natal group, he gives up all of the power and privileges associated with his birthright. Over time, as he becomes one of the senior immigrants, he will be able to dominate more recent immigrant males, 52 NATURAL History 1/93 but he will remain a second-class citizen indefinitely, subordinate to members of the natal clan. Why then do males leave home? Al- though we don’t yet know the answer with absolute certainty, much of our current fieldwork is devoted to addressing this and other questions of dispersal. We do know that males leave their natal clans voluntar- ily, without any aggressive prompting from other clan members. We believe that their departure must have to do with their search for females that will accept them as suitors. After reaching reproductive matu- rity (at about twenty-four months of age) but before they emigrate, males born in our clan often attempt to court female clanmates. During this courtship, natal males may threaten and chase away < immigrant males that also attempt to cc sexually attractive females, but the males don’t appear to take the courts gestures of natal males seriously. We s pect that females prefer to mate with 1 migrant males—a pattern of female cho that could have evolved to minimize deleterious effects of inbreeding: Our hope is that as we track more ¢ more of “our boys” in their journeys av from home, we will gradually come to’ derstand better the reasons for their mo ments. One day, we hope to be able to port that, like their sisters at home, th too are fully accepted, reproductively s cessful members of hyena:clans of» Masai Mara. te Weisel a Landing near its nest on Enderby Island, a brown skua greets its mate by raising its wings. ow, an Killing Machine When a bulky skua hunts rabbits, the bird undergoes a startling transformation Text and photographs by Fred Bruemmer Skuas are easy to hate. Large, gull-like predators, they kill fellow seagoing birds such as prions and petrels, rob penguin nests and gulp down fluffy chicks, bully gannets and terns into disgorging hard- won food, and divebomb humans with precision, showering them with excrement and sometimes knocking -them down. Botanist Mary Gillham, who visited sub- antarctic Macquarie Island in 1960, wrote lovingly about its penguins, then turned a hostile gaze upon the skuas: “The foulest of plunderers,” she called them, “the rud- est of the rude.” The skua is bipolar; it is the only bird that breeds both in the Arctic and Antare- tic. Until the 1900s, the northern or great skua (which the Scots call a bonxie, a name related to the Old Norse word for an untidy, dumpy woman) nested only on southern Iceland and on the Faroe and Shetland islands, and even there it was rare. Hard-up crofters raided skua nests, taking eggs early in the season and fat chicks just before they fledged. British naturalist Thomas Pennant reported that if a parent skua divebombed, the nest rob- bers “hold a knife erect over their heads, on which the Skua will transfix itself.” At 55 the end of the 1800s, only a few hundred great skuas survived. Since then, when preservation mea- sures were sporadically initiated, the skuas not only have increased but also spread: to the Orkneys in 1914, to the Scottish main- land in 1950, to Spitsbergen in 1970, and to the arctic island of Jan Mayen in 1984. Robert W. Furness, author of The Skuas, estimates their present numbers at about 12,500 pairs. Southern clan members are the Chilean skua, which breeds along the coasts of Chile and Argentina; the Falkland skua, smallest of the skua races; the subantarctic brown skua; and the south polar skua, which breeds on the fringes of Antarctica and on nearby islands. Whether north or south, skuas are noto- riously belligerent, “the fiercest of seabirds in defending their young,” wrote Canadian biologist William J. Maher. The exception is the brown skua on Enderby, one of the Auckland Islands between New Zealand and Antarctica, which I visited for three months in the 1980s. Like other skuas, brown skuas are expert pirates, but toward humans, they are quite pleasant and mild mannered. They tolerated me on their territories with little complaint and were not upset when I came close to their nests and, later, to their chicks. Some of the Enderby Island skuas also have a pe- culiar specialty: they hunt young feral rab- bits, on foot in the forest. About one hundred pairs of brown skuas nest in the Auckland Islands, about forty of them on food-rich Enderby, the northernmost island of the group, 300 miles south of New Zealand. Six miles long and three miles wide, Enderby is lush and verdant. A dense forest of gnarled rata trees, a species of New Zealand hardwood, covers about half the island, hemmed by thickets of storm-sculptured myrsine and cassinia bushes. Rimming the island are deep green meadows. These areas were once covered with hummocks and tussock grasses, which were cut down and con- verted into lawn-smooth sward by En- derby’s large population of rabbits. The Auckland Islands were discovered 56 NATURAL History 1/93 Descendants of animals brought to the island to provision ships, feral rabbits, below, feed on Enderby at dusk. A bird adopts the stalking posture peculiar to skuas hunting young rabbits on foot, top right. After a successful hunt, a skua pair tears off small bits of prey, middle, which their chick takes from the parent’s beak, bottom. in 1806 by Abraham Bristow, a British whaler bound for London from Australia. Soon, sealing gangs from several nations came to the islands to kill the numerous and valuable fur seals and the less numer- ous and less valuable sea lions. (The seal- ers were a rough lot. Lord George Camp- bell of Britain’s Challenger expedition met a shipful of them in 1874 and re- marked dryly: “Most of the crew look as if they had left their country for their coun- try’s good.”) The sealers, and later, explorers and New Zealand government ships, brought rabbits, goats, pigs, and cattle to the Auck- lands to provision future trips and feed castaways. Rabbits were introduced to En- derby Island in the 1840s; those on the is- land now are of a French breed known as Argenté de Champagne. In 1874, the New Zealand ship HMS Blanche visited, En- derby and found it overrun with rabbits. During World War II, the hunted German raider Erlangen refueled with rata wood in the Aucklands and then escaped to Chile. For some time after that, New Zealand coast watchers were stationed on the then uninhabited islands. They shot at least a thousand rabbits a year on Enderby, but the prolific animals remained abundant; some 4,000 adult rabbits now inhabit island. Skuas are their only enemy. The New Zealand falcon, the Au lands’ sole raptor, is rarely seen on derby and does not kill rabbits. No m: malian carnivores live on the islands. ' skuas are Enderby’s main predator . also the main scavenger (with red-bi gulls and southern black-backed gull: minor competitors). Skuas patrol the land’s beaches and pick up anything ible. They stand attentively near the land’s large Hooker’s sea lion rook where they eat placentas and feces. W sea lion pups suckle, skuas often st nearby to peck up drops of spilled m They clean up around the living and t consume the dead. The skua’s scien name, Catharacta, means “purifier” “cleanser.” Many other island birds fear skuas, v good reason. The females, larger | heavier than the males, are big, powe birds with a nearly five-foot wingspr and black, hooked bills. In New Zeal the red-billed gulls breed in open colon but in Enderby, they hide their nests un boulders and in caves to protect them fi skuas. The flightless Auckland Island t a small duck, raises its young deep in dark rata forest and usually leads them to sea at night. The dainty Auckland Island shag, a kind of cormorant, nests on ex- tremely narrow ledges where skuas have trouble landing. Yet even there, shags are not safe, for skuas are shrewd and deter- mined. A skua will fly to the ledge, lock bills with a frantically jabbing shag, yank the bird off its nest and drop it, then rush in to grab an egg or chick. Skuas are opportunistic; they often ap- pear somnolent and lazy but are actually observant and astute. One day I washed my hair, and with my eyes full of suds and smarting, I groped for the soap, but it was gone. A skua had quietly walked up and filched it. Skuas also appraise sea lion be- havior. Greedy pups often drink far too much milk and later vomit. Skuas know the telltale signs of a pup in distress; they await the event and eat the upchucked cur- dled milk. Sea lions regularly ingest stones on the sea bottom near shore, swal- lowing anything from pea-sized pebbles to rocks the size of golf balls. Back on shore, amid much heaving and retching, they oc- casionally spew out these gastroliths to- gether with remnants of recent meals, wel- come food for eager skuas. Between thirty and fifty skuas, non- breeders and off-duty nesters, are usually in attendance at the Enderby sea lion rook- ery. I once watched sea mammal expert Martin Cawthorn cut up a sea lion carcass to collect tissue samples and to determine, if possible, the cause of death. A horde of skuas clamored around him. One skua (weighing less than four pounds) bolted down a one-pound chunk of liver, then sneaked in for another helping. When Cawthorn left, the skuas rushed to the car- cass. A brownish, vulturine mob, they tugged, ripped, and gorged. Such a car- cass, providing at least two hundred pounds of fat and meat, was certainly big enough for the whole group, yet the skuas spent more time fighting than feeding. They raised their wings in threat display, arched their necks, lowered their heads, and screamed. They fluttered up and hacked at newcomers. Two skuas faced each other, puffed out their chests like pouter pigeons, and bumped each other, then rushed back to the feast. Finally sated, they flew to a nearby brook, splashed, and washed, for they are very cleanly, then settled on the sward to doze and digest. As competitive as skuas are, even they, at times, must cooperate in order to eat. When skuas attack a heavy, immobile sea lion carcass, they brawl nearly constantly and chase and intimidate rivals. But faced with a smaller morsel that yields when pulled, yet is too big to be swallowed whole—a stretch of sea lion gut, for ex- ample—skuas are in a quandary. Alone, they cannot manipulate such a meal; un- like the talons of a raptor, which hold the food while the bird tears off bite-sized bits, the skua’s flat, webbed feet are unsuited for pinning down and holding prey. In such a situation, an Enderby skua might drag a ten-foot piece of gut across the sand, then sit with its trophy and wait. If another skua approaches, the owner of the gut does not protest. Each bird grabs an end of the gut and pulls, tug-of-war fash- ion. Whichever bird tears off a piece small enough to be swallowed gulps it down while its partner waits. Slowly, the two skuas share the length of gut, their normal, agonistic behavior held in abeyance, since only cooperation makes the meal possible. Near its nest, the skua is fearless, “one of the boldest and most ferocious defend- ers of home and family in the avian world,” according to American biologist Carl R. Eklund, who studied skuas for many years. On Gough Island in the South Atlantic, Robert Furness found that in Oc- tober skuas with newly laid eggs were re- laxed and unruffled when he came close, but one month later, when the eggs were hatching, the skuas were, as elsewhere, aggressive: “traveling at upwards of 10 metres [33 feet] per second,” he wrote, “{they] hit hard and if that failed to drive me away...they would land on my head and start pecking vigorously if I failed to fend them off.” The Enderby skuas, how- ever, tolerate humans on their territories at all times. At first they were mildly an- noyed, then casually indifferent. None of 58 NATURAL History 1/93 the twenty pairs I visited ever attacked in earnest with the knockdown blows skuas use elsewhere. Most skuas nest toward the forest edge, often in the lee of small myrsine bushes. I frequently visited one pair that nested near our camp. When I was some twenty yards away, the female on the nest would begin to cry, a harsh rasping call that escalated into strident yells as I came closer. The male, which stood guard nearby, would fly up, hover above me, then settle softly on my head and pluck tentatively at my woolen cap. If I sat down beside the fe- male and talked to her, she soon ceased her angry keening. At times I would stretch out my hand and stroke the brooding bird. She would look at me with interest, but no fear, and nibble at my sleeve. If I slid my hand be- neath her and pushed her gently off nest, she protested with a couple of c but did not otherwise resist. The nest’ an untidy collection of grasses, lich mosses, and twigs. In a shallow depress in the vegetation lay two faintly brows eggs blotched in tan and sienna. After inspection, the female cooed, stood ¢ the nest, fluffed her feathers, turned — arranged the eggs to her liking, and set upon them with a shuffling motion. Meanwhile, the male would have turned to his guard post on a little kr From time to time, as if aware that he \ remiss in his duties, he flew up, circ approached from behind, and grabbed anorak hood. Once, flapping his gi wings with all his might, in his best Ea and Ganymede imitation, he tried to cz me up and away. Skuas frequent the large Hooker’s sea lion rookery on Enderby Island. Even in the midst of a windfall such as a sea lion carcass, the belligerent birds spend more time fighting over food than feeding, left. Opportunities for snacking abound at the rookery. A skua attends a sea lion mother and newborn pup, below, hoping to devour the afterbirth. ter a while, both birds ignored me. ney will not tolerate another of their Skuas mate for life. The nest area is cal point of their existence, where and female meet again and mate after ering separately during the southern r. A patch of ground about a hundred cross, and a much larger aerial space > it, is their exclusive realm, which defend against all other skuas. A spe- oud, wild yodel means “strange skua vicinity,” and the off-duty bird rises itly to chase the intruder away from rritory. One reason for this intense onism, said Eklund, is because the a is its own [and Enderby’s only] tor.” They are not at all averse to eat- neighbor’s eggs or chicks. 1 Enderby, the female skua does most e incubating, about three times as much as does her mate, whose main duty is guarding their domain. If the female overstays her time on the nest, the male becomes broody and impatient. He walks to the female and “talks” to her in wheezy, urgent chirps. She usually ignores him, and he becomes even more insistent by nibbling her neck and, if even this elicits no response, tugging at her tail. Reluc- tantly, the female yields. The male imme- diately and eagerly settles on the eggs. She stands near him for a few minutes, then flies off to eat and bathe. I found twenty skua nests on Enderby and each held two eggs, yet later, all the skua pairs but one raised only a single chick. The female lays two eggs over a two- to three-day interval, but she begins to incubate after the first egg has been laid. As aresult, the chicks usually hatch one or two days apart. The older chick, first to be fed and quick to grow, tyrannizes its sib- ling. The first chick is louder, quicker, stronger, and gets most of the food brought by the parents. It hacks and pecks the younger chick until the victim leaves the nest and wanders off. Unable to fend for itself, this chick may die of hunger and exposure or be eaten by neighbors or even a parent, a practice called cronism after the mythical Cronus, the Titan, who ate all but one of his children. Having rid itself of its rival, the remain- ing chick receives the parents’ undivided attention and all the food they can supply. While one parent forages, the other guards the chick. At this time, skuas elsewhere are at their most aggressive, as battered chick-banding scientists have reported with some asperity. But the Enderby skuas remain complacent. I could approach and even hold their chicks; they sometimes yelled but never attacked. The skuas bring their chicks a wide range of foods, but the island specialty is rabbit. The adult rabbits are a smoky bluish gray in winter, reddish brown in summer. Skuas rarely bother the adults, and if they do, it is only from sheer devil- try. A skua skims across the sward, zeroes in on a peacefully nibbling rabbit, swoops down, and knocks it spinning. Despite such abuse, with no true enemies on the is- land, adult rabbits are quite unconcerned and come out at dusk or even in daytime to feed. But skuas do prey on the jet-black baby rabbits. The young are wary and skit- tish and spend nearly all their time in the forest, where the skuas go on foot to hunt them. Stalking behavior appears to be in- 59 Its wings raised in a threat display, a skua that was too slow in gobbling up a rabbit defends its catch against rivals. nate in skuas, but on Enderby the victim and venue are unusual. Scientists with powerful flashlights have seen skuas stalk prions and petrels at night. Young birds do not watch the adults hunt, so presumably each bird acquires the technique by trial. The Enderby skuas normally are bulky in shape and shrill in tone. A skua on a rabbit hunt is transformed. Its feathers sleeked, a new, low and lean skua skulks through the forest. The moment it spots a baby rabbit, it freezes, presses itself to the ground, and studies its intended victim for several minutes. Then, using every bush, every unevenness of ground, the skua stalks the rabbit with finesse. If the rabbit eats, the skua rushes forward with quick, short steps. The instant the rabbit is alert, the skua stops. From about five feet away, the skua pounces, grabs the rabbit with its hooked bill, carries it from the forest onto the open sward where it cannot escape, and kills it with repeated blows. The bird then rips the rabbit open, eats the viscera, and grasping the carcass by the head, swallows it with a few convulsive gulps. When the skua returns to its territory, it disgorges the entire, limp carcass for its chick. The parents greet each other with raised wings and loud calls. The downy chick cheeps, jumps up and down, flaps its tiny wings, and pecks the chest and neck of both parents. In response, the parents grab the rabbit carcass and pull. Whichever parent tears off a piece small enough to suit the chick feeds it to the begging youngster. Amply fed, the skua chicks grow rapidly. On Enderby, most chicks hatch in December. By February, they have molted into black-brown plumage and are nearly as big as their parents. In another month they will fledge and be on their own. Im- mature skuas roam far, but when they are about five years old, most of them will come back to the island of their birth to se- lect a territory, to find a mate, and to raise the next generation. They will also carry on the peculiar island tradition, honing their rabbit-stalking skills in the rata forests of Enderby Island. Fly the award winning service of Air New Zealand and experience the environmental destination of the 1990's. New Zealand is an outdoor enthusiasts mecca, criss-crossed with a network of walking trails and readily avail- able guided treks that meander through pristine valleys, bush clad hillsides and above treelined tundra. The Routeburn; The Greenstone; The Hollyford; The Abel Tasman and the world famous Milford Track. Free of poisonous reptiles or any Carnivorous animals NewZealand is the ideal setting for those who love to touch nature. 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The husband and wife who were such preeminent figures in this field only a half century ago are all but forgotten today, and the films on which their reputations were built survive largely in the vaults of muse- ums and libraries or in the dimming mem- ories of old-time moviegoers. So their story, told by Pascal and Eleanor Imper- ato, is as fresh.as it is welcome. Pascal Imperato discovered the John- sons when, as a teen-ager, he stumbled onto one of Osa’s books in the travel sec- tion of his local library. Throughout high school, college, and medical school, his in- terest in the couple and in Africa grew, and a fellowship afforded an opportunity to visit East Africa during its colonial twi- light. Later, he and his wife, Eleanor, spent a great deal of time there, getting to | many of the places and people assoc with the Johnsons. Motion pictures have the special qu of transporting the viewer into anc world, and in the case of the John: films, that world was equal parts my: and terrifying reality. People who n never travel more than fifty miles - their hometown could sit in a sha¢ theater—onlookers, enthralled by sc from “darkest Africa” or “wildest - neo,” as the billboards called them— even as their pulse rates climbed high tune with the action, they could take ¢ fort in the knowledge that it was Osa J son—not them—being charged by the noceros. This American couple discovered secret of simultaneously entertaining enlightening audiences by leading t through untracked jungles and up the ering crests of mountains; revealing customs of primitive tribes; and intro ing them to exotic birds, animals, and tiles that were already beginning to va Martin Johnson is seated on the floor between Jack and Charmian London at a masquerade party, Solomon Islands, 1908. Jack London Collection, California Department of Parks and Recreation REVIEWS the onslaught of white hunters, ers, and Western civilization. The ‘ops against which the action took were some of the most remote lands th, and for a majority of Americans, - opportunities for foreign travel most nil, the lure of those faraway was just about irresistible. - rising popularity of the attractive Kansas couple paralleled the story fertainment in twentieth-century ca, for they made skillful use of the 1edia technology developed in their ec. They began their career with il- ed lectures on the vaudeville stage, rogressed to silent films, radio, and MARRIED ADVENTURE: THE WAN- G Lives OF MARTIN AND OSA JOHN- by Pascal James Imperato and or M. Imperato. Rutgers University $27.95; 298 pp., illus. ¢ pictures. In addition, they pub- | numerous magazine articles and . While satisfying their own craving venture, they brought the fascinating ittle-known world of wild animals imitive peoples to Americans, > own frontier had been tamed not so years earlier. 1en Martin Johnson was born in the Indians and great herds of bison but recently gone from the Kansas es, replaced by the plow, the railroad, lusters of settlements. Whatever in- he might have had in formal educa- as stifled in a one-room schoolhouse d with ninety pupils. A strict teacher n exacting father drove him to run from home regularly—a habit that t be said to have persisted for the rest life. wtin’s first taste of adventure came he persuaded the famous novelist culture and philosophy Marco Polo described it as "the most exotic place on earth" An ancient country where the past still lives through the There's only one way to find the real China. In a small group that allows the opportunity for the unexpected. Visit the homes of Chinese families. Be charmed by the openness of children at a local kinder- garten. Put into ports rarely visited by ship, such as Ningbo or Lianyungang. To explore China is to have the sense of moving easily between the past and the present. Discover the mixture of old and new in Shanghai. As you make your way to the Jade Buddha Temple and Yu Yuan Garden, built in 1557, you'll see local people beginning their day with Tai Chi. Experience Lianyungang, founded in 549 AD, where an ancient pagoda built during the Tang Dynasty lies beneath the "Terrace of Clouds". Delight in the unexpected town of Wuxi, built along the banks of the ancient Grand Canal, with its myriad cobble-stone streets and the nostalgic dragon boats which have drawn romantic poets to its shores for more than a thousand years. Follow an ancient trade route from Tianjin to Beijing where The Forbidden ge City, Ming Tombs and The Great Wall represent their own moments of history. Travel on the M.S. Frontier Spirit, a ship expressly designed to enhance the if WM experience of exploration with the comfort that renews you for the discoveries of another day. With only 164 guests, each stateroom faces outside, some complete with verandah, all with the amenities that world travelers have come to expect. Choose your room with twin or double beds. Select from our menu of fine cuisine = in the open-seating dining room. SeaQuest offers three different itineraries in the Spring of 1993: "China & Far East", a 15-day cruise originating in Shanghai; "China Coast", a 13-day cruise originating in Osaka; and "China Legacy", an 11-day cruise sailing from Nanjing to Hong Kong. Our China cruises are packaged as 18- and 20-day SeaQuest™ tours including air and pre- and post-land arrangements. Beginning at just over $370 per person, per day*, SeaQuest gives you more China with more insight, more comfort and a more intimate experience. SeaQuest's explorations depart April 27, May 11, and May 21, 1993. oe Address of its people. Now experience the beauty and histery of China as it is meant to be seen. On a SeaQuest voyage of exploration. Please send me your free 52-page New Explorer magazine For your free 52-page New Explorer™ magazine describing China and other unique SeaQuest™ voyages, contact your travel agent, return the coupon or call 1-800-854-8999. City/State/Zip NHCNA12.92 SeaQuest Cruises™ 600 Corporate Drive, Suite 410, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33334 Ship's Registry: Bahamas Travel Agent 3. . v *Cruise-only credits are available, single and C a U ! S E Ss third person rates are available on request. Port and Immigration charges are additional ©1992 SeaQuest Cruises. All rights reserved yutdoorsman Jack London and his Charmian, to take him as a crew *Rates are based on Standard Category, per person, double occupancy and may vary according to category selected. Roundtrip, econ- omy air fare is included from select West Goast gateways. 63 “Conservation of the biological diversity of the rain forest and the cultural diversity ? of our own species Is the highest priority of our times. This unique, pioneering book focuses on one of the most important remaining native Amazonian peoples, the Yanomamo, who are even more endangered than the forests they inhabit. ?? - Russell A. Mittermeier, President, Conservation International YANOMAMO THE LAST DAYS OF EDEN THE CELEBRATED ANTHROPOLOGIST’S PIONEER WORK AMONG A NOW-IMPERILED AMAZON TRIBE NAPOLEON A. CHAGNON Foreword by Edward O. Wilson PHOTO: NAPQLEON CHAGNON. A Harvest/HB] Original lb} HARCOURT BRACE JOVANOVICH A T B OO) Ggate S T O RE S ERY SEs Rane Wissel 2 EsaReae Finally, A Winter Hat That Is Good-looking And Warm A Great Gift For Any Hat Lover fur-lined earmuffs tuck neatly inside hat on warmer days Personal Ozone Protection for just $29. 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Just $29. per hat. $4. shipping per address. Cail today 1-800-852-0925 Harrison-Hoge Industries, Inc. Mon-Fri 9am-5pm East Coast Time 200 Wilson Street, Dept. NH-13H NY residents please add sales tax Port Jefferson Station, NY11776 VISA, MC, AMX, Checks & MOs accepted New York Residents Please Add Sales Tax 64 NATURAL History 1/93 member on what was planned as a se) year voyage around the world aboard Snark, a fifty-seven-foot ketch desis by London. Setting sail from San Francisco in | aboard the leaky, poorly built craft wi shifting crew that included drunks, rast and a murderer, the Londons and yo Johnson called at Hawaii, the Marque Tahiti, Samoa, the New Hebrides, and Solomons before serious health probl forced London to sell the Snark and al don his ambitious plans. During their years at sea, they had been exposed to quent danger from native peoples anc most constant risk of shipwreck becé of a cranky vessel and an inept crew. the experience determined forever the rection of Martin Johnson’s life. Toward the end of the Snark’s voy; Martin, already an accomplished still j tographer, worked with a French film c producing motion pictures, which quickly recognized as the ideal med for exotic scenes of faraway lands. Equ influential was his admiration for the L dons. Martin perceived them as the m« couple—Jack brave, determined, fore seeking risk and excitement; Charmié skilled shot, as courageous as she © sweet and feminine, the ideal partner traveling to wild areas. Returning to the United States in 1° Martin became a travelogue lecturer us his photographs of the Snark’s voyag the first of many instances in which capitalized shamelessly on the Lond name and reputation. The following y back in Kansas, he met the sixteen-y: old Osa Leighty and, after a bi courtship, eloped with her. Martin n have seemed the ideal man to the ste struck girl: he was tall, handsome, and acclaimed world traveler who exuded pealing country boy manners.” And clearly, was what Martin wanted i wife—beautiful, charming, and willin; assume a role (although not an equal ¢ as the Imperatos frequently point out her husband’s life and career. Until 1917 they traveled the vaudev circuit, with Osa singing Hawaiian so while Martin provided the commentar his films. Then a group of Boston vestors put up $7,000 to send them to Solomon Islands and the New Hebride: make a motion picture. When they sailed from San Francisc« was the first of many occasions on wh Osa would leave home reluctantly, onl refuse to be left out of the action wl they arrived at their destination. Reject ’s pleas that she stay with mission- she insisted on going along and was laying the lead in his film—a pretty, -haired white woman, posing and niming with fierce-looking natives. mula would eventually lure thou- of fans to the box office. lic taste has not changed noticeably then. Although the Johnsons’ films *xceptionally valuable as documen- what moviegoers wanted was sen- alism, and Martin was continually lookout for sure-fire box office ap- cannibals, headhunters, the “miss- ik,” and above all, action. 921 he had the good fortune to meet \keley of the American Museum of al History. Akeley, a leading author- . African wildlife,was deeply con- 1 that the great animal herds were ed to extinction. He sent the John- m an expedition to Kenya to docu- vanishing species. Martin’s film, in helped him raise funds for a new in Hall at the Museum. the time, almost all the photographs dlife in East Africa had been taken ofessional hunters and sportsmen on , and the results were mostly ama- h and uneven. Thanks to Akeley, vanted him to use his skills in the in- of science instead of the entertain- industry, Martin met the noted natu- Arthur Blayney Percival, who ed him on the many details of safari wildlife habits, the best methods of 1ing photographs, and, not least, how lect a headman, reliable servants, earers, porters, and an excellent sman to cover them with a rifle when Zot too close to dangerous game. nile shooting scientifically valid films ldlife in their natural state, as Akeley >d, Martin never lost sight of the pub- appetite. “It was all well and good to hino browsing and trotting across the s,” the Imperatos write, “but such 2s were no substitute for a rhino ring the cameraman.” Or Osa—who egularly sent out with rifle in hand to ke an elephant or lion while Martin ced the camera. Although she had be- - a crack shot and was covered by an- , this was still highly risky business, t became a hallmark of the couple’s an films and contributed largely to success. id success it was, as expedition fol- d expedition until Martin’s untimely 1 in a plane crash in 1937. By then the sons were celebrities. They had trav- countless miles (never to South The Evolution of Strength Training NordicFlex Gold™ Marks the Ultimate | Evolution of StrengthTraining Equipment. Stone Weights 5,000 B.C. Dumbbells 1894 Advanced technology has made NordicFlex Gold Solaflex 5 ways better than Soloflex. 1978 1. NordicFlex Gold uses linear motion that better simulates free weights. 2. NordicFlex Gold features patented isokinetic resistance that better matches your natural strength curve. 3. NordicFlex Gold is faster to use than Soloflex. 4. NordicFlex Gold brings you strength training expertise with the exclusive workout video, training manual and exercise chart. 5. And best of all, NordicFlex Gold costs 1/3 less than Soloflex*. Plus, the NordicFlex World-Class™ Edition offers additional features to enhance your workout including an electronic performance monitor. or write: NordicTrack, Dept. 8F5A3 i 30-day in-home trial : 104 Peavey Road, Chaska, MN 55318 : | > ae 10 Send me a free brochure I ! i NORDIC FLEX(esn ns Oh | by NordicTrack hi a a ; I I ! a QO Also a free videotape ¢ All rights reserved. pei : Phone ( i) © 1992 NordicTrack, Inc., A CML Company * Registered trademark of Soloflex, Inc. Let Regency show you the magic of Alaska from the comfort of the Regent Sea or Regent Star. You'll cruise the Inside Passage between Anchorage and Vancouver;-visit Ketchikan, Juneau, Skagway and Sitka. Plus, Prince William Sound, College Fjord and Columbia Glacier—all in 7 days. And with our land tours, there are acres of magnificent wilderness to explore. Don’t just go to Alaska...cruise Regency’s Alaska! Cruise prices start at $795 per person. 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It’s ‘ the safe, enjoyable, efficient way to get rid of that spare tire for good. 30 day in-home trial. Models priced from $299” to $1,299 Nordic rack A CML Company FREE VIDEO Call or write fora & BROCHURE 1-800-328-5888 3%; NordicTrack, Dept. #266A3 104 Peavey Rd., Cl ©1992 NordicTrack, Inc., A CML C NordicTrack reserves the right to change pri , MN 55318 All Rights Reserved, : ications without prior notice. Nairobi, 1926: Mary mee Ouohison lef, with Kodak acon George Eastman, center, who invested in the Johnsons’ expeditions. Photographs courtesy of the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House America, however) and left a prodigious photographic legacy. Their African movies—among them, Trailing African Wild Animals, Simba, and Baboona—te- ceived rave reviews from critics and pub- lic alike. In addition to magazine articles, they published a number of books on their adventures, including Camera Trails in Africa, Safari, I Married Adventure, and Four Years in Paradise. To put together what they call “‘a serious and comprehensive biography,” the Im- peratos examined 8,486 images in the In- ternational Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, not to mention the collections at the American Museum s Osa Toke with Mbuti Pygmies at Bwana Sura in the eastern Congo, 1930. . of Natural History, the Martin and Johnson Safari Museum, and the Mu: of Modern Art. They also sifted thr the diverse aspects of Martin and Johnsons’ private and professional liv document what was a widespread bel that the Johnsons were “the leading life photographers of their time an principal interpreters of Africa tc American people.” Richard M. Ketchum is the founding tor of Blair & Ketchum’s Country Jou His most recent book is The Borr Years, 1938-1941: America on the W War (Random House, 1989). AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ~~ NORTHWEST PASSAGE EXPEDITION uly 19 - August 5, 1993 The Northwest Passage, an ice-packed sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific - Oceans through Canada’s northern waters, eluded explorers for centuries. Only in 1906 did explorer Roald Amundsen finally conquer the Passage, a feat that fewer than 40 ships have managed since then. Join the American Museum next summer on a voyage through this legendary sea passage aboard the very comfortable Kapitan Khlebnikov, one of the world’s most powerful icebreakers. We will be able to break through frozen icepacks that have thwarted countless ships and our vessel’s strength will allow us to make the voyage early in the season, the best time for viewing arctic wildlife. Beginning in Provideniya, Russia, we will explore several islands along the Siberian coast before crossing the Bering Sea and entering the Northwest Passage. We will visit remote Inuit villages and historic islands, keep watch for polar bear, musk ox and whales, and witness the astonishing power of our icebreaker as she makes her way across this icy passage. The scenery, always spectacular, is especially so in the brief arctic summer when the tundra is ablaze with color and the sun shines nearly 24 hours a day. The 56-cabin Kapitan Khlebnikov comes equipped with its own helicopters and fleet of zodiacs that will enable us to land wherever we wish. Join us for an extraordinary and unusual expedition! a | . ~ Resolute - ae Le Ke ia <2 =. Prince Gf ee. Soe BeaufortSea -—_VictoriaI, WalesI. | a ee 7 MintoInlet | a Cambridge Eee A aye eae ang Gjoa Haven Ga AECL be: Cire le: Coronation _ ons Ne haiod Reo ee ee Ge Queen Maud — ae ape . SO ee - Northwest Territories ; ALASKA. | : Cc A N A D A . ‘Hudson Bay American Museum of Natural we History iscovery Cruises Central Park West at 79th Street New York, ine é Knee a (212) 769-5700 in N.Y.S. or tol-free (800) 462-8687 © A MATTER OF [TASTE A Two-Faced Grain Because of its chemical structure, rice may be cooked simply or exotically by Raymond Sokolov So there we were once again in the shel- tered precincts of Saint Antony’s College attending the annual Oxford Food Sympo- sium. The topic for 1992 was “flavour- ings,” and this was interpreted by the nearly 200 participants with the usual mix- ture of scholarship, wit, and eccentricity, which always makes the symposium unique among learned meetings. One might even say that this year the sympo- sium had more than its usual flavorsome mix of rigor, vigor, and flair. As always there were the founding fa- thers, the ichthyopolymath Alan Davidson and the genius loci, Saint Antony’s own social historian of France, Theodore Zeldin, presiding with deceptive detach- ment over the controlled chaos of the mid- September weekend. Typically, there was no attempt to straitjacket the proceedings with a theory or a definition of the topic, even though the notion of flavor (and its media) is complex and elusive. Had we been gathered in Paris, the entire event would no doubt have been given over to fractious discussions of basic terms (Qu’est-ce que c’est que la saveur?). They order things differently in Eng- land, and the result was a hundred bloom- ing flavors wafting about, intellectually as well as physically, at an exhibition, a tast- ing (chocolate), and meals (the usual mul- ticulinary potluck lunch, a remarkable Persian dinner, and a table of English cheeses). The intellectual smorgasbord of ses- sions, small and plenary, offered an ali- mentary range of globe-girdling diversity. Magomedkhan Magomedkhanov reported on some mountain dishes of his native Dagestan, an autonomous Caucasian re- public still nominally loyal to Moscow. Doreen G. Fernandez, although absent herself, contributed the text of a rich dis- cussion of the idiosyncratic flavor princi- ples of her native Philippines. There were presentations on maple PE % eT e eee Oe cee syrup and on salted food in Danish history, on the spice trade and on home-grown fla- vorings such as mint. I could go on and list the subjects of all the papers, but even that would not convey the event in its entirety, especially since many sessions occurred simultaneously, and the discussions are the heart of the symposium. Following a certain path through the scheduled events, one might have concluded that this was an uncharacteristically flamboyant sympo- sium with hashish, hedonism, and hot food at its center. Now that I have had the time to recol- lect things in tranquillity, however, and to read through all the papers, I believe I have detected three improbable trends with no discernible common bond be- tween them. First, and most surprising, was the sheer number of papers dealing with the world of Greek and Roman antiquity. Indeed, there were no fewer than three papers on the subject of silphium alone. What was silphium? I can recall wondering exactly that as a student of the classics. This prized substance seemed to have a slightly suspi- cious character, naughty and nice. My professors shed no light on the matter and I took to translating it as silphium. Symposiasts ransacked the ancient evi- dence, historical, epigraphic, and numis- matic. The consensus was that silphium was a highly prized resinous derivative of the root of a giant, fennellike umbellifer. There was a brisk trade in it centered in what is now Libya. The plant mysteriously disappeared, but we can get a good idea of what it tasted like from the spice called asafetida. Most widely used in India (where it is best known by its Hindi name, hing), asafetida has a musty odor that re- minds people, variously, of excrement, sweat, and the smell of sexual arousal. There were also more mundane investi- gations of classical cookery, including surveys of flavorings in Roman Britain and the flavors of ancient Greece. | the main source for ancient gastrono; Athenaeus’ Deipnosophistae, or Philosophers at Table,” itself a kit pseudosymposium, one could see th tification for discussing this often te and untrustworthy anthology of got musings. John Wilkins and Shaun maintained that much of the mater Athenaeus really is a good guide to c cal dining, and their paper attempted 1 tract fact from epicurean fantasy. | fallen-away classicist, the most impre of these antiquarian papers was a reading of the pseudo-Virgilian { “Moretum,” which Margaret Visser lyzed as a mock epic recipe for p pesto as prepared by a poor working The second trend, really a tren was probably nothing more than a cc dence. Three symposiasts wrote pape mastic, the Old World’s original che gum and still a flavoring in many | tional dishes of the Levant. The third and least probable trenc the concentration of interest in choc Here was Sophie Coe bringing forwar evidence for the flavoring of chocola its ancestral ground in ancient Me And there was Alice Wooledge Salmc lating her experiences in the upper d of the professional world of fine choc manufacture, wholesale division. Salmon evidently spent much time ar fort penetrating the inner circles o “bean men” who buy Theobroma cac raw nibs from Venezuela to the I Coast and convert it to elite forn chocolate, Next came a confusing smug presentation of subtly flav chocolates from a French chocolatier. How entirely pleasant and enlighte then, to sit down with Sri Owen’s wardly modest paper “Flavours for I and discover in it a quietly encyclo discussion of rice cookery, its history sociology, and the dynamic possibi ideas open up for cooks in the poly- world of the modern kitchen. en, a Sumatran long resident in Eng- ind a figure in British gastronomic 2gins with Cartesian clarity: f the attractions of rice, for the cook as s the eater, is that it absorbs flavour it losing shape or texture. A grain of | and polished rice consists almost en- of starch granules separated by walls lulose. As the water in the saucepan aches boiling point, the rice grains 1ize—that is, the cellulose walls rup- ad water, or another cooking medium, in. The rice will absorb any flavour he medium can transport into the of the grains. Yet the grains stay _and separate. re are thus two basic ways of cooking vith flavouring, and without. I think it adly true to say that people in coun- where rice has for long been the major and the staple food always cook their lain, at least until eating habits have deeply influenced from outside their rs. They may eat highly-flavoured with their rice, but the rice itself is d or steamed and comes to table —that, after all, is the whole point of ing the rice to begin with. Where the self is coloured and flavoured, we ex- to find that the cooking method and > originated in areas where rice is a dary crop, or has been quite recently luced. ving stated this universal principle, n looks for exceptions and finds one at home in Southeast Asia, where s often cooked in coconut milk or col- yellow with turmeric. Such dishes are lly exceptions to the general rice- : rule and are meant for special occa- or for feting guests. ; Owen explains, most flavored rice ‘s—such as risotto and paella, both d in stock—arose in food cultures e other grains were cultivated first ‘ice introduced later. Owen’s view, the rice bringers were lly armies on the move. She can’t doc- AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY THE ANCIENT SILK ROAD A Train Journey Through China Miifel 2 iy 199 More than 2,000 years ago, caravans of merchants first began to travel along the ancient Silk Road, a great overland trade route from eastern China to the door- step of Europe. Join a team of lecturers from the American Museum for an extraordinary journey by private train as we trace the paths of the ancient traders who forever transformed the cultures of both East and West. For today's traveler, the intrigue of the Silk Road lies not only in its historical signifi- cance, but also in the complex diversity of customs, scenery and fascinating sites seldom seen by Westerners. Making our way across great deserts, plains and mountain passes, we will travel over 2,000 miles from Beijing to Urumchi, stopping along the way at ancient caravansaries of the Silk Road, including Xian, Lanzhou, Dunhuang and Turfan, with an optional extension to Tibet. For further information contact: American Museum of Natural Baw BR History Discovery Tours Central Park West at 79th St. New York, NY 10024-5192 Toll-free (800) 462-8687 or in NYS (212) 769-5700 Cultural Folk Tours Int'l --. & Bora Ozkok presents “1993 Tours of TGRKEY The Cradle of Civilization . . Hospitable pe ee beautiful country, good climate. Incredible amount of history. We will stress culture, people, folklore, handicrafts, folk music, village visits, photography & much more. GREAT TOURS - GOOD QUALITY -REASONABLE PRICES GOOD HOTELS - GOOD FOOD- GOOD SHOPPING For a free brochure 9939 Hibert St., Suite 207 San Diego, CA 92131 1- 800-935-TURK (619) 566-5951 8875 MAINE ISLAND ECOLOGY Marine Biology, Botany & Ornithology on pristine Maine Island. For High School students with a genuine interest in Environmental Studies. * Staff-Student ratio 1:5 Two Sessions: June 19 to July 7 July 12 to July 30 For further information contact: Maine Island Ecology Academy of Natural Sciences 1900 Benjamin Franklin Parkway Philadelphia, PA 19103-1195 (215) 299-1100 LEATHER ce ONLY BACKPACK “= $2995 HISTORIC EXPLORERS of America required backpacks that were tough! 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Inca Floats: 1311-NL 63rd St., Emeryville CA 94608 510-420-1550 CRUISE CALM CANADIAN RIVERS Board our elegant Replica = Turn-of-the-Century Steamships | for 3,5 or 7 night adventures e-ertut on history-laden waters steeped in breathtaking scenery. STE Visit your travel professional ontact AWRENCE CRUISE LINES INC. 70 NATURAL History 1/93 From the magnificent "1000 Islands" . through the International Seaway locks to the Sens [natn Pasphaianye aes ieaee = =| staggering Saguenay Fjord aes 3 and picturesque capital of Canada. Kingston Ontario Canada K7L 224 1-800-267-7868 ument, this, of course, and says § there is little doubt that rice was im) to the Mediterranean from Asia as ] the Islamic migration. The most historically complicate of rice cooked in flavored media is in India. Now-traditional rice dish lafs and biryanis, are all produc steaming rice with other flavorful in ents in tightly sealed vessels. This m is known as dum cookery. If Owen’s theory is correct, this category of flavored rice dishes ou be anomalous in the heart of rice’s continent. Indeed, pilafs and biryar part of a historical subcategory of | cuisine, the food of the Moguls, in from the Islamic west. So dum stearr an import, brought in by soldiers \ Persian heritage. Owen’s overall theory about fla rice applies to the present (and to tl ture) as well as to the past. She pr that as cosmopolitan forces mak Sri Owen’s Nasi Ulam Owen writes: “This is a so Malaysian version of what the F adapted from India and called ked, Instead of butter, we use thick co milk, boiled (with spices) until the becomes oil, and the rice turns from the green and fragrant herbs been heated with. I first ate Nasi in a Nonya restaurant in Petaling just outside Kuala Lumpur. Nonyz is a mingling of traditional Male cuisine with Chinese, and is said tc originated in sixteenth-century lacca, where Chinese immigrants ried local people. The ladies wer litely addressed as Nyonya or N which means something like ‘Ma They must have been good cook: this particular restaurant does memory credit. My only criticism: Nasi Ulam was that the chef had b bit too generous with the herbs, so could hardly taste the rice. In my sion I have included a list of herb you can use, but I would recom that you select just four or whichever are most easily availabl result will be better than if you 1 stuff them all in.” About 2 pounds plain cooke rice, left to cool to room temperature 1 pound cold smoked mackere haddock [finnan haddie], the skin and bones removed ana the flesh finely flaked 4 tablespoons freshly grated c conut, toasted (optional) smaller, even entrenched rice-con- x regions will increasingly regard only one of many possible basic in- 1s. The implication is that flavored ill become more common in tradi- rice cultures and that the future will nt cooks with novel aesthetic deci- “Will these ingredients make sense er?” Owen seems buoyed by the ssibilities but determined to remind 1e importance and usefulness of tra- She points out that a great many of 2w’’ East-West dishes on glamorous around the world are not new. For le, she says that almost all recipes > with herbs are similar to “a fine old ssian/Malaysian dish, Nasi Ulam.” ony is that this “old” dish is the re- ‘a hybrid cuisine invented by Chi- nmigrants in Malay centers. md Sokolov is a writer whose spe- terests are the history and prepara- f food. cup very thick coconut milk teaspoon cayenne pepper shallots, thinly sliced teaspoon finely chopped ginger teaspoon salt About I tablespoon each of 4 or 5 herbs from the following List: Turmeric leaves Basil Mint Watercress Kaffir lime leaves Lemon grass (use only the soft leaves) Scallions Wild ginger flowers Green chilies, seeds removed ye added just before serving: Juice of 1 lime Salt to taste ut the cold rice in a large bowl and nix in the flaked fish and toasted oconut (if used). ut the coconut milk into a wok or arge shallow saucepan, with the ~ayenne, shallots, ginger, and salt. Bring this to a boil and let it bubble ‘or 8 to 10 minutes, until it be- somes oily. Stir, lower the heat, and tir in the rice mixture. Toss and stir his for 3 minutes, until the rice is not. Add the sliced and chopped herbs and continue stirring for | minute more. Add lime juice and more salt if needed. Serve hot or warm. Yield: 6 servings AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY BRIDGING THE BERING STRAIT The Bering Sea separates two of the most ruggedly beautiful areas in the world, Alaska and Sibe- ria. Join a team of Ameri- can Musuem experts this summer aboard the World Discoverer as we explore Alaska's remote islands and the Russian Far East. Making our way from Homer to Nome, Alaska, we will visit the Katmai Peninsula, the Aleutians, Pribilofs and the rugged easternmost coast of Siberia. Throughout, we we should encounter a wealth of wildlife, from whales, fur seals and walrus to immense colonies of seabirds. Join us for an exciting Arctic adventure. American Museum of Natural wy History Discovery Cruises The Aleutians, Pribilofs and the Russian Far East June 29 - July 11, 1993 Central Park West at: 79th St. New York, NY 10024-5192 (212) 769-5700 in NYS or Toll-free (800) 462-8687 THE CA ISLANDS AND i HIGHLAND#® ECUADOR aboard the 20-cabin Isabela II June 8-20, 1993 _ Discover the spectacular Galapagos Is- lands with a team of Museum experts and naturalists/guides. Explore tower- ; ing volcanos, crater lakes, lava forma- tions and beautiful beaches. Enjoy _ diverse and fascinating wildlife, in- cluding giant tortoises, seals, sea lions, penguins, marine and land iguanas, boobies, albatross, flamin- - goes, Darwin’s famous finches, and a host of other animals. High in the Andes of Ecuador, we visit the beauti- ful city of Quito, stunning Volcano Cotopaxi National Park, and the excit- ing Andean market of Otavalo. For futher information contact: American Museum of Natural History Central Park West at 79th Street New York. NY 10024-5192 (212) 769-576.) in New York State or Toll-free (800) 462-8687 AT THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY JuMBO’s BiG BONES The skeleton of Jumbo, the giant cir- cus elephant, will be exhibited on the Museum’s first floor in the Roosevelt Memorial Hall beginning mid-January. Captured as a baby in Africa in 1861, Jumbo was the London Zoo’s prime at- traction for many years. In 1882, P. T. Barnum brought the elephant to the United States, where he drew immense crowds to Barnum’s circus. Jumbo was accidentally killed by a locomotive in 1885, and his skeleton was donated to the Museum. JEWS OF YEMEN Yemenite Jews lost their kingdom, power, and influence with the rise of Islam. Eventually they were allowed to emigrate to Israel. The documentary Jews of Yemen: A Vanishing Culture, by anthropologist Johanna Spector, focuses on Yemenite Jews in Israel today. She will introduce the film and then answer questions after it is shown on Thursday, January 7, starting at 7:00 PM. in the Main Auditorium. Tickets are $10 ($7 for members). For ticket availability, call (212) 769-5606. CONTACT: CULTURAL CHANGE, ALTERNATIVE PERSPECTIVES In conjunction with the quincenten- nial celebration of Columbus’s voyage, the Education Department will offer free The Shoestring Players David McMurtrie programs that examine Asian cultur after Western contact. Performances the Kaufmann Theater will inclu Philippine music and dance with stor telling by the Karadya’an Ensemb three plays by the Pan Asian Reperto Theatre, Japanese court dances by the. Ha Kyu group, and a lecture about f teenth-century China by histori: Jonathan Spence. Other events tal place throughout January, on Saturda and Sundays between 1:00 and 4:00 P. in the Leonhardt People Center. For complete schedule of events, call (21 769-5315. SPACE EXPLORATION Beginning Wednesday, January 6, tl Sky Theater will present “Bold \ sions...Distant Shores,” the story of f quest to understand the universe fro the Aztec and Incan observatories today’s explorations in space. As part of the Frontiers in Astronon and Astrophysics Series, Margar Geller, of the Harvard Smithsonian A trophysical Observatory, will give an lustrated talk, “Mapping a Large Sca Structure of the Universe,” in the S! Theater on Wednesday, February 10, 7:30 pM. Tickets are $8 ($6 for mer bers). For information about all Planeté ium events, call (212) 769-5900. SHOESTRING PLAYERS The Shoestring Players will prese “Love, Magic, and Brussels Sprouts,” program of folktales from around tl world for children between five at twelve years of age. Among the stori will be “Lars, My Lad!” from Swede “The Black Horse” from Wales, “Bal Yaga” from Russia, and a comic tale fo Java. The program will be in the Kau mann Theater at 1:30 and 3:30 PM. ¢ Saturday, January 30. Tickets are $1 ($6 for members). Call (212) 769-56( for information. These events take place at the Americ: Museum of Natural History, located « Central Park West at 79th Street in Ne York City. The Leonhardt People Cent and the Kaufmann Theater are in tl Charles A. Dana Education Wing. TI Museum has a pay-what-you-wish a mission policy. Call (212) 769-5100 f Museum information. ___The Market i tts ATE CAVE ART TRANSCRIPTS. Free book- able. Gallery of Prehistoric Paintings, 1202 n Ave., Suite 314, New York, NY 10028. N MASKS & FIGURES, $150—$350, request McCoy Imports, Liberty, NY 12754. W CROSS-STITCH DESIGNS from Mads an Club. Inquire. Box 39, Florham Park, NJ 039. ), ZUNI—OLD PAWN jewelry—sandpaint- chinas. Wholesale catalog $3.00. Indian 2s, Box 9771-NH, Phoenix, AZ 85068. AN ART JEWELRY, direct from the artist, hale, Eagle, Hummingbird and other designs Silver. Stories represented included. Free 2. 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EXPEDITIONSIN 800-633-4734 ONE ENVIRONS PARK, HELENA, AL 35080 ADVENTURES IN AFRICA & EGYPT: Economical camping safaris in Kenya & Tanzania, Kilimanjaro climbs, gorilla tracking. London/Nairobi overland more. Also extensive selection of unique tours in Egypt, Israel, Turkey, Jordan. Free color trip catalogs. Himalayan Travel, 112 Prospect St., Stamford, CT 06901 (800) 225-2380 ALASKA: GALAPAGOS ‘BAJA CALIFORNIA: AUSTRALIA: ARCTIC Small groups led by Whale and Wildlife Journey Specialists BIOLOGICAL JOURNEYS 1696N Ocean Dr., McKinleyville, CA 95521 800-548-7555 AFRICA!—Affordable adventures that explore Africa’s wildlife and cultures in depth. Outstanding guides, small groups, excellent accommodations off the beaten path. Walking and night game drives avail- able. Join one of our scheduled safaris or design a pri- vate adventure of your own. Tanzania, Kenya, Botswana, Namibia. Draw upon more than 20 years’ experience. Voyagers, Dept NH-12, Box 915, Ithaca, NY 14851 (800) 633-0299 Join a biologist from a major U.S. university on a 90 foot riverboat for a 650 mile adventure on the Amazon River! 8 days, 7 nights. $1695, includes meals, air from Miami (air from \N other cities available), tours, entrance fees, \| side trips, transfers, lodging, and much more. \ Departs Saturdays. Previous Client References >. Available. Parrots, pink dolphins, monkeys. Cusco and Machu Picchu extension available. 7993A| Van. 16; Feb. 13; Mar.13; Apr. 10; May 8 INTERNATIONAL JOURNEYS, INC. 73 ALASKA WILDLAND ADVENTURES operate some of the most highly regarded natural history tours in Alaska. The trips feature small group experiences combining safe and fun outdoor adventuring with the security of professional tour guides. Travelers are taken beyond the ordinary activities of conventional bus tours and cruises. Visit Denali National Park, Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, Kenai Fjords National Park along with other destinations. Over fifty depar- tures. Operating since 1977. For a 24-page color brochure write: Alaska Wildland Adventures, Box 389-HN, Girdwood, AK 99587, or call (800) 334-8730 AN EXTRAORDINARY ALASKA EXPERIENCE. Wilderness/Cultural camping trips hosted by Athabas- can Indians. Share their culture and traditions for 4 days in Koyukuk National Wildlife Refuge. Small per- sonal groups (6 per. max.). Owned and operated by the Athabascan People of Huslia. Brochure, informa- tion, Athabasca: Cultural Journeys, P.O. Box 10-NH, Huslia, Alaska 99746 1-800-423-0094 SPE TH ra a Amazon Canoe Safaris, Pantanal Lodges, “Rio Like A Native” Tours, Bahian Beach Resorts, and more! Te ee ee Unparalleled expertise Brazil Nuts / ee Post Road, Fairfield, CT 06430 (800) 553-9959 ARCHEOLOGY FOR UNDERGRADUATES. Two four week sessions offered in Archeological Field School. Excavation of a late Pueblo Il Anasazi site on the Utah/Arizona border. Session 1, June 8 to July 4, 1993; session 2, July 6 to August 1, 1993. Intended for undergraduate college students. No experience required. Six quarter credits. Limited enrollment. For cost information write: Dr. Richard A. Thompson, Southern Utah University, Cedar City, UT 84720 ANTARCTICA The Lure of Great Adventures — COLUMBUS CARAVELLE — An Unusual Ship for Unusual Destinations * AMAZON * SOUTH AMERICA # CANADA ° CARIBBEAN * GREENLAND ¢ AND MORE!! 510-671-2900 Forum International Fax 510-946-1500 91 Gregory Lane #21 ¢ Pleasant Hill, CA 94523 AUSTRALIA/NEW ZEALAND WALKABOUTS: Na- ture, Hiking and the Outdoors. Enjoying hiking and camping safaris, lodge stays, and island resorts in New Zealand’s scenic National Parks and Milford Track; Australia’s Outback, Tropical North, and Great Barrier Reef. Pacific Exploration Co., Box 3042-N, Santa Barabara, CA 93130 (805)687-7282 BAFFIN AND BYLOT ISLANDS, CANADA-Birds and Natural History-June 13-23, 1993. Ivory Gull, Dovexie, displaying shorebirds, huge seabird colonies. Great opportunities for Narwhal, Polar Bear and white Gyrfalcon. Tundra hikes and sled travel on the ice. Comfortable hotel and camping. Field Guides staff orinthologist and local guides. Contact Field Guides Incorportated, P.O. Box 160723-H, Austin, TX 78716 (512)327-4953. naturalist guides 3 Asctie Refuge & other wilderness areas , Write: Wilderness Birding Adventures PO. 103747-U Anchorage, AK 99510 (907) 694-7442 74 NATURAL History 1/93 GALA PAGO=9S COSTA RICA AFRICA First Class Cruises with Naturalist Guides. Naural History Adventures to Costa Rica Tented Safaris to Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda & Botswana 10 years of Quality Natural History Trips Worldwide ey BAFFIN ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND, SWITZERLAND, and more walking vacations. Country Walkers, P.O. Box 180NH, Waterbury, VT 05676 1-802-244-1387 BELIZE, BAY ISLANDS, TIKAL, COPAN. Individual- ized, interactive vacations; English-speaking native guides; experienced travel counselors. Great Trips (800) 552-3419 800 351-5041 P.O. Box 3656-C10 Sonora, CA 95370 Canoe Canada’s Arctic Fly-in canoe trips Into the heart of North America's last great wilderness - the tundra and talga of Canada's Northwest Ter- ritories. Photograph caribou, wolves, muskox, moose, grizzlies, rich birdlife. Virgin fishing. 7 - 19 days. Wildlife biologist guide. Operating since 1974. Brochure: CANOE ARCTIC INC. Box 130AC, Fort Smith, N.W.T., Canada XOE OPO (403)872-2308 BORNEO, BALI, KOMODO ISLAND—Orangutans, Komodo Dragons, Balinese Culture. Voyagers, Dept. NB-12, Box 915, Ithaca, NY 14851 (800) 633-0299 BROOKS RANGE—ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE Refuge. Small groups in remote wilderness unfolding the unique natural history of the high arctic. Custom and scheduled river and backpacking trips. Wilder- ness Alaska, POB 113063NH Anchorage, AK 99511 (907)345-3567 GALAPAGOS! Excellent boats. Plus Amazon & Andes. opie In-depth tropical adventures. Small groups. Voyagers, Dept. NG-1, Box 915, Ithaca, NY 14851. 1-800-633-0299 cee eee eee + ENGLAND. Walk England’s most spectacular land- scape with the specialists in Lake District hiking/sight- seeing tours—also Scotland and Yorkshire. Charming country inns, fine food. English Lakeland Ramblers, 18 Stuyvesant Oval #1A, New York, NY 10009 (800)724-8801 HOW TO BOOK AFRICA DIRECT FOR BIG SAVINGS" NEW ViaDIRECT SOURCE lets you book at local prices, either direct or thru your travel agent, with no middleman's markup. Includes phone, fax, and address. 250 pages. 1800 tours, 1000 places to stay in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe. Only $17.95. Money back guarantee. VISA, American Express. Order today by calling 800-672-3274, or writing ViaDIRECT, 34 E. Center, Lake Bluff, IL 60044 ___ BAC svaa Pine te __ DISCOVER A LAND OF PERPETUAL INTRIGUE, A MONTAGE OF WILDLIFE 6 CULTURE. JOIN —_____ THE WORLD INTERNATI LEADER IN EXPEDITIO NATURE TRAVEL ( 1p 800-633- ONE ENVIRONS PARK, HELENA, AL GALAPAGOS. Bargain Hunter special on the yacht, Marigold. $1825. Includes air from | Brochure. 1-800-661-2512. Galapagos Holiday Gerrard Street East, Toronto M4M 1Y5 GALAPAGOS-Birds and Natural History-July 1993. Cruise aboard yacht accommodating 1 sons plus Field Guides orinthologist and a Gala naturalist and see all the endemic birds includ Darwins finches, Galapagos Penguins, Flightles morant and displaying Waved Albatross. Hi hike to see Galapagos Tortoise and Miconia | Optional birding pre-trip to mainland Ecuador. tact Field Guides Incorporated, P.O. Box 160 Austin, TX 78716 (512)327-4953. GALAPAGOS EXCLUSIVES: Best yachts, N ists, Prices. Small groups/individuals, Amazon lands extensions. Also: other South/Central . can destinations. Forum Travel, 91 Gregory, Pl Hill, CA 94523 (510) 671-2900 INDONESIA WILDL] Natural History, Culture and Wi Orangutans, Dragons, Rhino: ephants, and more. Borneo, Kor Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, St 800- 642-ASIA Call for a Free Catalog Bolde Lhe venTut GALAPAGOS. Free info on-your-own Dis¢ Tours/wildlife & photo workshops. Also the es 250 pp. “how to” guidebook($16.50 postpaid). pagos Travel, P.O. Box 1220, San Juan Bautis 95045. (800)969-9014 GALAPAGOS ISLANDS tours since 1979. Me Ecuador/Peru/Bolivia options. Joseph Colley, Inc. 43 Millstone, Randallstown, MD 21133 (41 3116 GALAPAGOS You, 9 other adventurers and our lice Mel Icel NAIM aN ie cul MoM oto) (elk MuTolR ME than any other Galapagos expedition. 60 dates. Machu Picchu option. Free brochure. Inca Floats 510-420-1550 1311-N 63rd St., Emeryville CA 94608 GRAND CANYON-Natural History and Birds-Aj May 6, 1993. 226 mile oar-boat trip through c with leading Grand Canyon naturalist. Peregrir cons, migrating birds, botany, geology, and ec Daily hikes. Contact Field Guides Incorporatec Box 160723-H, Austin, TX 78716 (512)327-495 GREECE/TURKEY, April 23—May 8, 1993. Medicine, Craft, Village Life. Blending ancient w and modern travel comfort. Traditional Tours Box 5646N, Creswell, OR 97426 (503) 895-295 GUATEMALA, PERU, BALI-INDONESIA C Tours—Explore key cultural arts centers with f collector/photographer Gordon Frost. Twenty years experience. Small groups. Contact: G Frost, P.O. Box 2-NH, Benicia, California | Dis ¢ OV ER, T HE ben Te © Jit Jn a a AC EXPLORE THE SPECTACULAR WILDLI THE LLANOS, CLOUD FORESTS, TOW! TEPUIS & CARIBBEAN COAST WITH TI WORLD LEADER IN NATURE INTERNATI TRAVEL. EXPEDITIO 800-633- ONE ENVIRONS PARK, HELENA, AL CDAILAND .| INDONESIA 990399 + Casvbodia+Lavos Bolder Adventures Superior Group/ log 800-642-ASIA Independent Travel cialists in Soucheasct Asia! IEPAL, TIBET, THAILAND. Tours, treks, wild- is, overland adventures. Huge range of trips. le rates. Free 40 page color catalog. Hi- . Travel, 112 Prospect St., Stamford, CT 300)225-2380 S!—Experience the natural beauty of the sts unspoiled barrier islands and coastal re- Naturalist led boat excursions. Dolphins, aches, shorebirds, seafood. Spartina Trails, (2531, Savannah, Georgia 31401 (912) 232- -R SMALL GROUP natural history safaris and ass fishing lodge. Great Alaska Fish Camp & HCO01, Box 218, Sterling, AK 99672 1-800- 4 Video Brochure AN DESERT TOURS: Beautiful Southern ‘Northern Mexico. Customized guided excur- hoenix, AZ 85064 Tel/Fax (602)840-9256 IQUE DESTINATIONS RA Desert w. Tuaregs; overlands: YEMEN, UKTU, ETHIOPIA, OMAN. ING and GANGES Rivers cruises. Wodaabe is of NIGER; BORNEO'S Dayak; Asmat of { JAVA; ECUADORIAN AMAZON'S Jivaros; ‘S Dogon; CAR pygmies. fe in Brazil's PANTANAL, COSTA RICA, GONIA, GALAPAGOS, Safaris to NAMIBIA, WANA, ZIMBABWE, MALAWI and ZAMBIA. STHAN and Pushkar; LADAKH; TURKISH cruise; AUSTRALIAN Outback. Bp TURTLE TOURS Box #1147/NH + Carefree, AZ 85377 (602) 488-3688 + Fax (602) 488-3406 | AMERICA-NEPAL. Costa Rica ecoadven- Galapagos Islands cruises. Amazon lodges & _ Andes Inca trails and Patagonia. Trekking Guaranteed departures & customized itiner- Call/write for free information. Terra Adven- 70-15 Nansen St., Forest Hills, NY 11375 (800) 3RA or (800) 538-3772 READ LIGHTLY? Our trips are collaborative setween Tread Lightly and host countries’ con- yn organizations. Proceeds benefit organiza- ho work to preserve the area’s natural and cul- sources. For information on where you can ightly, call 1 (800) 643-0060 =- THE SEA, THE LAND, THE PEOPLE. 30 Color Video. Outstanding Natural History Pho- vy. $25.00 ppd. Naturalight Photography, Box arrick, MN 55756 S AND STYLE INFORMATION ber word; 16 word minimum. Display classified 5 per inch. All advertisements must be prepaid. are not structured for agency or cash discounts. yertisements are accepted at NATURAL HIS- s discretion. Send check/money order payable TURAL HISTORY to: The Market, NATURAL RY Magazine, Central Park West at 79th St., ork, NY 10024. Direct any written inquiries to O'Keefe at the above address. Please include ersonal address and telephone number, issue ed, and suggested category. Deadline—1st of ynth, two months prior to cover date (the Janu- ue closes Nov.1). Camera-ready art is required play ads. A tearsheet or copy of the page with d will be sent upon publication. AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY CIRCUMNAVIGATING THE BRITISH AND IRISH ISLES MAY 925, 1995 Seaside cliffs, verdant hills, nesting seabirds, quaint vil- lages and historic seafaring towns characterize the coasts of the British and Irish Isles. Next spring, join a dynamic team of lecturers on an exciting circumnavigation of these beautiful and historic shores. With extensive coastlines, the histories of the British and Irish Isles are inextricably entwined with the sea. Our exploration of these islands will focus on the natural and human history of these vibrant coasts. Along the way, we will enjoy the beauty of Ireland’s renowned Ring of Kerry, subtropical gardens on the Scilly Islands, multitudes of seabirds and vast carpets of brilliant wildflowers throughout. Our ship, the 80-passenger Polaris, American Museum of Natural wR History Discovery Cruises Central Park West at 79th Street New York, NY 10024-5192 (212) 769-5700 in NYS or Toll-free (800) 462-8687 is ideally suited for this type of voyage. Her high degree of maneuver- ability and fleet of Zodiacs allow us to explore remote islands that are virtu- ally inaccessible to larger ships. She also offers an ideal forum for our team of lecturers who will enrich our experience with their knowledge of this region. i as er Join a biologist from a major U.S. university on a 90 foot riverboat for a 650 mile adventure on the Amazon River! 8 days, 7 nights. $1695 includes meals, air from Miami (air from other cities available), tours, entrance fees, side trips, transfers, lodging, and much more. \ \ Departs Saturdays. Previous Client References Be Available. Parrots, pink dolphins, monkeys. ~\\, Cusco and Machu Picchu extension available. ’ Jan. 16; Feb. 13; Mar.13; Apr. 10; May 8 Nc INTERNATIONAL Journeys, Ic. 1-800-622-6525 Birds in SONG and COLOR vou. Anew videotape of Singing Birds of the Southeastern United States e 45 species ¢ Self-Teaching Format ¢ Great for Beginning Birders e Special shots...even experienced birders will earn and enjoy! Inside Florida: $2629 + $17! tax = $28°° Outside of Florida: *28°° 1-800-845-2078 To order, send check or money order fo 3722 Emerson St., Jacksonville, FL 32207 (904) 398-9592 African Safaris i Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia JOURNEYS 800-255-8735 4011 Jackson, Box NH, Ann Arbor, MI 48103 7\ Over 300 trips to Asia, Africa, the Americas, Oceania. THE POKE BOAT’ I?’S MORE THAN A CANOE, BUT WEIGHS ONLY 28 LBS! Remarkably stable, fA For a brochure call durable and easy to Phoenix Products® Inc. use. All for less toll-free at. than $800. 1-800-354-0190 MEN'S WIDE SHOES EEE-EEEEEE, SIZES 5-13. Extra width for men who need §& it, in excellent variety, styling and quality. Available 4 only through our FREE CATALOG. Send for it! THE WIDEST SELECTION OF THE WIDEST SHOES ANYWHERE! NAME. = s) ) ADDRESS a eee SCY ae STATE ZIP HITCHCOCK SHOES, INC. Dept.72 A Hingham, MA 02043 78 NATURAL History 1/93 AUTHORS “Current knowledge of mantis natural history is very meager,” states David Yager (page 28). To remedy that situation, he raises and studies praying mantises in his laboratory at the University of Mary- land, where he is an assistant professor of psychology. Yager (right) first became in- terested in the auditory capabilities of mantises—and was part of a team that dis- covered the elusive mantis ear—while he was a doctoral student at Cornell Univer- sity. There he met another doctoral student in the section of neurobiology and behav- ior, coauthor Mike May (below) who was investigating the ability of insects to evade predatory bats. With the help of aeronauti- cal engineer James DeLaurier and fighter pilot James E. Whinnery, they were able to outline the “top gun” aerial maneuvers of mantises pursued by bats. Yager plans to ends of the earth to observe and photo- graph wildlife. A specialist in animals of the Arctic and Antarctic, Bruemmer has traveled to polar regions for the past thirty- five years. An independent naturalist and frequent contributor to Natural History, he is a native of Riga, Latvia, but has long made his home in Montreal. Bruemmer visited the Auckland Islands in the early 1980s with sea mammal biologist Martin Cawthorn to study the behavior of Hooker’s sea lions, which breed there, and ended up studying the islands’ skuas as well. “I had read about the extremely ag- gressive behavior of breeding skuas else- where,” says Bruemmer, “and I was struck by the gentleness of the Enderby skuas to- ward humans.” He also found that this Fred Bruemmer (page 54) goes to the study the evolution of hearing in ins¢ the tropics, which are the home of mantis species. May, who began w children’s science stories while at Cc is now a full-time science edito writer, a career he calls the “most ft that I could imagine.” He is curren associate editor of American Sci magazine. For more information c ways insects evade bats, the authors readers to Donald Griffin’s Listening Dark (Ithaca: Cornell University _ 1986) and L. A. Miller’s “How I Detect and Avoid Bats,” in Neuroeth ‘and Behavioral Physiology, edited Huber and H. Markl (Berlin: Spr Verlag, 1983). docility does not extend to the othe mal inhabitants of Enderby Is Bruemmer is currently on a three-r excursion to southern Australia to tinue his study of sea lions. For fi reading, he recommends The Skuc Robert W. Furness (Calton, Engla and AD Poyser, 1987). ander S. Milovsky, a Moscow ist-photographer, (page 34) has 1 extensively throughout the for- wiet Union, exploring and docu- g its little-known regional cultures. yr staff writer until 1980 on the na- magazine Kultura, Milovsky has ed ten books on Eurasian religious ificés, and practices. Last July in 1 History Milovsky published a dra- irsthand account of a healing cere- by a Nganasan shaman in Siberia akou’s Spirit Flight”). This time he from Moldova to Azerbaijan to five festivals connected with the photographed only one of these he claims, “would be considered a for any Russian ethnographer. Sev- f them told me that these practices no r exist, although they are well known older accounts.” For further reading, Festivals and Traditions of the Geor- Soviet Socialist Republic,” in Cul- vol. 3, no. 2, 1976, pp. 68-81. DISCOVERY TOURS Land Adventures with Expert Lecturers Yucatan’s Maya and Olmec Heritage _ February 18-27, 1993 Mexico’s awe-inspiring ancient sites, including Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Coba, Tulum, Palenque and Mayapan. Guatemala: Heartland of the Maya Feb. 20 - March 1, 1993 The ancient sites of Tikal and Iximche, as well as Guatemala City, Antigua, Chichicastenango and Lake Atitlan. Splendors of New Zealand Feb. 20 - March 6, 1993 Spectacular fjords and mountains at Milford Sound and Mount Cook National Park, as well as Auckland, Rotorua, Queenstown, Dunedin and Napier. Cultures and Folkart of Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley March 6-14, 1993 Towns, villages and markets in the Oaxaca Valley and the ancient sites of Monte Alban and Mitla. Barranca del Cobre: A Train Trip through Mexico’s Copper Canyon March 1-18, 1993 An exciting rail journey in the Sierra Madres to Copper Canyon and the towns of Creel, Divisadero and El Fuerte. Central Park West at 79th St. (212) 769-5700 in NYS China’s Sik Road By Train May 7-21, 1993 Ancient cities and stunning land- scapes, including Beijing, Xi'an, Jiayuhuan, Dunhuang, Mogao Caves, Turfan, Urumchi and Chengdu. Berlin to Istanbul by Train May 13-26, 1993 Cities and towns of Eastern Eu- rope, including Berlin, Potsdam, Dresden, Prague, Krakow, Budapest, Sofia, Plovdiv, Edirne and Istanbul. Behind the Masks of Bali and Java July 11-23, 1993 The art, music and architecture of Bali, as well as Yogyakarta, Solo, Borobudur and Prambanan on Java. | China, Mongolia and Russia by Private Train September 7-23, 1993 Deserts, taiga and cities, includ- ing Beijing, Erlian, the Gobi, Ulan Bator, Ulan Ude, Lake Baikal, Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Yaroslav and Moscow. American } Museum of Natural BB ER History Discovery Tours New York, NY 10024 Toll-free (800) 462-8687 79 Tee iy Laura Smale and Kay E. Holekam (page 42) are assistant professors at Michigan State University in East Lans- ing. Smale (above) is in the psychology department, and Holekamp (below) is in zoology. For the past four and a half years, however, they have lived in Kenya’s Masai Mara National Reserve, studying free-living spotted hyenas. Smale and ase Lee Holekamp want to continue working with wild hyenas, but they also look forward to resuming their respective research pro- jects with rodents. Smale’s plans include studies of the neural and hormonal regula- tion of biological rhythms, as well as hor- monal influence on aggressive behavior. Holekamp will return to the subject of her Ph.D. thesis—wild ground squirrels—and wild African grass rats, investigating their physiological ecology and dispersal. Smale and Holekamp are writing a lay book about their experiences studying the Mara hyenas, living in the bush, and inter- acting daily with their Masai neighbors. To learn more about hyenas, readers can turn to Hans Kruuk’s The Spotted Hyena (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972) and M. G. Mills’s Kalahari Hyenas (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989). 80 NATURAL History 1/93 After studying red foxes in Scotland and arctic foxes on the Aleutian Islands, Laurence G. Frank (page 46) turned his attention to spotted hyenas. In 1978 Frank (below) started the Masai Mara hyena study and spent much of the next six years in the field in Kenya. Together with Kay Holekamp and Laura Smale, he is still ac- tively involved in that long-term popula- tion study, but the bulk of his time is now spent with a captive hyena colony at the University of California at Berkeley, where he is a research associate in the psy- chology department. Stephen E. Glick- man (right), a professor in the same de- partment since 1968, is director of the university's captive hyena project. Frank and Glickman find that while their re- Photographed by his partner, Jean Sto- ick, Carl R. Sams II, this month’s “Nat- ural Moment” photographer (page 76) ap- pears with two white-tailed deer. A native of Michigan, Sams began his career in wildlife photography in 1982 when he took a picture of three bucks in a forest near his home in White Lake, Michigan. Following that, Sams attracted a doe by of- fering her an apple, and a few days later, he was shaking the apple tree for the doe and her fawn. Over the years, Sams has taken more than 40,000 pictures of one deer family to whom his presence has be- come so familiar that Sams says, “Now I search energies are largely devote derstanding the endocrinology an differentiation in female spotted they are sometimes called upor more dramatically involved with mals. In 1991, for example, ragi near the colony forced them to « the project’s thirty hyenas to ar building on campus. Fortunately, port, while spotted hyenas can b rough on one another, they look o: searchers as their mothers and are ably gentle. In fact, Frank says he’ sometimes what might have hap, this highly sociable hyena had ev close association with humans, dog’s ancestors did. What sort of d pets might we have had then? For siblicide, the authors recommend | Mock’s May 1985 Natural Histor) “Knockouts in the Nest.” have nineteen deer that I can walk the forest with.” He and Stoick hi developed a close relationship w pair of common loons, which th photographed for five summers. T tience has paid off; their pictures t peared in many magazines and \ merous awards. Sams explains could not have taken the “Natu ment” photograph of egrets fighti had not anticipated the birds’ bi which he had been observing for He took the picture with a Nikon ] era with a 500mm lens at a shutte 2OEBOBBRRE P1LBR 3184 12 NoV93 MARYGROVE 8425 W_MC DETROIT Teel rarer Pe eis 4 eA om iO eer Natural Wonders - Intriguing Tours - Unique Culture - Fascinating History - Exquisite Cuisine; Just a small part of the great RICCO Mo ansatonenitleMclCM elle linelite 1+1800-563-6353 little corner of the world. Toll Free USA and Canada Marygrove College Library Detroit, Michigan 48221 PLEASE DO NOT REWOUE 10 20 26 34 42 50 58 64 68 70 74 76 78 LETTERS NATURAL HISTORY... 102, No. 2, February 1993 COVER: Partial to evergreens, a female golden- crowned kinglet perches in a spruce. Story on page 4. Photograph by Rob and Melissa Simpson; Simpson and Co., Nature Stock. KINGLETS’ REALM OF COLD Bernd Heinrich How can a tiny bird possibly survive for a single night at twenty below zero? THIS VIEW OF LIFE Stephen Jay Gould Cordelia’s Dilemma SCIENCE LITE Roger L. Welsch Of Light Bulbs and Shaggy Dogs HARE-RAISING ENCOUNTERS Mark O’Donoghue and Susan Stuart In the Yukon forest, an unsuspected killer stalks the helpless newborn animals. VICTORIAN ENGLAND’S HIPPOMANIA Nina J. Root Even the famous queen wrote about the fashionable hippo in her diary. FREQUENT FLIERS Margaret M. Stewart How a biologist discovered what goes “plop” in the predawn Puerto Rican rain forest. 46 Fis Gotta Swim, Frocs GoTTa FLy Sharon B. Emerson THE UNDERSIDE OF WINTER Peter J. Marchand The dead of winter isn’t dead beneath the deep snow. 74 THIS LAND Robert H. Mohlenbrock Cushenbury Canyon, California REVIEWS Michael J. Bean Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang CELESTIAL EVENTS Gail S. Cleere On the Solar System’s Edge A MATTER OF TASTE Raymond Sokolov Shades of Carolina Rice AT THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY THE NATURAL MOMENT Photograph by Scott W. Sharkey Storm Warming AUTHORS 2 NATURAL History 2/93 LETTERS Just So Ecc STORIES It surprises me that Stephen Jay Gould had such trouble finding anecdotal evi- dence among his American colleagues at Harvard for “Columbus Cracks an Egg” (December 1992). I recall with pleasure a day in my boyhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the late 1940s when my parents took me to a movie entitled Christopher Columbus. The most vivid recollection I have from it was of Columbus posing the standing egg riddle to a haughty group of royal advis- ers; then, to their amazement, cracking the egg down hard on the table. It never has occurred to me since then that I was wit- nessing iconoclastic behavior or a bolt of creativity. Rather, I think I appreciated its bold empiricism; the egg—at least in the film—was hard-boiled. BONHAM C. RICHARDSON Virginia Polytechnic Institute Blacksburg, Virginia I was brought up in Belgium, where the story of Columbus and his egg was com- mon knowledge, as it must have been in Darwin’s time. The story’s moral, how- ever, was somewhat different. When Columbus’s achievement was belittled at Cardinal Mendoza’s banquet, Columbus asked the guests to stand an egg on its head. They could not figure out how to do this, and he showed them. When they complained that they all could do it that way, Columbus answered them: yes, of course you can, after I have shown you how. As to what Darwin meant in his ref- erence to Columbus, I think he wanted to show how even the best mind could over- look the obvious. Reading Gould is always challenging and fun, even when I find myself not agreeing. Long may he continue writing for Natural History. ROBERT LUBELL New York, New York Stephen Jay Gould’s “Columbus Cracks an Egg” reminds me that, just this once, I knew something he didn’t. My story, which emanates from a distant childhood, has Columbus being taunted by fellow pilots after many voyag visited the Americas; they impl what Columbus had done was spectacular. In other words, sl across the Atlantic was easy, and bus’s accomplishment did not des adulation it received. Columbus th lenged his detractors to balance an its end. When they all failed, Cc took an egg and gently cracked if table, and stood it on its newly f bottom. It never occurred to me t was cheating or the mere use of a or expedient.” The message as I se which Columbus is supposed to t fered to the scoffers, was that or have seen how something difficul complished, it may be very easy tc the leader. This, I think, is the in and enduring scientific message Columbus tale and may well be wk win had in mind with his refer Columbus’s egg. LAWRENCE V Redwood City, Ca PHARAOHS AND FAROUK I enjoyed Allen Guttman’s artic Sports” (August 1992), which di how important it was for Eg pharaohs to prove their athletic { and the resultant stories of asto feats by these rulers. Guttman mig overlooked a possible explanat these reports. Earlier in our own century, your Farouk of Egypt was sent to Engl schooling. When he presented hir tryouts for his school’s boxing te announced that he had trained as | in Egypt, where he was an und champion. He then entered the ri was thoroughly trounced by an | classmate. Stunned, he explain Egypt, no one ever hit me back!” Perhaps Farouk’s Egyptian op} were upholding an ancient traditiot Myron Mos San Francisco, Ca IN MourNING I was delighted to read Steph s essay on Tennyson’s In Memo- “This View of Life,’ November yecause the poem’s imagery and in- 1ad been the focus of conversations vith my father. Although commen- n the medical and scientific content flemoriam may hold our attention I endorse Professor Gould’s view should be read for its powerful de- ms of the experience of mourning the author’s emotional and philo- al passage from grief to acceptance ‘ofound loss. A decade ago, while near Bristol, England, I cycled to \ndrew’s Church, Clevedon, to find morial to Tennyson’s friend, Arthur 1. From respect for the memory of her, who had loved the majesty and ry of In Memoriam, I reread the in the quiet church and left much it peace. Like my father before me, ousands before him, I had found so- -Tennyson’s In Memoriam. ‘ROD K. CALVERLEY University of California San Diego, California NATER SOLUTION as somewhat amused by Sokolov’s lations on saltwater immersion in ry in a Stewpot” (November 1992). ng small mammals in salt water be- ooking is common among rural peo- specially in the Midwest and South. ater is considered to be an antisep- moving bacteria, especially from ac- tal contamination from feces and during the dressing of the animal. vater is also effective in removing . Lastly, some soaking in salt water ves the “wild taste.” Having ered and eaten one small goat, I can to the need to eliminate that taste. I ct that the people of Montserrat use ater for the same reasons that the rest “quaint country folk” do. I still wash els in salt water, even though I am a r educated yokel. Sometimes the | educated find too much mystery in e things. JACK RUSH Vida, Montana 50 DAYS:* OCTOBER 2 PLUS{2'TO 35-DAY SEGME} Get teady for.an epic cruise experience— ‘Regency’s Grand Adventure. Depart Tampa for the Panama Canal, round the continent and visit 19 ports. Or join us in Valparaiso, Buenos Aires, or Rio for shorter cruise segments. You'll dine on superb _ cuisine and be pampered by European-style service pes faery ool UCw Cent miele Call your travel agent today and save up to $3800 per couple. Or for a free brochure, call eros ate The best way to a man’s stomach...NordicTrack. “The World’s Best Aerobic Exerciser’.” A NordicTrack® duplicates the motion of cross-country skiing, what most experts agree is the most efficient and effective aerobic exercise. It burns more calories in less time than many other exercise machines. Up to 1,100 calories per hour, according to fitness experts. Besides burning calories, it strengthens the heart, tones the muscles and improves stamina. And it’s much less stressful on the body than "™._ running and high-impact sports. Working out on a NordicTrack also boosts creativity and productivity and lowers stress, making you feel as good as you look. It’s time to change the spare tire. Unlike most in-home exercisers, a NordicTrack works all the major muscle groups of the body including the arms, legs, buttocks, shoulders and, yes, even the stomach. So what are you waiting for? Call NordicTrack today. 30-day in-home trial | Call 1-800-328-5888 x. 25083 | 1 or write: NordicTrack, Dept. 250B3 l 104 Peavey Road, Chaska, MN 55318 I Q Please send me a free brochure I I I I 1 Models priced from $299” to $1,299” Name Nordicfrack eee — Street NordicTrack reserves the right to change prices and specifications without prior notice, I City ©1993 NordicTrack, Inc,, A CML Company ¢ All rights reserved Phone ( ) = oe ee ee ee ee eee eee ee ee Q Also a free VHS videotape State Zip Kinglets’ Realm of Cold To survive New England winters, tiny birds must be fuel efficient by Bernd Heinrich On a midwinter night in the mountains of western Maine, the spruce-fir forest sounds like giant pounding surf as the wind drives thick snow through the trees. The thermometer reads —20° F, and bodily contact with the biting air is nearly lethal. I’m clothed in insulated long under- wear, wool pants covered by ski pants, two sweaters, a windbreaker, a woolen cap, gloves with liners, wool stockings, and in- sulated boots. My hands ‘are immobilized and useless in less than a minute when I take off my gloves. I’d be shivering vio- lently if I stood still for only a few min- utes, and my body temperature would Harold Lindstrom 4 NATURAL History 2/93 begin to drop unless I kept moving vigor- ously as well. How do the resident birds maintain a body temperature several de- grees higher than ours, even for a minute? More amazingly, how do they survive the entire night? Ruffed grouse escape the biting air by diving directly into the deep snow, hollow- ing out a temporary shelter for the night. Some chickadees and nuthatches seek refuge in ready-made tree holes and hol- lows. ’'ve seen downy and hairy wood- peckers excavate tree holes in November, apparently for the sole purpose of sleeping in them at night. Ornithologist Charles A golden-crowned kinglet gleans insects from the twigs of an autumn olive bush. Kendeigh has shown that sleeping. ties can aid overnight survival t heat is retained near the bird, and erable energy savings then result fi reduced need for shivering. Chic as shown by biologist Susan Chapl of Cornell, also save energy by a their body temperature to decline b 18° F. Most seed-eating birds, in pine and evening grosbeaks, cro redpolls, goldfinches, and pine show little nocturnal torpor, and the in these Maine winter woods only respective food trees bear ample packed with fat to fuel their near stant shivering throughout the nig key to survival is food, because - converted to heat through shi When food is scarce and shivering able, the bird may resort to torpor, t ing down the body’s thermostat. In a few days, the storm is alm gotten. For the survivors, life returr usual routine. The grouse feed ot buds, the finches fly in flocks fre seed-bearing tree to another, a pileated woodpecker again hamme and deep oval cavities into the base trees to extract hibernating carpent Above the raucous “kek-kek-k the pileated woodpecker and the tsee” of the chickadee I hear a fai: versation of golden-crowned kingk spruce thicket. Their sound is as u1 sive as a gentle breeze and just as goes unnoticed by all except thos know it. (I’ve talked with dozens of woodsmen who claim they have seen or heard them, although the bi among the most common in these v Among the thick branches, the tin climb, hop, and hover as they f mainly on the undersides of Plumaged in soft olive, these bird crowns of gold bordered in blac! males also have a flamelike orang ast petty ~ Ms Weed g) se eee ert ner en en th eS ee Rie ee So A a ek hm ed Architecturally designed houses and hotels are die-cast and accented with CIR a LAO CHESS playing tokens are crafted n solid pewter and embellished with ree Cea ORDER FORM Please mail by February 28, 1993. The Franklin Mint Franklin Center, PA 19091-0001 Yes, | would like to enter my subscription for MONOPOLY ®- The Collector's Edition. | need SEND NO MONEY NOW. | understand that the complete game, including the hardwood-framed playing board, will be specially imported and sent to me ina single shipment. | will be billed for a deposit of $33* prior to shipment, and for the balance in 14 equal monthly installments of $33.*, after shipment. *Plus my state sales tax . OC cleh ere 1 cfastanlte, f Cements Pica) Estate Portfali dp e— including double the usual TIPO Le 5 = t of all, the lush green playing surface is crs framed ft i entra % on ie ; MONOPOLY® game graphics as’ never MAM eSe combination of tradition and beauty for your home. 95, payable in monthly installments. Exclusively UN Ae : RETURN ASSURANCE POLICY wish to return any Franklin Mint purchase, you. 10 so within 30 days of your receipt of that Pu for replacement, credit or refund. SIGNATURE ALL ORDERS ARE SUBJECT TO ACCEPTANCE 7 a MR/MRS/MISS This solid brass MONOPOLY® game coin is PLEASE PRINT CLEARLY ; set into the drawer handle, to SORTS ONS eee renee rea this Collector’s Edition. 2034" L x 20%" Wx 3" H ADDRESS 22 2 ee AR ee ChySTAL = ie TELEPHONE # ( 12878-6SVV-341 MONOPOLY is a registered trademark of © 1992 Parker Brothers. Division of Tonka Corporation for its real estate trading game equiptment ily embellished with accents of sterling silver At 24 karat gold. LY is a registered trademark of © 1993 Parker Brothers. Division of Tonka Corporation for its real estate trading game equipment: aa CNR ae al lobe in | one hour with 245 sound portraits.Begin | 7 at.dawn on. the Australian Outback and end at night-on Be i the. misty isle of Sri ¢ jLanka. Includes & i morning songbirds, Bae i tropical, rainforests, & ocean surf, thunder & storms... All sy nchro-: § ;nously arranged to § a present asingle ; sview of Earth.’ The ‘recording provides % ge one hour of unadullt- s crated natural sound | / available in Cassette % 6 NATURAL History 2/93 that is normally concealed among the yel- low crown feathers, but which can in- stantly be erected. The golden-crowned kinglet inhabits the coniferous forests of the northern United States and Canada year round. (A related species, the ruby- crowned kinglet, is here only in the sum- mer.) Evening shadows already were falling at 4:30 p.M., and I wanted to find out where the birds sleep. I was awed by their achievement of overnight survival in the cold. Three birds I was following suddenly made long, high-pitched calls, flew off as if on signal, and vanished. I was unable to find where or how they spend the night. However, the survivors of the storm a few nights earlier lingered in my mind. The presence of kinglets in an area with recurrent subzero frosts is remarkable on at least two counts. First, the birds are tiny. At about two ounces, they are among the smallest passerine, or perching, birds in the world, only slightly heavier than most hummingbirds. A kinglet’s body, if one were to remove its feathers, is no larger than the end of one’s little finger. But kinglets maintain a high body tempera- ture, just like other perching birds, even as air temperatures dip to —30° F or colder. Some fifty years ago the Finnish ornitholo- gist Pontus Palmgren determined that the goldcrest, or European kinglet, maintains a body temperature of 103° to 107° F in winter and is insulated with feathers ac- counting for 23 to 25 percent of its body weight. (This is if we count tail and wing feathers; the latter are especially important in insulation. This degree of insulation is close to that of other northern birds rel tive to body size.) According to the physical laws of he: ing and cooling, a two-ounce king] should lose heat at about a 75 perce faster rate than does a four-ounce chic adee and would have to consume and bu 75 percent more food per unit of bo mass to maintain-‘the same body temper ture. Also, since smaller birds have lesser absolute amount of insulation th do larger ones, they cool even faster th predicted by body mass alone. Noneth less, golden-crowned kinglets survive cold climates alongside the raven, t world’s largest songbird. A second notable fact about kingle winter residence in Maine is that they fe on insects. In the fall, most insectivoro birds migrate south, seeking better hunti grounds. In contrast, many seed-eat stay. How do kinglets consume up to thr times their own body weight in inse< each short winter day? Unlike chickadet kinglets never come to feeders for see and suet. If kinglets are without food # only one or two hours in the daytime, th starve to death. Yet, in the north, whe they live and appear to prosper, win nights are generally fifteen hours lor Since foraging is not possible at night, a kinglets have not been observed to cac food, what saves them from dying t times over during the night? In studies of the closely related gol crest, researchers concluded that in wint the birds specialize on collembolans, springtails. A species of these primitive 1 sects, commonly known as “snow flea: { *xtremely abundant in the Maine yds, and I determined that the snow s spend their time on trees in the win- Might they be the manna on which the slets subsist? I examined the stomach tents of a dead kinglet at dusk. Tem- atures in the previous two weeks had n steadily below 0° F. The kinglet’s nach was filled to capacity; it con- 1ed the remains of thirty-nine metrid caterpillars, a spider, a few th scales, twenty-four almost micro- pic fly larvae, and just four springtails. Nhile this probe showed that spring- s are not the birds’ only food, it failed to ye the mystery of the kinglets’ survival. hough the bird’s stomach was packed h food, it could not have fueled heat duction for more than an hour or so on old night. Could most of the kinglets’ rgy come from fat stores laid down ughout the day? Charles R. Blem and John F. Pagels at ginia Commonwealth University as- ed body composition of golden- wned kinglets throughout the daylight iod in midwinter in Virginia. Body d, or fat, reserves increased from a low ibout 0.2 grams in the morning to about grams in the evening. Lipids have a h energy content, but using the stan- d equations for maintenance metabo- n of birds of this size, Blem and Pagels dicted that a kinglet at normal body aperature accumulates no more than f the stores of lipid needed to fuel its tabolism through fifteen hours of night 32° F. Therefore, the fat stores accumu- 2d during the day are not enough to ~p a kinglet warm even on a relatively id winter night. However, Ellen Thaler 1 her coworkers at the Alpenzoo in isbruck, Austria, took a different ap- yach. Observing a slight difference in body weight of a bird between dusk d dawn, they calculated that if this ight loss is due to fat utilization, then ergy reserves suffice even at —13° F ring an eighteen-hour nocturnal fast. ywever, the nocturnal weight loss is al- yst certainly not from fat alone. The ds lose weight from gut-emptying, as Il as glycogen, protein, and water loss. Despite the unsolved mysteries of their ernight energy source and their food ply, the kinglets’ survival strategies un- ubtedly include mechanisms of energy nservation. Kinglets conserve some dy heat by puffing out their feathers and king in their twiglike legs and feet. As other birds, counter-current heat ex- angers probably play a prominent role in maintaining blood circulation through the extremities. Do kinglets also stretch fat and energy supplies to last the whole night by becom- ing torpid? During torpor, the animal turns down its internal thermostat. Nocturnal torpor is generally a function of body size. The smaller the animal, the more energy it saves by hypothermia, and the quicker it can again warm up in the morning. Some hummingbirds go torpid regularly. A logi- cal prediction would be that torpor is a key adaptation of kinglets, yet all the data so far available indicate that they do not go into torpor at night. Thaler has long stud- ied kinglets in captivity, and her measure- ments of body temperature in outdoor aviaries show no steep drop in nighttime body temperature. Perhaps studies of wild birds, or of birds without access to ample aviary diets, will shed more light on this possibility. In terms of saving energy, it makes sense to enter torpor. But I suspect itis very dangerous if temperatures get too low. A small, cooled bird might be unable to regain thermal control and would freeze within minutes when air temperature dips below —15°F. Behavior is also crucial in achieving nocturnal energy balance. Naturalists have observed that winter birds are almost ab- surdly tame at very low temperatures; they become oblivious to distractions and even to predators. So, too, with kinglets. They spend less time avoiding predators, mov- ing about, and aggressively displaying, and they spend more time concentrating on feeding. Another critical behavioral response is finding a good nocturnal shelter, which is why I tried to follow the birds at dusk to find out where they go. We know almost nothing about where wild kinglets spend the night, except that they likely seek shel- ter in dense conifer branches, often in little caves formed by snow cushions on these branches. Even a little shelter may make the difference between death and survival when near the edge. Do kinglets preferen- tially perch in the lower portions of thick trees where there is less wind current and convection? Do they fly to a preselected place when I see them suddenly leave at dusk? Blem has also observed these de- partures and once chanced to see a kinglet enter a squirrel’s nest at dusk. One very critical aspect of the micro- environment where kinglets spend the night is the availability of other warm bod- ies of their own kind. Studies have shown that at 32° F, pairs of roosting European golderests reduce their heat loss by 23 per- This is my day inthe sun. I'm ready for: O1 swimming (1) beachcombing O shopping ( sightseeing O fishing § ( garden tours OH golf C1 good food CL tennis LD good times South Carolina For a free 120-page travel guide, call toll-free 1-800-346-3634. POLAR BEARS, TUNDRA BUGGIES & THE POLAR BEAR BUNKHOUSE LODGE Experience the gathering of the Great White Bears in Churchill, Manitoba. View and photograph the bears from the vantage of an original Tundra Buggy and com- plete your visit with a 3-night adventure on the shores of Hudson Bay in our exclusive Polar Bear Bunkhouse Lodge.. Prime time departures Oct/Nov 1993, from $1795 JOSEPH VAN OS Yn INTERNATIONAL P.O. Box 1637C, Vashon, WA 98070 800-368-0077 Are You an Evolved Traveler? Experience the Lo) etiracs Eco-Adventure Temptress Cruises - Galapagos Islands VAN Caem yt as a ane tae at islands, abounding with exotic wildlife -- Giant tortoises, flamingoes, sea Tes Ss ate YSU Cec se Daily tours SVU OELOre lin guide =4world-class SCUBA erator and snorkeling .. . Each day, you'll cruise to adventure in exclusive elegance aboard the luxurious 12-passenger M/V Albatross with every amenity at your rece ea Ry 878 per TER Ae La Poe) U.S.Sales Office: 1600 NWeFeJeune Road, Suite 301 VEU Bs EMC CRIA0 * ALASKA! Brown Bears of atmai Alaska's legendary giants close-up! St. George, Pribilof Islands Huge fur seal & Seabird colonies! Denali National Park See it like few others do! S.E. Alaska Spectacular Bears, glaciers, wilderness river! Best of Alaska The very best of So. Central Alaska! JOSEPH VAN OS Yel Wd , INTERWATIOBMAL P.O. Box 1637C, Vashon, W\" 9807) 800-368-007 8 NATURAL History 2/93 cent, and trios reduce heat loss by about 37 percent. Just before dark, European goldcrests form groups with the aid of contact calls. Thaler observed that when approaching their sleeping tree, the birds make specific calls, which presumably attract the mem- bers of the troop, a number of kinglets for- aging together. A second assembly, or bunching, call draws the group into a clus- ter along a horizontal branch where they will spend the night. Birds in the center of clusters sit bunched with their heads pulled into their shoulders and their bills pointing up, while the birds at the edges hold their heads to the sides. The contact groups form in warm weather as well as cold, but whereas it may take them twenty minutes to get into position in warm weather, they bunch up in only five min- utes when it is cold. Mated pairs always bunch up with each other in mere seconds, as do siblings in cold weather. Interest- ingly, the raven, in the same climate, sur- vives by sharing food in the form of large carcasses. The kinglet, in contrast, prob- ably survives by sharing warmth. But in both species, sharing is motivated by the immediate need to get access to either food or warmth. Since one is converted to the other, food and warmth are function- ally similar. In summer, kinglets tend to be common throughout their range, but in winter, they are sometimes common, sometimes rare, or even absent. No reason for this winter variation of abundance has been found. Perhaps major portions of the population die off every winter when the weather be- comes particularly bitter. Heavy winter losses could be counte balanced_by the exceptional numbers ; young that kinglets produce each ye Every year a pair produces two clutche each clutch containing seven to twel young. (Pairs usually build their secot nest before the first clutch has fledgec Thus, only a small fraction of winter st vivors could account for a substantial ne population the next fall. I was curious to find out if, in the —20° temperature, the kinglets near my Mai camp had survived. In a total of twenty-s hours that I looked for them in Februa and March, I encountered eighteen them (in seven troops). I doubt that I ove looked any kinglets nearby, because t birds vocalize almost constantly. The thin, bell-like cheeps reminded me small pebbles being struck together, ai on the still and windless days when searched for the birds I could hear the from at least twenty paces. One bird tra eling alone made sixty-six faint calls one minute, while kinglets traveling groups of two called on the average only forty times per minute. Finally, threesome that had joined a noisy troop more than twenty black-capped chic adees called only about two times minute each. My skimpy probe does rf provide sufficient data for conclusions, b it does open the question of what role t vocal behavior plays in their winter st vival of kinglets. In early March, the average number kinglets per troop near my camp was or 2.6. If huddling is necessary for survit over cold nights, then these Maine bir didn’t seem to have many spare huddle rby. Body warmers are not likely to ap- r magically just at dusk. Perhaps the glets’ sociability throughout the day ps to insure the presence of huddlers on d nights. Attracting and keeping con- t with others may be a key component winter survival, one that is not likely to maintained by vision alone in the dense liferous forests. With an average of y 2.6 birds per troop, losing one or re members might doom the rest in the t period of heavy frost or food depriva- n. Silent birds will not be followed. ey must themselves follow (which ild take time from their own precious aging) or become isolated. By calling y can both follow and be followed. Knowing that these wraiths of the forest re still here despite the subzero weather s reassuring. But as I retired to the rmth of my cabin the night of March 3, gain heard gusts of wind that moaned ough the woods and shook the cabin. ins pummeled the roof all night. Bone y under three blankets, I wondered how - kinglets were faring, being drenched in : open or whipped by the wind as they ddled under some spruce bough. When I awoke the next morning realiz- x that there was still at least a month of nter to go, I heard the trees creaking. ey were glazed in ice. The freezing rain ntinued throughout the day; the tree abs drooped lower and lower until many me crashing down to the ground. Would > birds still be there next week? On March 17, I was finally reassured at they would again populate the sum- er woods. The sun shone, and the snow, ll two feet deep in some spots, was heav- - crusted and easy to walk on. Wood- ckers drummed, and two ravens ca- ened in a wild chase over the valley. 1en I heard the song of a golden-crowned nglet, a rapid cascade of a dozen pure, brant notes crammed into a mere second id repeated six to nine times a minute. he kinglet knew that the time for yurtship had returned. Despite early pril snowstorms, the kinglets’ deep nest ips of fine moss and lichens, cobwebs, 1d snowshoe hare fur would again be ade high in the spruce boughs and filled ith two layers of tiny eggs. ernd Heinrich, a professor of zoology at e University of Vermont, is spending a ar studying wildlife in the Maine woods. is latest book, The Hot-Blooded Insects: fechanisms and Evolution of Ther- regulation, will be published this ring by Harvard University Press. American Museum of Natural History THE TIDES OF HISTORY Rediscovering Russia ano the Baltics June 14-29, 1993 Join a team of American Museum and guest lecturers this summer aboard the 41-cabin Polaris as we explore some of the great cities and medieval ports of Russia and the new Baltic States. Many of these cities, important Hanseatic League ports in the Middle Ages, are once again in positions of prominence as capitals of newly independent countries. Come discover the magnificent architecture of St. Petersburg; the medieval quarter of Estonia's capital, Tallinn; Latvia's architectural gem, Riga; the historic Lithuanian city of Klaipeda; Kaliningrad, founded by Teutonic Knights in 12a; Gdansk, a 1,000-year-old Polish city famed for its Gothic facades; Lubeck, Germany's charming red-brick city and the medieval capital of the Hanseatic League; and Amsterdam, the Netherland's captivating city of bridges and canals. Join us for an exciting look at the past and a peek into the future of this historic region. American / Museum of Natural wy History Discovery Cruises Central Park West at 79th St. New York, NY 10024-5192 (800) 462-8687 or in NYS (212) 769-5700 Rediscover Your World TuIs VIEW OF LIF Cordelia’s Dilemma Silence, though usually undervalued, can be golden by Stephen Jay Gould While Goneril and Regan jockey for their father’s wealth by proclaiming their love for him in false and fulsome tones, Lear’s third daughter, Cordelia, fears the accounting that her father will soon de- mand: “What shall Cordelia do? Love, and be silent...since, I am sure, my love’s more ponderous than my tongue.” Lear then forces Cordelia into this game of ever more elaborate professions of love: “What can you say to draw a third more opulent than your sisters?” When the hon- orable Cordelia, refusing to play falsely for gain, says nothing, Lear cuts her off from all inheritance, proclaiming that “nothing will come of nothing.” Lear’s tragic error, which shall lead to blinding, madness, and death, lies in not recognizing that silence—overt nothing— can embody the deepest and most impor- tant meaning of all. What, in all our his- tory and literature, has been more eloquent than the silence of Jesus before Pilate, or Saint Thomas More’s date with the heads- man because he acknowledged that fealty forbade criticism of Henry VIII's marriage to Anne Boleyn, but maintained, literally to the death, his right to remain silent and not to approve? The importance of negative results— nature’s apparent silence or nonacquies- cence to our expectations—is also a major concern in science. Of course, scientists acknowledge the vitality of a negative out- come and often try to generate such a re- sult actively—as in trying to disprove a colleague’s favored hypothesis. But the prevalence of negative results does pose an enormous, and largely unaddressed, problem in the reporting of scientific infor- mation. I do not speak of ‘raud, cover-up, 10 . NATURAT History 2/93 finagling, or any other manifestation of pathological science (although such phe- nomena exist at a frequency that, in all honesty, we just do not know). I refer, rather, to the all too wonderfully human love of a good tale—and to our simple and utterly reasonable tendency to shun the in- conclusive and the boring. The great bulk of daily scientific work never sees the light of a published day (and who would wish for changes here, as the ever-increasing glut of journals makes keeping up in one’s own field impossible and exploration of others inconceivable?). Truly false starts are deposited in circular files—fair enough. But experiments fully carried forth and leading to negative re- sults end up, all too often, unpublished in manila folders within steel-drawer files, known only to those who did the work and quickly forgotten even by them. We all know that thousands of novels, considered substandard by their authors, lie in draw- ers throughout the world. Do we also un- derstand that even more experiments with negative results fill scientific cabinets? Positive results, on the other hand, tell interesting stories and are usually written up for publication. Consequently, the available literature may present a strongly biased impression of efficacy and achieved understanding. Such biases,,pro- duced by the underreporting of negative results, do not only permeate the arcana and abstractions of academic science. Se- rious, even tragic, practical consequences often ensue. For example, spectacular medical claims for the efficacy of certain treatments (particularly for chronic and fatal illnesses like cancer and AIDS) may be promulgated after a single positive re- sult (often obtained in a study based upc a very small sample). Later and larg studies may all fail to duplicate the pos tive results, effectively disproving tt value of the treatment. But these subs quent negative results often appear only : highly technical journals read by more r stricted audiences and, as nonstories, ¢ not so readily attract the attention of tl media—and people may continue 1 squander hope and waste precious tin following useless procedures. Statistics often get a bum rap in our e] ithets and editorials. But I am both a chan pion and a frequent user of statistical pr cedures, for the science exists largely | identify and root out hopes and mispercey tions falsely read into numerical data. St: tistics can tell us when published numbe truly point to the probability of a negatiy result, even though we, in our hopes, ha\ mistakenly conferred a positive interpret: tion. But statistics cannot rescue us whe we hide our nonlights under a bushel (wit apologies to Matthew 5:15)—that is, whe we only publish positive results and cot sign our probable negativities to not scrutiny in our file drawers. I had thought about this problem a gre deal (especially when writing The Mi. measure of Man), but I had not realize that this special sort of bias had both name and a small literature devoted to 1 weighty problems, until I came upon paper by Colin B. Begg and Jesse / Berlin entitled “Publication bias: a prol lem in interpreting medical data” (Journ of the Royal Statistical Society, vol. 15 1988, pp. 419-63). Begg and Berlin begin their paper wil a wonderful quotation from Sir Franc Gaze in wonder at an underwater paradise! A Discovery Off Anahola by Robert Lyn Nelson A limited-edition collector plate trimmed in 23kt gold AS a solitary bird circles near Anahola Valley, daybreak finds the lush Hawaiian island of Kauai still sleeping... but a wondrous world of life is stirring under the sea! Now, this spectacular aquarium of underwater delights has been captured on a stunning porcelain collector plate by one of America’s leading marine artists, Robert Lyn Nelson. A Limited Edition “A Discovery Off Anahola” vividly cap- tures the splendor of our tropical world. Each numbered plate will be accom- panied by a personalized Certificate of Authenticity. The edition size will be limited to a maximum of 75 firing days. This limited edition is available exclu- sively through the Danbury Mint; none will be offered through dealers. Each plate will be trimmed with a band of 23kt gold, and the price is just $26.95. No Obligation — No Risk When you acquire “A Discovery Off Anahola,”’ you have our Unconditional Guarantee. You may return any plate within 30 days for replacement or refund. Given Robert Lyn Nelson’s worldwide reputation as a leading marine artist, we expect an overwhelming response. To avoid disappointment, mail your reserva- tion today! ro Shown smaller than actual size of 84/4" in diameter. © 1992 MBI — — — — Please Reply Promptly The Danbury Mint 47 Richards Avenue P.O. Box 4900 Norwalk, CT 06857 Please\accept my reservation for “A Discovery Off Anahola.” I wish to reserve __ (1 or 2) plate(s) at $26.95 each (plus $2.95 shipping and handling —total $29.90*). Check ([ My check or money order is enclosed. One: O Charge my credit card upon shipment: CJ VISA O Discover CJ MasterCard [) Am. Ex. HSP 171 Limit: two plates per collector. Credit Card No. Signature Name Please print clearly Address —————__————————— nn City State 7 Zip EEE See Name for Certificate(s) of Authenticity (if different from above) *Any applicable sales tax will be billed with shipment. Allow 4 to 8 weeks for shipment Bacon (The Advancement of Learning, 1605) on the tendency to publish only pos- itive results that tell good stories: For as knowledges are now delivered, there is a kind of contract of error between the de- liverer and the receiver; for he that deliv- ereth knowledge desireth to deliver it in such form as may be best believed, and not as may be best examined; and he that re- ceiveth knowledge desireth rather present satisfaction than expectant inquiry. Begg and Berlin then cite several docu- mented cases of publication bias. We can hardly doubt, for example, that a correla- tion exists between socioeconomic status and academic achievement, but the strength and nature of this association rep- resent important information for both po- litical practice and social theory. A 1982 study by K. R. White revealed a progres- sively increasing intensity of correlation with the prestige and permanence of the published source. Studies published in books reported an average correlation co- ene a nr ‘ > ‘ Jf ~! ‘ ‘ae ‘ eS EOI. mie : fe han — ; ua Een a ee pe , s efficient of 0.51 between academic achievement and socioeconomic status; articles in journals gave an average of 0.34, while unpublished studies yielded a value of 0.24. Similarly, in a 1986 article, A. Coursol and E. E. Wagner found publi- cation bias both in the decision to submit an article at all, and in the probability of its acceptance. In a survey of outcomes in psychotherapy, they found that 82 percent of studies with positive results lead to sub- mission of papers to a journal, while only 43 percent of negative outcomes provoked an attempt at publication. Of papers sub- mitted, 80 percent reporting positive out- comes were accepted for publication, ver- sus only 50 percent of papers claiming negative results. My favorite study of publication bias is the book-length Myths of Gender by Anne Fausto-Sterling, a unique and important contribution to the literature of feminism for this reason. In tabulating claims in the literature for consistent differences in cog- “Dr. Montauk forgot the knockout shots.” 19 ~-NJatmrmatr Wrormpyv 3/02 nitive and emotional styles of men an women, Fausto-Sterling does not der that genuine differences often exist, and 1 the direction conventionally reported. Bi she then, so to speak, surveys her co leagues’ file drawers for studies not put lished, or for negative results publishe and then ignored, and often finds that great majority report either a smaller an insignificant disparity between sexes ¢ find no differences at all. When all studie those not published as well as those put lished, are collated, the much-vaunted di ferences often devolve into triviality. Na ural history, after all (as I have argued s often in these essays), is preeminently study of relative frequency, not of absolu yeses or noes. If a claim based on pul lished literature states that “women in a studies strongly...”—and the addition « unpublished data changes that claim to “ a minority of studies, a weak effect su; gests that women...”—then meaning is e fectively reversed (even though positiy outcomes, when rarely found, show a co! sistent direction.) For example, a recent favorite in pc psychology (although waning of late, think), has attributed different cogniti\ styles in men and women to the less late alized brains of women (less specializ: tion between right and left hemispheres « the cerebral cortex). Some studies have it deed reported a small effect of great male lateralization; none has found mot lateralized brains in women. But most e: periments, Fausto-Sterling found, d tected no measurable differences in late alization—and this is the dominai relative frequency (even in published lite ature) that should be prominently re ported, but tends to be ignored as “nr story.” ; Publication bias is serious enough in i promotion of a false impression based on small and skewed subset of the total nun ber of studies. But at least the right que: tions are being asked and negative resul can be conceptualized and obtained- even if they then tend to be massively u1 derreported. But consider the far more i1 sidious problem closer to Cordelia dilemma with her father: what if our cot ceptual world excludes the possibility « acknowledging a negative result as a ph nomenon at all? What if we simply can see, or even think about, a different an meaningful alternative? — Cordelia’s plight is a dilemma in the li eral sense—a choice between two equall undesirable alternatives: she either re mains honorable, says nothing, and incu AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY BRIOGING THE BERING STRAIT The Aleutians, Pribilofs and the Russian Far East June 29 - July Ul, 1993 | _ The Bering Sea separates two of the most From Homer to Nome, we traverse a region of ) ruggedly beautiful areas in the world, Alaska fire and ice, volcanoes and glaciers, replete © and Siberia. Join a team of American Museum with some of the most spectacular wildlife and experts this summer aboard the World Discov- _ geography on earth. We will contact vast erer as we explore Alaska's remote islands and __ colonies of breeding seabirds, great whales the Russian Far East. breeching and sounding in the arctic waters, and large herds of pinnipeds inhabiting the pristine Katmai Peninsula, Aleutians, Pribilofs and dramatic easternmost coast of Siberia. Join us on this thrilling voyage of discovery. American Museum of Natural we AR History Discovery Cruises Central Park West at 79th St. New York, NY 10024-5192 (212) 769-5700 in NYS or Toll-free (800) 462-8687 Rediscover Your World AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY CIRCUMNAVIGATING THE BRITISH AND IRISH ISLES MAY 9-25, 1995 Seaside cliffs, verdant hills, nesting seabirds, quaint vil- lages and historic seafaring towns characterize the coasts of the British and Irish Isles. Next spring, join a dynamic team of lecturers on an exciting circumnavigation of these beautiful and historic shores. With extensive coastlines, the histories of the British and Irish Isles are inextricably entwined with the sea. Our exploration of these islands will focus on the natural and human history of these vibrant coasts. Along the way, we will enjoy the beauty of Ireland’s renowned Ring of Kerry, subtropical gardens on the Scilly Islands, multitudes of seabirds and vast carpets of brilliant wildflowers throughout. Our ship, the 80-passenger Polaris, is ideally suited for this type of voyage. Her high degree of maneuver- ability and fleet of Zodiacs allow us to explore remote islands that are virtu- ally inaccessible to larger ships. She also offers an ideal forum for our team of lecturers who will enrich our experience with their knowledge of this region. | American Museum of Natural | History Discovery Cruises Central Park West at 79th Street New York, NY 10004-5192 (212) 769-5700 in § °° 0 Toll-free (800) 462. her father’s wrath; or she plays an immore game to djssemble and win his affectior She tumbles into this plight because Lea cannot conceptualize the proposition thé Cordelia’s silence might signify he greater love—that nothing can be th biggest something. Cordelia’s dilemma is deeper and mor interesting than publication bias, as w glimpse the constraining role of neurolog ical, social, and psychological condition ing in our struggle to grasp this comple universe into which we have been so re cently thrust. Publication bias is only guard at the party door giving passage t those with the right stamp on their hand: At least the guard can see all the peopl and make his unfair decisions. Those re jected can gripe, foment revolution, ¢ start a different party. The victims c Cordelia’s dilemma are “unpersoned” i the most Orwellian sense. They are res: dents in the last gulag in inaccessibl Siberia, the last outpost of Ultima Thul They are not conceptualized and therefor do not exist as available explanations. These two forms of nonreporting hav different solutions. Publication bias de mands, for its correction, an explicit com mitment to report negative results that af pear less interesting or more inconclusiv than the “good story” of positive ou comes. The solution to Cordelia dilemma—the promotion of her nothing t a meaningful something—cannot be r solved from within, for the existing theor has defined her action as a denial or nor phenomenon. A different theory must b imported from another context to chang conceptual categories and make her r sponse meaningful. In this sensé Cordelia’s dilemma best illustrates the dy namic interaction of theory and fact in sc ence. Correction of error cannot alway arise from new discovery within an ac cepted conceptual system. Sometimes th theory has to give first, and a new frame work be adopted, before the crucial fact can be seen at all. We needed to suspect that evolution might be true in order to se variation among individuals in a populé tion as the dynamic stuff of. historic: change and not as trivial or accidental dé viation from a created archetype. I am especially interested in Cordelia dilemma, and its resolution by using ne' theories to promote previously ignore phenomena to conceivability and interes because the “main event” of my early cé reer included an example that taught me great deal about the operations of sciencs Before Niles Eldredge and I proposed th | ory of punctuated equilibrium in 1972, stasis, or nonchange, of most fossil cies during their lengthy geological spans was tacitly acknowledged by all eontologists, but almost never studied olicitly because prevailing theory ated stasis as uninteresting nonevidence -nonevolution. Evolution was defined eradual transformation in extended fos- sequences, and the overwhelming valence of stasis became an embarrass- feature of the fossil record, best left ig- red as a manifestation of nothing (that nonevolution). My own thesis advisor had mastered tistics in the hopes of detecting a subtle \dualism that was not visually evident in sil sequences. He applied his tech- jues to some fifty brachiopod lineages Silurian rocks of the Michigan Basin, ind no evidence for gradual change (but sis in all lineages with one ambiguous ception), considered his work a disap- intment not even worth publishing, and t the field soon thereafter (for a brilliant reer in another domain of geology, so r loss was their gain). But Eldredge and I proposed that stasis ould be an expected and interesting rm, and that evolution should be con- centrated in brief episodes of branching speciation. Under our theory, stasis be- came interesting and worthy of documen- tation—as the norm that rare events of change disrupt. We took as the motto of punctuated equilibrium: stasis is data. (One might quibble about the grammar, but I think we won the conceptual battle.) Punctuated equilibrium is still a subject of lively debate, and some (or most) of its claims may end up on the ash heap of his- tory, but I take pride in one success rele- vant to Cordelia’s dilemma: our theory has brought stasis out of the conceptual closet. Twenty-five years ago, stasis was a non- subject—a “nothing” under prevailing theory. No one would have published, or even proposed, an active study of lineages known not to change. Now such studies are routinely made and published, and we have a burgeoning literature to document the character and extent of stasis in quanti- tative terms. Punctuated equilibrium is a theory about the origin and history of species. That is, the stability of individual species represents the “nothing” that our theory emphasized to attract the attention of re- searchers. A different kind of “nothing” permeates, and also biases, our considera- tion of the next most inclusive level of evolutionary stories—the history of phyletic bushes, or groups of species shar- ing a common ancestry: the evolution of horses, of dinosaurs, of humans, for ex- ample. This literature is dominated by the study of trends—directional changes through time in average characteristics of species within the bush. Trends surely exist in abundance, and they do form the stuff of conventional good stories. Brain size does increase in the human bush; and toes do get fewer, and bodies bigger, as we move up the bush of horses. But the vast majority of bushes display no persistent trends through time. All pa- leontologists know this, but few would ever think of actively studying a bush with no directional growth. We accept that the history of continents and oceans presents no progressive pattern most of the time— “the seas come in and the seas go out” in an old cliché of geology teachers from time immemorial. But we expect life’s bushes to grow toward the light, to tell some story of direction change. If they do not, we do not feature them in our stud- ies—if we even manage to see them at all. We cannot accept for life the preacher’s assessment of earthly time (Ecclesiastes Experience the Wonders of the World _ On Video Cassette and Laser Disc __ ar Be tn aay ".,. the next best thing to being there, and sometimes aes even better!" - Billboard Magazine . ee: ar w Or send check or money order to: Spectrum Music Video, PO Box 1128, Norristown, PA 19404 Include $3.50 U.S.for shipping and-handling. * PA and AZ residents add 6% sales tax. "Expertly crafted mix — of music and visuals." - People Magazine g ee. g at Bao ag eae at : pe ee IRAMAR 3 “ae S| Spectacular footage of Alaska's glaciers, i ; forests, coastlines and the Aurora Borealis s : captures the majesty of the True North. CALL TO ORDER igi ic by Tangerine Dream. eae Includes original music by ey 1-800-888-0486 ; VHS $19.98 Laser $29.98 : Use VISA or MASTERCARD time-lapse images of the greatest wonders MIRAMAR The celebrated 70mm film spotlights ~ of the world including the Vatican and the Sphinx. Captivate your senses. Fe, igs tO al S s MIRAMAR’ 1:9): “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done, is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun.” Yet we must study bushes with no prominent directional change if we are to gain any proper sense of the full range and character of life’s history. Even if we be- lieve (and I will confess to holding this conventional bias myself) that trends, however rare, are the most interesting of phyletic phenomena—for they do supply the direction that makes evolution a pageant rather than a tableau—we still need to know the relative frequency of nonprogressive evolution, if only to grasp the prevailing substrate from which rare trendiness builds interesting history. How can we claim to understand evolution if we . only study the percent or two of phenom- ena that construct life’s directional history and leave the vast field of straight-growing bushes—the story of most lineages most of the time—in a limbo of conceptual oblivion? I see some happy signs of redress, as pa- leontologists are now beginning to study this higher order stasis, or nondirectional history of entire bushes. An excellent and path-breaking case has just been published by Ann F, Budd and Anthony G. Coates in our leading trade journal, Paleobiology (vol. 18, 1992, pp. 425-46): “Nonprogres- sive evolution in a clade of Cretaceous Good morning Doctor Heinz...Professor Kubo is on the phone. He says the experiment tipped se:F aver, broke out the west wing of the laboratory and is headed for the « 164 Natimatr HUretnry 9/02 ‘our poached eggs are served out on the patio.” Montastraea-like corals.” Budd an Coates state their aim in their introductio1 and I could not agree more: Just as the study of stasis within species hz facilitated understanding of morphologi change associated with speciation, we shor that study of nonprogressive evolution 0} fers valuable insight into how the causes ¢ trends interact and thereby produce con plex evolutionary patterns within clade [evolutionary bushes], regardless of the overall direction. Montastraea is a genus of massive cole nial reef-building corals, still important 1 our modern faunas (many readers ur doubtedly have a chunk of Montastrae on their mantle pieces). Budd and Coate studied the earlier history of the Monta: traea bush during the long span of Cret ceous time—some 80 million years dure tion, and representing the last period « dinosaurian domination on land. The found little evidence of direction: change, but rather a story of oscillatio within a range set by minimal and max mal size of corallites (individual coral an mals within the colony). At one enc “Jarge-corallite” species (3.5-8.0 mm i diameter) are more efficient in removal « sediment and tend to be more common i regions of turbid water; at the other enc “small-corallite” species (2.0-3.5 mm 1 diameter) tend to dominate in clearer wé ters near the reef crest. In addition, larg¢ corallite species tend to feed actively o small planktonic animals, while smal corallite species derive more nutrition d ‘rectly from the zooxanthellae (photosy1 thetic algae) that live symbiotically witht their tissues. ; Budd and Coates conjecture that cora lite diameters may be held within thes limits by some ecological or developmer tal constraint at the low end (implying th: still smaller corallites could neither dé velop nor function adequately) and by limit to the number of septa at the hig end. (Septa are the radiating series ¢ plates that form the skeletal framework fe a corallite. The “‘astraea” in Montastrae refers to the star-shaped pattern of thes radiating septa in cross section.) The siz of corallites might be limited if new sept could not form beyond a certain number- although this argument is frankly specul: tive. If such constraints limit the domai of corallite form, and if each end enjoy} advantages in different environments a ways available in some parts of the ge graphic range, then evolution might ju oscillate back and forth, with no persistet directional component through time. Choose Any One Of Our Best-Selling Nature Books aes #649-0 Botpit 29-95 2 F Retail $24.95 When You Join The Nature Book Society! Discover a world where grizzlies roam MeN) | Endangered wild... birds nest undisturbed... and man finds adventure in some Retail $24.95 SAVE . 1 & EARTH | #615-8 Retail $29.95 #619-2 Retail $29.95 #608-5 #951-7 Retail $24.95 #003-0 Retail $35.00 eee ss I eee lm, fl Retail $24.95 Join THE NATURE BOOK SOCIETY and save up to $34 on your very first book! ( i Every four weeks you'll receive a bulletin containing an Editor’s Choice, dozens of other selections and an order card. If you wish | to receive the Editor’s Choice, do nothing. It will be sent to you automatically. 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Send me the best-seller I chose below for just $1 plus shipping and han- {| dling, and enroll me in THE NATURE Budd and Coates found just such an os- cillation, hence their well-chosen title of “nonprogressive evolution.” They divided the Cretaceous into four intervals and then traced the pattern of species changes through these times (most of their long paper presents technical details of defining species and inferring genealogical connec- tions among them). They found that the transition from interval one to interval two featured a differential production of small- corallite species from large-corallite an- cestors and a southward spread of the bush’s geographic range. “Limited specia- tion and stasis” then predominated within intervals two and three. Later, between in- tervals three and four, large-corallite spe- cies tended to radiate from small-corallite ancestors as the bush became restricted in range to the Caribbean. The end, in other words, did not leave the bush very differ- ent from its beginnings—the seas came in and the seas went out, and Montastraea oscillated between prevalence of small- and large-corallite species within its re- stricted range. And so it goes for most groups in most long segments of geologi- cal time—lots of evolutionary change, but no story of clear and persistent direction. I do feel the force of Cordelia’s di- lemma as I write these words. Budd and Coates’s article inspired me to write this essay. Yet my description of their results occupies only a small portion of this text because nondirectional evolution doesn’t provide the stories that stir our blood and incite our interest. This is the bias of liter- ary convention that we must struggle to overcome. How can we interest ourselves sufficiently in the ordinary and the quotid- ian? Nearly all of our life so passes nearly all the time (and thank goodness for that, lest we all be psychological basket cases). Shall we not find fascination in the earth’s 18 NATURAL History 2/93 daily doings? And how can we hope to un derstand the rarer moments that manufa ture histofy’s pageant if we do not reco; nize and revel in the pervasive substrate’ No one has illustrated the dilemma be ter than Cordelia and Lear themselves, | their last appearance as prisoners in act. scene 3. They are about to be taken awe and Lear, through the veil of madnes speaks of forthcoming time in jail, mac almost delightful by the prospect of tellir stories in the heroic and directional mod Come, let’s away to prison: ...80 we’ ll live, And pray, and sing, and tell old tale and laugh At gilded butterflies, and hear pox rogues Talk of court news; and we'll talk wi them too, Who loses and who wins, who’s in, at who’s out; And take upon’s the mystery of thing As if we were God’s spies: and we wear out In a walled prison, packs and sects « great ones That ebb and flow by the moon. Sean O’Casey said that “the stage mu be larger than life,” for how can we mal adequate drama from the daily doings | shopping, eating, sleeping, and urinatir (in no particular order). If this be so, the our biases in storytelling augur poorly f an adequate account of life’s real histor for how shall we ever promote the “not ing” that surrounds us to adequate fascin tion for notice and documentation? B then, one of O’ Casey’s countrymen solve this problem in the greatest novel of tl twentieth century. James Joyce’s Ulyss. treats one day in the life of a few ordinai people in 1904, yet no work of literatu has ever taught us more about the nature humanity and the structure of thougl May I then close with a kind of litera sacrilege and borrow the famous last li of Ulysses for a totally different purpos Molly Bloom, in her celebrated soliloqu is, of course, speaking of something e tirely different! But her words make good answer to a pledge we should « take: Shall I promise to pay attention to tl little, accumulating events of daily life ar not treat them as nothing against the ra and grandiose moments of history? “yes said yes I will Yes.” Stephen Jay Gould teaches biology, gec ogy, and the history of science at Harva University. = Wa ce CLASSICAL MUSIC SERVICE OR THE PRICE OF WITH NOTHING MORE TO BUY ...EVER! BONUS DISCOUNTS! You qualify instantly for 50% off nts with your first regular-Club- price purchase. Buy 1 at full price, your next choice is HALF PRICE! Other clubs ask you to buy 6 (or more) at full price before you || Gaia rmstein: The Final Concert « thoven’s 7th & Britten Sea erludes. Boston SO (DG) 35095 ahms, Piano Concerto No. 2 \lfred Brendel. Berlin Phil. ch. / Abbado. (Philips) 74371* irituals In Concert - thleen Battle and Jessye Norman, sranos. (DG) 25254 yrowitz The Poet « First ease material includes Schumann, iderszenen & Schubert, Sonata in lat. (DG) 25258 rnstein, Jubilee Games ° Del dici, Tattoo. N.Y. & Israel il. /Bernstein.(DG) 45402* ozart & Leclair Duos hak Perlman & Pinchas Zuker- n, violin & viola. (RCA) 73331 valdi, The Four Seasons ° gel Kennedy, violin. (Angel) 43419 ieftains: The Bells of iblin * With Jackson Browne, ris Costello, Marianne Faithful, inci Griffith, Rickie Lee Jones, rers. (RCA) 10943 rieg, Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 2 * Also Nielsen, Aladdin Suite Maskarade Overture. S.F. Sym. ch. /Blomstedt (London) 00074* govia Plays Bach «3 Pieces for te, Chaconne, more. (MCA) 63600 rrigliano, S hony No. 1 ok ee rato) 632 issin: Schubert, Wanderer mtasy ° Plus Liszt, Hungarian apse ly, more by Brahms. (DG) thaikovsky, 1812 Overture so Borodin, Polovtsian Dances & The Steppes of Central Asia. thenberg /Jarvi(DG) 00060* essiaen, Turangalila- pee Orch. de la stille /Chung (DG) 73941* olst, The Planets * New York ilharmonic/ Mehta. (Teldec) 51994 *govia: 5 Centuries of panish Guitar + Sor, Granados, rroba. (MCA) 54277 not available on cassette. CLASSICAL Lf, COMPACT DISCS or = me CASS! get savings like this! is- Suinghony No Beethoven, Missa Solemnis ° Monteverdi Choir/ English Baroque Soloists / Gardiner (Archiv) 00048 The Bach Album »* Kathleen Battle, soprano; Itzhak Perlman, violin. Billboard bestseller! (DG) 73670 Pavarotti In Hyde Park ¢ A “live” concert featuring Nessun dorma; ’‘O Sole mio; more. (London) 40230 Carreras, Domingo, Pavarotti In Concert + Mehta conducts. (London) 35078 pe Gala In Leningrad With Itzhak Perlman, Jessye Nor- man, Yo-Yo Ma, more. (RCA) 11144 Essential Opera * Opera favorites with Pavarotti, Sutherland, Freni, Carreras, others.(London) 72889 Mozart, Requiem, K. 626 Bernstein conducts. McLaughlin; Ewing; Hadley; Hauptmann. (DG) 35231* Tchaikovsky, Sym. No. 6 “Pathéti ae . horas & Juliet. Montreal/Dutoit. (London) 25092 Hanson, Sym. No. 4 "Requiem" Seattle / Schwarz. (Delos) 05626 Meditations For A Quiet Night Lyrical selections b Elgar, Sospiri; more. (Nimbus) 20800 Shostakovich, Symphony No.5 Berlin Philharmonic/Bychkov. (Philips) 15454 Fauré, Franck & pea Violin Sonatas * Joshua Bell, violin. Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano. (London) 00067* Tribute to Segovia + Christopher Parkening, guitar. (Angel) 15499 Beethoven, Symphony No. 9 - Bernstein conducts in Berlin, 12/25/89 (DG) 84239 Toscanini Highlights + From the Complete Collection. Leonore Overture No. 3, Ride of the a Valkyries; more. (RCA) 64406 Mussorgsky, Pictures At'An Exhibition * Also A ane On The Bare Mountain. Philadelphia Orchestra/Muti. (Philips) 93885 Perlman: Mozart, Violin Sonatas Daniel Barenboim, piano. “Required listening for all true Mozarteans.” — Fanfare (DG) 15024 Mahler, S conducted by Claudio Abbado. hony No. 1 ° Berlin Phil. G) 25441* Pavarotti: Amore» The great tenor’s latest release! 17 Italian favorites. (London) 74149 Kennedy: Sibelius & Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos + “A very romantic view of the Tchaikovsky.” Classic CD (EMI Classics) 10741 Screamers (Circus Marches) ° fasten Wee Ensemble/Fennell. so March Time. (Mercury Livin; Presence) 25362* : Suppé, Overtures ° Detroit/Paray (Mercury Living Presence) 00088* Brahms, Liebeslieder-Waltzes, Op. 52+ Also Songs with harp, more. Monteverdi Choir/John Eliot Gardiner. (Philips) 25498* André Watts: The Chopin Recital * Best of the Month — Stereo Review (EMI Classics) 25390 The Sound Of Trumpets Gerard Schwarz, trumpet & conductor. Vivaldi, Telemann, more. (Delos) 10678* Cliburn: My Favorite Chopin “An unusual Serena Sea recital.” — High Fidelity (RCA) 10998 Bartok, Violin Con. No. 2 ° Anne-Sophie Mutter. Boston Sym. Orch. / Ozawa. (DG) 43994* Gorecki, S hony No. 3 ° Upshaw. London: Sinfonietta David Zinman. A Billboard-charting best seller! (Nonesuch) 00110* Beethoven, Syms Nos. 5 & 6 + Berlin Phil. /Karajan. (DG) 15443* Pieces of Africa * The Kronos Quartet performs with African musicians. (Nonesuch) 10472 Brahms, Cello Sonatas + Yo-Yo Ma, cello. E. Ax, piano. (RCA) 54044 Ravel, Boléro * Daphnis, Suite No. 2, La Valse. Cleveland Orchestra/ Dohnanyi. (Teldec) 25380 1492: Music For The Age Of Discovery * Waverly Consort. (EMI Classics) 15591* Rachmaninov, S hony No. 2. in E Minor * Onhete de Paris/Bychkov (Philips) 25309 ascha Heifetz * Beethoven & rahms Concertos. (RCA) 54208* Mozart, Wind Serenades, K. 375 & K. 388 * Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (DG) 15273 Copland, El Salon México Clarinet Concerto. New York Philharmonic/Bernstein. “Essential.” Fanfare (DG) 83588* Rossini, 8 Overtures » Montréal SO/Dutoit. (London) 64382 Mozart, “Dissonant” Quartet ° Guarneri Quartet. (Philips) 00094 The Very Best of the Boston Pops » John Williams conducts. (Philips) 15319 British & American Band Classics » Eastman Wind Ensemble/ Fennell. Music of Holst, Jacob, Walton, more. (Mercury Living Presence) 25361 Gershwin, Overtures + John McGlinn conducts. (Angel) 70391 Strauss, Ein Heldenleben, Till Eulenspiegel - Chicago Symphony/ Barenboim. (Erato) 53662 Sibelius, S hony No. 2 New York Phihermont/ Mehta. (Teldec) 10820 Mozart, Symphony No. 40; Clarinet Concerto * Hanover , Band/Goodman. (Nimbus) 10815 CS 900 || CLASSICS ...for less! The Labels! The Artists! The Savings! HERE’S HOW TO GET THE BEST CLASSICAL MUSIC OFFER IN AMERICA! Choose any 4 CDs or cassettes from this ad. They are yours FREE. Take up to a year to buy 1 more at half the regular Club price. (CDs are $14.98 and up. Cassettes are $8.98 and up.) Then choose 3 more FREE. That’s how you get 8 for the price of one half with nothing more to buy ever. (Shipping and handling charges are added to all shipments.) THAT’S JUST THE BEGINNING! About every 3 weeks, you'll get ENCORE, the Club’s new Classical Music Guide highlighting a Featured Selection plus hundreds of other “best-choice” record- ings. 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Under the terms of this offer, | agree to buy 1 recording at half the regular Club price in one year. Then | can choose 3 more FREE! (I'll pay shipping and handling.) That’s 8 for Send my selections on (check one only): OXCDs_ ([)cassettes QUICK! Send me 4 FREE Selections. (Write numbers here.) (J or. (J Mrs. LJ Ms. Address City. Telephone, please(________) Area Code First name Initial Last Name (PLEASE PRINT) Apt. State Zip Signature X. We reserve the right to request additional information or reject any application. Limited to new members. Photocopies of this offer are accepted. One membership per family. Local taxes, if any, will be added. TRADEMARKS USED IN THIS ADV'T ARE THE PROPERTY OF VARIOUS TRADEMARK OWNERS. Dog and horn are trademarks of CBTHG General Electric Company, U.S.A. BMG ™ BMG Music. ©1992 BMG Direct Mktg. ToT ELE EEE CLL, ee RT at SE ST EA PO a ee ae ee es se mse eee ee ee Of Light Bulbs and | Shaggy Dogs Is laughter a universal language? by Roger L. Welsch Ask any American, especially one younger than fifty, to tell you a joke today, and you will almost certainly get a short question that has a short, funny answer. That’s the modern idea of a joke. How many psychiatrists does it take to screw in a light bulb? (One, but he really has to want to.) Why did the chicken cross the road? (To see a man lay a brick.) That sort of thing. Seventy-five years ago (and leaving aside tall tales), a joke was understood to be a narrative told in such a way that it ex- cited laughter, often as much in the man- __ ner of its telling as in its conclusion. Jokes in the first half of this century could be as long as five or ten minutes and were often funny by virtue of the dialect—real or imagined—in which the tale was told: Irish, German, southern English, rural American. A typical example of the genre (in an exaggerated rural drawl) went like this: This hyar farmer goes to the big city and he tells his hired man Buford that he’s a-gonna be in charge of everything for a couple 0’ days so he should do what he can to keep everything under control. This hyar farmer goes through a long list 0’ chores for ol’ Buford, ending up with a long warning that he should be especially careful to keep an eye on the farmer’s fa- vorite pet cat. The farmer rings Buford up on the party line the next day asks how things are doing on the farm and Buford blurts out, “Boss, your cat done died.” “Oh no! What a blow! That’s terrible!” the farmer gasps. “My God, Man, couldn’t you have used a little diplomacy and com- passion and broke the bad news to me kinda gentle-like? Oh, this is terrible news! Terrible!” The hired man mumbles around a while and finally asks the farmer what he means 20 NartuRAL History 2/93 by this diplomacy and compassion stuff. “Well, you should-a started off sort of easy, by telling me maybe that the cat got stuck up on the roof, and that you tried to get her down, and that she fell, and was badly hurt, and later, mercifully, passed away.” The hired man assured him that he now understood and would be more careful in the future. “Fine,” said the farmer. “Tell me, how did the cat die?” “Well,” the hired man says, “she was run over by one of the fire trucks.” “Fire trucks?” the farmer stuttered. “What fire trucks?” “The ones that came to put out the fire in the barn.” “HOW DID THE BARN CATCH ON FIRE?” “Well, it took hold when the fire swept in from the corn field.” “FIRE IN THE CORN FIELD?!” “The one that started when the tractor exploded.” By this time, of course, the farmer is completely distraught—sobbing, gasping, sputtering. “What about my wife? Is she all right? How is she taking all this?” There is a long pause from the other end of the telephone, and then the hired man begins tentatively, “Well, sir, your wife, she was stuck up there on the roof and...” Not very many Americans today are willing to sit still and listen to a long story, no matter how funny it is. These days a joke is one or two set-up lines and a punch line, and that’s it: Did you hear they found Jimmy Hoffa? (Under Tammi Faye Bakker’s make-up!) Want to double the value of your Yugo? (Fill the gas tank.) The only long story one hears today is the shaggy dog story, or “groaner’—a painfully long story that concludes with a painful pun. It is a parody of a joke, too long, and not all that funny, the exact op- SCIENCE LITE posite of what a joke in 1992 “ought t be.” I have shortened up the followin; story just to lessen the pain, so try to imag ine it told with a lot more detail, the narra tor pausing now and then to laugh at hi: own goofy joke: . Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notr Dame, decides that he has been workin; far too hard far too long and that he need: a vacation. He goes to the priest of the cathedral, but the priest explains tha everyone who comes to the famou: church expects to see the famous Quasi modo. No substitute will do, unless Mr. Q can find an exact double for a temporary replacement. Quasimodo goes out to walk the street: of Paris to think about the problem anc darned if he doesn’t run into a guy who i: his exact mirror image. Quasimodo is ec: static, of course, and explains hi: dilemma. The other guy agrees to take the job for a few weeks, if only the Maste: himself will teach him how to ring the great bells in the cathedral tower. Quasimodo takes his replacement to the tower and demonstrates his technique: he takes a long, powerful, leaping run anc smashes his head into one of the bells which rings with impressive resonance BA-WONG!!! The new guy decides i shouldn’t be much of a problem, so he takes a run and bangs his head into the bell. Nothing. Just a dull thud. CLUNK! “Maybe you need a longer run,” Quasi- modo suggests. So the replacement ringet takes a longer run. Still nothing. THUD He takes an even longer run and shows ¢ little improvement. Finally the guy really backs up, backs up, backs up...and falls over the railing, down, down, down, and smashes onto the cathedral steps fai below. Tourists rush up to see what has hap- pened and find the poor man crumpled in a 1 TEE CT < ; American Museum of Natural History BEYOND THE NORTH CAPE Bergen to Spitsbergen, Norway June 30 - July 15, 1993 The Norwegian Arctic is a spectacular area renowned for its breathtaking landscapes. This summer, a team of American Museum experts, sailing aboard the comfortable Polaris, will explore a region characterized by fjords, glaciers, mountains icebergs and ice floes. Beginning in Bergen, we will sail north along the coast of Norway, visiting spectacular Geirangerfjord, the mountainous Lofoten Islands and mist-shrouded Bear Island. Our final destination is Spitsbergen, a spectacular group of ice-covered islands just 625 miles from the North Pole. Join us as we search for polar bear, walrus, seal, reindeer, Arctic fox, orca, sperm whale and numerous species of birds beyond the North Cape. American Museum of Natural w7 EB History Discovery Cruises Central Park West at 79th Street New York, NY 10024-5192 Toll-free (800) 462-8687 or in NYS (212) 769-5700 Rediscover Your World heap, dead as a doornail. “Who is this guy anyway?” one asks. “T don’t know,” a second says. “His face sure doesn’t ring a bell.” “Maybe not,” opines a third. “But he’s a dead ringer for Quasimodo.” See why they are called “groaners?” And that’s one of the funny ones! Not only has the style of American humor changed over the past century, so too has its content. For example, fifty years ago jokes with even the most modest sex- ual content were considered obscene and were restricted to word-of-mouth or were privately published in narrowly-circulated pulp magazines and books. Blatantly sex- ist and ethnically or racially offensive ma- terials, on the other hand, were openly published: Pat and Mike, Hans and Fritz, Rastus and Mandy—glaring stereotypes that would astound the modern reader— appeared in magazines easily available at any magazine counter. Now that pattern is practically reversed: sexual materials are defended as an expression of free speech, but sexist, racist, and ethnically offensive slurs are considered nearly obscene. Although they are now frowned upon, however, ethnic and similar jokes have not died out. They are widely told and even published, and evidently fill an important need. Most humor scholars agree that we laugh at those things that trouble us, frighten us, concern us most. If you as- sume that premise is generally true, social analysis becomes pretty easy. And a little unsettling. The explosion of “Polack” sto- ries—brief, question-and-answer insults DATA Ricw DEP\caten T ‘ ‘ / DATA WEARS OfFERS toward American Poles (and later, and even more uncomfortably, toward native Poles)—sprang from the growing insecu- rity of middle-class, white-collar workers in the Chicago-Gary area as blue-collar workers with names like Chelewski, Brynyzki, and Lukasiewz began to move up the economic ladder and occupy posi- tions traditionally held by people with names like McGuire and Bauer. How can you tell which one is the bride at a Polack wedding? (She’s the one with the clean bowling shirt.) Why doesn’t a Polack make a good poker player? (Every time he gets a spade, he spits in his hands.) Get the point? The guy with the long name and no vowels can’t even do labor right and now he wants to be a supervisor, the reasoning seems to go. It’s nothing new. The McGuires and Bauers had gone through the same sort of cultural hazing when the “Micks” and “Krauts” were clawing their way up that same slippery ladder earlier in the century, and in the previous century. I said above that these indicators can be unsettling. I don’t have any trouble with such open la- beling of those who are on the way up; what is unsettling is the unconscious soul- baring by those who tell the jokes, those who are threatened. The safest butt of humor these days is ourselves, and that has opened a some- what acceptable path to the ethnic joke. The objects of such insults and slurs may be offended and hostile for a while but then a peculiar thing begins to happen: Be- fore long the targets of the ethnic insults ANT\- ESTABLISHMENT w AFFABLE) \ manic uae sey Paths Wa 7 BREAKTHROUGHS |} \ 4 4 FALSE STARTS Tows SOCETIES PulLosoPHie MANY PUBLICATIONS €. SuBstzKy LINNAEUS AN TEMPS TO CLASSI\EY SCIENTISTS, Oar WESeioie= Sevasr VEC Wis 22 NATURAL History 2/93 WOULD BE EASIER. begin to tell the jokes themselves! As white, I may be in trouble for suggest there are peculiarities of black culture, b blacks can tell jokes about black culture Linda, my Catholic, Bohemian wif can say that the only problem with being Bohemian Catholic is that as a Cathol she has only six “safe” days a month but a Bohemian she forgets which days th are; but this German Lutheran male is r stricted to reporting the line as hers. § blondes tell blonde jokes, homosexuals t¢ homosexual jokes, and blonde, homose ual orphans tell blonde, homosexual phan stories. Pretty soon what was once cruel insult becomes a banner of ethn pride. For good Ole and Lena stories, 01 goes to Norwegian communities in tl Dakotas or Minnesota, where a promise “a new joke” is understood to mean a ne Ole and Lena story. Metafolklore is folklore about folklor in this example, we have an Ole and Let story about Ole and Lena stories: Ole likes to tell them Ole and Lena st ries but now and then he offends some « his Norwegian countrymen. One day tf Lutheran preacher takes Ole aside ar tells him he should be a little more dipl matic about them stories and maybe eve do what the preacher himself does. Whe: ever he wants to use a Norwegian story « a Polack or Bohunk joke, he changes tt name of the group over to some ancie: biblical people like the Hittites, so’s he cz avoid any problem of offending someon Ole thanks him for the advice an promises to use the idea the next time chance comes up, and sure enough, th night in the town tavern, the boys get | telling stories, and so when Ole’s tu comes around he remembers what tt preacher told him and he starts off, “Oka there was these two Hittites...named O and Lena, and they was going to Fargo or day...” When I taught folklore at the Universit of Nebraska, I asked my students to kee journals in which they recorded whateve folklore that they saw around them on day-to-day basis. Throughout: the sixtic and early seventies, men’s journals wet full of pointedly sexist humor aimed at th feminist movement. In the early eighti¢ women began to record in their journa jokes about the feminist movement. B the end of the eighties, the funniest, mo: perceptive jokes about women and th feminist movement were written in jou! nals submitted by women. The women movement (or at least a portion of it) we approaching maturity. = SY \" -kRocra® :MERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ‘rom the renowned collections of the American Museum of Natural History, the most beautiful and authoritative DOOK ever published on gemstones. .. \nma — —tl ———_ = | A | > ro | ma ( ELS aoe ea S RYS' =u | AND Tae a Oe ee E —_ | HUD Ln TRACE the story of gems from their use by the peoples of ancient civilizations and revel in the history, legends, and lore provided for each gemstone C Ce DISCOVER the distinctive properties of gemstones, the factors that determine quality, and where they have been found - DELIGHT in the sumptuous photographs of over one hundred and fifty gems, crystals, and objects of art and adornment Written by ANNA S. SOFIANIDES, an Associate in the Department of Mineral Sciences at the American . ORDER a Ricci SE ee Aa . Museum of Natural History and GEORGE E. HARLOW, shipping and handling to Members bo : : ce Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, Me egies ee Gn tri aati New York, NY 10024 or call toll-free 1-800-437-0033 for credit and Curator of Gems and Minerals at the card orders. American Museum. 9 x 12, 208pp THE ANCIENT SILK ROAD A Train Journey in China May 7-21, 1993 More than 2,000 years ago, cara- vans of mer- chants first be- gan to travel along the ancient Silk Road, a great overland trade route from east- ern China to the doorstep of Europe. Join a team of lectur- ers from the American Museum for an extraordinary journey by private train as we trace the paths of the ancient traders who forever transformed the cultures of both East and West. For today's traveler, _ the intrigue of the Silk Road lies not only in its historical significance, but also in the complex diversity of customs, scen- ery and fascinating sites seldom seen by Westerners. Making our way across great deserts, plains and mountain passes, we wil travel over 2,000 miles from Beijing to Urumchi, stopping along the way at ancient caravansaries of the Silk Road, including Xian, Lanzhou, Dunhuang and Turfan, with an optional extension to Tibet. American Museum of Natural awe aR History Discovery Tours Central Park West at 79th St. New York, NY - 10024-5192 Toll-free (800) 462-8687 or in NYS (212) *69-5700 This too is an old process. A very old form of European folk tale is the numskull story, a form of story that centers on the al- leged stupidity of the citizens of some community or another—in England the numskull community is Gotham, in Ger- many it’s Schildau, and in Denmark it’s the peninsula of Mol: A Molbo was about to load his wagon with bricks. He looked at the first brick, put it on his wagon, and said to his old horse, “Well, if you can carry that one, I guess you can carry this one.” And he put another brick on the wagon. “And if you can carry that one, you can carry this one.” Another brick. And so on, until the wagon was groaning and sinking into the soil under the weight of tons of bricks. The horse couldn’t budge the wagon, of course. The poor Molbo looked at his situ- ation and with a sigh took a brick from the load. “If you can’t carry that one, then I don’t suppose you can carry this one,” he said, removing another brick. “And if you can’t carry that one, I don’t suppose you can carry this one,” and so he continued on until the wagon was once again empt' Such stories, originally insults, hav ~ been embraced by the community as a di: tinctive'and favorable part of the village history and heritage. The traditional expl nation in most villages famous for the stupidity is that for centuries the popul: tion was under constant attack and the ci izens carried off as prisoners because the were famous for their wisdom, and cay tives of Mol (or Schildau, or Gotham were prized by other, less-gifted nations < advisors and teachers. The folk theor continues that the alleged stupidity of th citizens is actually an artful sham, prac ticed to conceal an extraordinary commu nity intellect. Humor is important in America today On a personal level, it defines our succes at being human beings. No pejorative 1 more telling than “humorless.” A graduat student once said in my literature seminé that the single most important characte trait in a young person today is to be inter esting. That struck me as logical. But the he surprised me by explaining, “And ‘in | resting’ means ‘funny.’ ” Not bright, or lucated, or experienced, or wise, or omising, or ambitious, or serious, or -dicated, or traveled, or thoughtful. inny. But humor is gender-, culture-, and ne-specific, a living, dynamic organism at changes every day in keeping with the langes in its social context. Laughter is yt a universal language, and what one oup thinks is hilarious can be totally ob- ure to another. As a farmer living on the ains, I hear jokes and other forms of imor that I suspect are quite different ut at least equivalent_in terms of umor”’) from those heard by my col- agues in New York City. “Last year was so tough, I planted 120 ishel of seed potatoes, worked the crop | summer, and in the fall harvested a and total of exactly 120 bushel of pota- es. ‘Course it was my own fault. I could ive planted more.” My impression is that e story is funnier here on the rural coun- yside than it might be in the city. The dif- rence is not simply a matter of content; e biggest difference between rural and ‘ban humor is style. The sledgehammer yle of Joan Rivers is urban humor— ard-edged, shocking, not always the sort ‘thing you want your children to hear. n the other hand, the humor I hear in the nall towns and on the farms of the Plains, yen the ribald humor, is so subtle, you en’t always sure when you’ve heard a ke. It is low-profile, ambiguous, and hen it is overheard by children, they en’t at all sure what it is they’ ve heard: The other day Jess Abernathy came into e tavern all sunshine and roses and Russ owers asked him what had made him so ly. He said that he had taken that old, 9-g00d bull of his over to Lyle Rass- ussen at the vet clinic in St. Paul and yle gave him some new-fangled pills he ought might do the trick. But Lyle also armed Jess to be careful with the pills be- juse they were very powerful. Well, Jess id he gave his bull just half of one of the ills and the bull perked up, took care of >ss’s herd, jumped the fence and took on an Leo’s herd, and was last seen headed ast toward Bob Langford’s dairy farm. Russ Powers said, “Boy, that’s some- ing, all right. What do you suppose is in ose pills that makes them so powerful?” “I don’t know,” Jess said. “But they ste like peppermint.” As I said: subtle. olklorist Roger L. Welsch lives on a tree urm in Dannebrog, Nebraska. ~ ©1992 NordicTrack, Inc: ,A CML Company * All rights reserved. New from NordicTrack...the best way to get rid of back pain at home! You no longer have to live with back pain! Now, with NordicTrack’s Back & Stomach Machine™, you can relieve and eliminate back pain in the comfort of your own home. In just a few minutes each day, you can get the exercise you need for health, fitness and good looks! Three simple steps is all it takes! 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The main compartment is roomy enough for a guide book, camera and snacks; and like everything in our catalog, it’s backed by our 100% guarantee. To order your Deluxe Fanny Pack by phone, call toll free 1-800-343-3214, 24 hours a day,7 days aweek. All major credit cards accosted. Shipping charge is per delivery address within the US. No C.0.D orders, please. Deluxe Fanny Pack Item # Q645WW 22'x7'x6" deep; Capacity 500 cu. in. Wt. 6 oz. Colors: charcoal/black, red/gray, royal/purple, Zip Code: LLBean, 703 Casco Street, Freeport, ME 04033 ae A snowshoe hare’s coat changes from summer brown to winter white. Johnny Johnson Hare-Raising Encounters Unexpected dangers lurk in the Yukon for baby snowshoe hares by Mark O’ Donoghue and Susan Stuart The week-old snowshoe hare huddled motionless under the low branches of a small spruce. All day, the baby hare, or leveret, had hidden in the same spot, its soft, mottled brown fur rendering it almost invisible—but not completely. Death came suddenly from the trees above. In an instant, a red squirrel—twice the size of the leveret—was upon it. Despite its shrill screams and attempts to flee, the young hare was soon overpowered. Responding to its cries, its mother rushed to the site, stomping her feet and clicking her' teeth, but she arrived too late. The squirrel scam- pered up a nearby spruce tree with its prize and stashed the carcass in the crook of two branches for later consumption. Squirrels killing hares? Squirrels have certainly been seen raiding bird nests, but we knew of no researchers who had noted squirrel predation on hares. Our study of the ecology of juvenile snowshoe hares began in 1989, in Canada’s Yukon Territory. Our work was part of the Kluane Boreal Forest Ecosys- tem Project, a cooperative research effort of three Canadian universities, whose aim is to examine the structure of the verte- brate community in the coniferous forests of the north. Our 125-square-mile study area was typical of boreal habitats found across a broad band of Canada, Alaska, and Eurasia. Spruce forest, broken occa- sionally by small natural clearings and aspen stands, dominated the landscape. A patchy and often dense understory of wil- lows and bog birch provided ideal cover for the hares. Throughout the northern part of their range in Canada and Alaska, snowshoe hare demographics undergo dramatic fluc- tuations at fairly regular intervals. These fluctuations are often referred to as the ten- year cycle because the hare populations reach very high densities (one to four hares per acre) every eight to eleven years, almost simultaneously across North America. Then, over the next few years, hare populations plummet. They fall as low as about one hare per 200 acres and stay at that level for several years, after which the cycle begins again. This cycle is central to the functioning of the boreal community. As hare numbers rise and fall, so do the numbers of their predators, although predator numbers gen- erally don’t begin to decline until a year or so after the collapse of the hare population. Other boreal herbivore populations, such as grouse and squirrels, may also be af- fected by changes both in predator num- bers and in the amount of food available after hare browsing. Researchers vary in their explanations of why the hare cycle occurs—some sup- port a predator-prey cycle, others cite a hare—vegetation interaction. All major studies, however, have noted the same de- mographic changes in hare populations over the course of the cycle. Whether in the Yukon, in Alberta, or in Minnesota, the survival rate of juveniles is the single most important factor responsible for increases or decreases in the hare population. How- ever, the rate of juvenile survival meas- ured in previous studies was always of hares older than one month. Younger hares were very difficult to find in the field and y"7 did not enter the live-traps set by biolo- gists. The purpose of our research was to determine the survival rates of hares from birth through their first days and weeks and to investigate their ecology. When we started our research, our chal- lenge was to locate some leverets. Young hares are well camouflaged, and, unlike rabbits, which give birth in relatively con- spicuous nests or burrows, hares are born in well-concealed depressions, often under logs or shrubs. To be certain of hav- ing animals to study, we placed pregnant female hares in individual pens a few days before they were ready to give birth. As soon as the hares were born, we removed the pens so that the mothers and young could move about freely. We ear-tagged 850 babies in order to identify them. And, to follow the young hares’ movements more closely, we glued tiny radio transmit- ters, weighing approximately one-twenti- Oe *y oJ eth of an ounce, to the fur between shoulder blades of 254 of the 850 hares We followed the leverets around ever day, noting as they grew how they fare during their first weeks of life. Snowshoe hares are very prolific. Dut ing the two summers of our study (whic took place during a period of high h numbers), most of the females produce three litters, each with one to nine young A female averaged about twelve youn yer season. Females usually mated again mn the same day on which they gave birth, 0 the litters were spaced apart only by the nowshoe hare’s thirty-six-day gestation eriod. We were able to watch the birth of one itter quite closely. Sitting up on her hind egs, the doe gave birth to six young, leaned them, and fed them their first neal, all in about fifteen minutes. She then noved away and did not associate with her Mark O'Donoghue Newborn hares huddle together beneath a white spruce, left. For the first few weeks of life, baby hares lie low, below, relying on the camouflage of their mottled brown fur and on well-concealed hiding spots for protection. Stephen J. Krasemann; DRK Photo litter again during the rest of the time that they were together in the pen, about ninety minutes. Unlike rabbits, hares are born well-de- veloped. They weigh approximately two ounces, are fully furred, and open their eyes within an hour of birth. They also gain coordination quickly and are soon mobile enough to crawl into a huddle with their siblings. Even before they are a day old, they can hop fast enough to make cap- turing them quite a challenge. Most litters stayed together at the birth site for three to seven days. The amount of maternal attention the young hares re- ceived during this period varied. Although seldom coming close to their litters, some mothers stayed within 50 to 100 feet of their young for the entire day and vigor- ously chased away red squirrels, ground squirrels, and birds that wandered ‘too near. Other females stayed completely away from their litters during the daytime. When the baby hares first ventured out from their birth sites, they generally moved ten to twenty feet away and hid under shrubs, leaves, and logs. Occasion- ally we found one or more hiding together, but most of the leverets remained alone in these concealed spots, even on the first day away from their siblings. With the help of a colleague, Carita Bergman, we kept a round-the-clock watch at the birth sites of several mother hares to determine how and when their young were fed after their litters had bro- ken up. From these observations, and from following the radio-tagged animals, we learned that in their first couple of weeks the leverets usually stayed hidden in their individual refuges during the day. Some leverets remained in the same hiding places, often more than 200 feet away from their birth sites and littermates, for more than a week. During their first few weeks, we observed juveniles nursing only once each day, shortly after twilight, which—in the long Yukon summer days—was usually between midnight and 1:00 A.M. In two of the nursing sessions we ob- served, the mother hare hopped through the area in which her two young were hid- den, about 120 feet from their birth site and 90 feet from each other, and made a high chirping noise. Then she appeared to leave the area. The leverets moved from their hiding places and regrouped at the Erwin and Peggy Bauer Red squirrels’ appetite for more than seeds and cones is well documented. The squirrel below is chewing on the leg bone of an adult snowshoe hare, which it probably happened upon serendipitously. Deer antlers, right, can also offer a nutritious treat, providing calcium and other minerals. Zena Tooze birth site, where their mother joined them thirty minutes later. On four other occa- sions, the individual ieverets gathered at their birth sites with no apparent solicita- tion from their mother. Each time, when the mother arrived at the birth site, she nursed her young for only about ten min- utes before leaving again. By morning, each leveret was back in its individual hid- ing place. Orrin Rongstad and John Tester, both of the University of Minnesota, found a similar nursing pattern in 1966 when observing a single hare litter in Min- nesota, as did French and Dutch re- searchers studying European hares. The European researchers also analyzed hare milk and found it to be extremely rich and concentrated, which is essential for ani- mals that nurse their young so briefly and infrequently. Once the leverets left their birth site, they seldom returned except to nurse. On one occasion, a litter of three seven-day- old leverets regrouped at their sheltered “nest” on a rainy day, four days after leav- ing it. On another, a radio-tagged leveret left its birth site at three days of age and was found during ‘he next few days with the newborn litter «' another female about Q01) NTanmmatdr Utretmnpyv 97/02 200 feet away. The young hare was healthy and gained weight during this time, so apparently it was not rejected by its “foster” mother. While many mammals will only care for their own offspring, lep- orids (hares and rabbits) may be an excep- tion. Researchers studying European hares and swamp rabbits have also noted cases of females accepting strange young. As the young hares grew older, they gradually ranged farther from their birth sites. By the age of twenty days, their home ranges approached those of their mothers in size (four to six acres). They also began to move more during the day- time. Hares younger than two weeks old could easily be approached while they re- mained motionless in their hiding places, but older leverets fled as soon as we got within ten to twenty feet of them. Judging from their droppings, the leverets had begun to feed on grass and other herba- ceous plants when ten to fourteen days old, but they continued nursing for another week or two. After this age, most leverets were weaned, and their mothers had an- other litter on the way. Juveniles from the last litter of the season sometimes nursed until they were forty days old, however. The first juvenile hares began leavin: their natal ranges when they were abou five weeks old. Those that we could follov usually moved at least a quarter-mile awa from their mothers’ home range. Only 4 0 the 850 leverets that we ear-tagged whet they were newborns settled as adults nea their birth sites. Soon after we started following th radio-tagged juveniles, we began to ge ome puzzling results. Many of the lev- ets we tagged were killed before they ere ten days old, and we found almost alf of the carcasses (80 of the 170 that ied) in trees or in red squirrel middens. \nother tenth (18) of the leveret carcasses nded up, mostly eaten, in arctic ground quirrel burrows. Red squirrels were abundant on our dy area. They constructed large under- ground middens around the bases of spruce trees where they stored their winter supply of spruce cones. The trees standing in the middens also typically served as sites for the squirrels’ nests (irregular spheres of grass in the lower branches) and additional storage of mushrooms and other items they gathered. Ground squir- rels were also common, especially in small clearings, and their extensive bur- row systems dotted the floor of the forest. At first, we concluded that these baby hares must have died of other causes and had then been scavenged by squirrels. We knew that both red and ground squirrels sometimes fed on carrion to supplement their mostly vegetarian diet. As our re- search progressed, however, we began to suspect that at least some of the carcasses must represent predation by the squirrels Martin W. Grosnick A summer of dining on a variety of herbaceous plants leaves a snowshoe hare, below, looking plump and well fed. In the winter, the hares turn to woody plants, such as willow, birch, and white spruce, right, for food. Stephen J. Krasemann, Photo Researchers, Inc. themselves. For one thing, the numbers of stashed hares just kept mounting, beyond what seemed reasonable if the squirrels were simply scavenging. For another, we couldn’t think what predator would kill so many of the baby hares and then leave them around. Coyotes and lynx generally leave little behind when feeding on such small prey. Two other potential mam- malian predators—weasels and martens— were scarce on our study site. And birds of prey, such as hawks and owls, typically ei- ther eat their prey at the spot where they made the kill or carry it off to their nests or special feeding trees. Several observations bolstered our sus- picions. During the course of our study, other biologists working in the area twice observed ground squirrels attacking and killing young hares. We also saw one red squirrel carrying a live, wounded leveret, and three others running away from freshly killed leverets. Just to be sure, however, we tested the scavenging effi- ciency of squirrels by placing carcasses of predator-killed leverets on our study sites. The squirrels only scavenged about one- 32 NATURAL History 2/93 quarter of them at the same time (early June) that we were finding evidence of squirrel predation for more than 85 per- cent of the juvenile mortalities. These findings, coupled with our observations of mother hares chasing squirrels from their litters, gave us strong evidence that both red squirrels and ground squirrels were in- deed predators of snowshoe hares. Over the course of the two summers of our study, we calculated that only about one-third of the baby hares survived th first two weeks of life. In the end, we con cluded that of those that died, about three quarters were killed by small mammalia predators, most likely red and groun squirrels. By contrast, only 5 percent o the radio-tagged leverets were killed b great-horned owls, northern goshawks and red-tailed hawks—animals generall thought of as significant predators of smal mammals. We have evidence from othe ssearch being conducted in the area that ery young hares sometimes wind up eing gulped down by coyotes and lynx nd eaten by northern harriers and north- m hawk owls. Even gray jays—robin- ized birds known as scavengers—have een seen killing baby hares. By the time they are two weeks old, the sverets are too big and too fast for the maller, opportunistic predators to catch. Jntil then, however, the best bet for a litter of young hares seems to be to lie low and to split up as soon as possible, so that if a predator does strike, it won’t be able to feast on an entire litter. Similarly, the less often they nurse, the less likely they are to be discovered. The behavior of young hares and their mothers makes a great deal of sense when considered as a defense against predators. The answers we have found, however, have left us with many new questions. Do squirrels prey extensively on leverets only when they are abundant? Does this preda- tion have a significant effect on the hare cycle, or would most of the leverets have been killed later by other predators any- way? To answer these and other questions, we will need to return to the boreal woods at different points in the hare cycle and see how the leverets fare then. But we are sure that for baby snowshoe hares, the forest will always be full of danger. 0 33 Victorian England’s Hippoman: From the Nile to the Thames, they loved Obaysch by Nina J. Root Even before he was purchased by the American showman P. T. Barnum in 1892, Jumbo the elephant was a world-famous attraction at the London Zoo (see “A Big Pain,” Natural History, March 1991). His name became part of our language, all but replacing “mammoth” as a synonym for immense, thus contributing to the durable oxymoron “jumbo shrimp.” Victorian zoogoers had another fa- vorite, however, whose star rose in the fir- mament of animal celebrities and then dis- appeared. He was a hippopotamus named Obaysch, the first hippo seen in Europe since the time of Roman circuses. Cap- tured in 1849, Obaysch arrived at pre- cisely the right moment to seize the atten- tion of London’s burgeoning middle class, for exotic animals were becoming a na- tional obsession. Natural history was a popular craze. As the study of God’s creations, it was con- sidered morally uplifting and compatible with Victorian notions of respectability. Young and old, especially “ladies,” col- lected shells and butterflies, pressed flow- ers, and raised hothouse orchids. Nature study was even healthful, prompting walks along the seashore or bird-watching tours through fields and woods. Victorian parlors displayed aquariums, fern collec- tions, butterfly cases, albums of seaweed, and popular books on natural history. Zo- ological and botanical parks flourished as thousands flocked to marvel at rare and unfamiliar species brought from the cor- ners of the Empire. Thus, the stage was set for the adulation of Obaysch, an enthusi- asm that amounted to hippomania. He was named for his native island of Obaysch in the White Nile, located south of Khartoum in the present Sudan. A few days after his birth, in the summer of 1849, hunters employed by the Viceroy of Egypt, Abbas Pasha, shot a female hip- popotamus and discovered her infant hid- ing among the reeds. When they tried to grab him, the slippery calf plunged into the river and almost got away. One man struck him with a boat hook, leaving a scar Obaysch carried for the rest of his life, and then lifted the dazed animal into the boat. Obaysch continued to struggle, almost 34 NATURAL History 2/93 ENN Soh FO) 4 “Se a aoa op yes inted a herd o potamuses on the Nile River for an 1861 ippo, »f London’s zoo animals. 10 O portfol AMNH Library Le iat gee Tea a A, > = = > S Ss aN S 2 8 S Ss — D DS S = ee h Obaysch’s statue, top, made of hardened Nile mud, and sheet music for the “Hippopotamus Polka,” left, survive from Victorian popular culture. Zoological Society of London Library Constant companions: keeper Hamet Safi Cannana and his celebrated charge, Obaysch, journeyed together to London from Cairo in 1850. AMNd Library apsizing the craft, but soon became ex- austed. The hippo’s extravagant transportation ) Cairo, courtesy of the Abbas Pasha, was notable event. A special boat was built to arry Obaysch along the Nile, escorted by n Nubian soldiers and their lieutenant. lis Highness the Abbas Pasha presented 1¢ animal to the British consul general, Ar. C. A. Murray, as a gift to the Zoologi- al Society of London, and was in turn iven several teams of fine greyhounds. Vith diplomatic pomp, the chief officer of 1e Pasha’s palace accompanied the hippo ) his temporary home at Cairo’s British onsulate. On November 14, 1849, Mr. Murray wrote to the Zoological Society of ondon to announce the new acquisition, yhich “is now in a yard at the back of my Ouse, and apparently in perfect health.” ight from the start, Obaysch was treated yith the care befitting a future celebrity. Vrote Murray, “It is only five or six 10nths old, and still lives entirely on milk; think a fresh importation of cows will be ecessary in Cairo, as our little monster akes about thirty quarts of milk daily for is share already.” Delighted by the enthusiastic reception f his gift, the Abbas Pasha ordered an- ther of his officers, with a party of sol- iers, to secure a young female from the Vhite Nile, so that he might ship a pair ack to England. The first expedition, lowever, was not successful in finding a uitable mate for Obaysch. Meanwhile, furray continued to report on the hippo’s TOgTESS: he Hippopotamus is quite well, and the de- ight of every one who sees him. He is as ame and playful as a Newfoundland puppy; nows his keepers, and follows them all ver the courtyard; in short, if he continues entle and intelligent as he promises to be, ie will be the most attractive object ever een in our Garden, and may be taught all he tricks usually performed by the ele- hant. Obaysch lived with the Murrays for everal months while suitable accommo- lations were built on a Pacific & Orient teamer. A keeper, Hamet Safi Cannana, ad been hired to stay with him night and lay. Hamet ended up sleeping on the floor beside his charge, because at night Obaysch would playfully tip him out of his hammock. In the spring of 1850, Hamet and his as- sistants, two professional snake charmers, lured Obaysch into a padded cart and took him to Alexandria, where they boarded the pilot steamer Ripon. On the ship’s main deck, a hippo house had been constructed, with steps leading into a tank that held 400 gallons of water. After a smooth crossing to Southampton, they traveled to London in a special train. Crowds gathered at every station, hoping to get a glimpse of the hippopotamus, but all they saw was Hamet, who popped out occasionally for air. On May 25, Obaysch and his keeper arrived in London, and were taken to the zoological gardens in Regents Park, where newly prepared quarters were to be the hippo’s permanent home. Zoo Officials had no previous experi- ence with hippos, but Obaysch’s human companion had the situation well in hand. The zoologist Sir Richard Owen reported that the strong attachment of the animal to its keeper removed every difficulty in its vari- ous transfers from ship to train, and from wagon to its actual abode. On arriving at the Gardens, the Arab walked first out of the transport van, with a bag of dates over his shoulder, and the beast trotted after him, now and then lifting up its huge grotesque muzzle and sniffing at its favourite dainties, Extraction of a fractured tooth by top-hatted zoo superintendent Abraham Bartlett, as sketched by a nineteenth-century London artist for Punch. AMNH Library Lewis Carroll’s nonsense rhyme about a hippo riding a London bus became part of his comic epic “Bruno and Sylvie.” AMNH Library with which it was duly rewarded on entering its apartment. Soon Obaysch was well settled in. He had a pool, a sleeping room covered with straw, and a stuffed sack pillow, “of which the animal duly avails itself when it sleeps.” Happy and contented only so long as his keeper was nearby, Obaysch grew “very impatient of any absence of its favourite attendant,” during which he would rise on his hind legs and lean heav- ily on the wooden fence. He ate a porridge made with large quantities of milk and maize meal mixed together, Lewis Carroll even wrote a poem about the hippo’s prodigious appetite: He thought he saw a Banker’s Clerk Descending from the bus: He looked again, and found it was A Hippopotamus: “Tf this should stay to dine,” he said, “There w teh for us!” 38 NATURAL His}ory 2/93 Several thousand people lined up each Saturday to see Obaysch. Queen Victoria brought her children to his paddock and even recorded observations on the hippo’s behavior and personality in her diary. Sil- ver models of Obaysch were sold in the Strand, and the “Hippopotamus Polka” became an instant hit. The popular press, especially the British humor magazine Punch, chronicled practically every aspect of H. R. H.’s (His Rolling Hulk’s) life, in- cluding the extraction of a broken tooth, his feud with the elephant keeper, and the time he and his new keeper unintention- ally went swimming together. After only a few years of hippomania, however, the public began to search for newer sensations. Even Charles Dickens decided that Obaysch was receiving too much attention and wrote an article in Household Words purporting to give equal time to the other zoo animals: the monkey screamed, at a specially convened court, that “favoritism is being shown the fat water-pig,” and the hyena wanted to know what people found so endearing about a “swimming swine.” In 1851, several suc- cessful rivals for the public’s attention ap- peared: a newly arrived elephant and her calf and a great anteater from South Amer- A mid-Victorian illustration, right, depicting a male hippo with his mate an calf was probably based on Obaysch’s famous zoo family. AMNH Library ica. According to. Punch, Obaysch w. petulant about these upstarts: I’m a hippish Hippopotamus and don’t know what to do. For the public is inconstant and a fickle one, too. It smiled once upon me, and now I’m quite forgot; Neglected in my bath, and left to go to pot. He regained some of his stardom, hov ever, in 1854, when the Pasha’s men f nally succeeded in capturing a young f male from his homeland, and sent her 1 London to be Obaysch’s mate. She we called Adhela, or Dil, and the two hippc lived together for twenty-three year: After producing a stillborn infant, the one that died in infancy, Dil finally gav birth to a female that she successfull reared. Originally misnamed “Gu Fawkes,” she was renamed “Miss Guy when keepers realized their mistake Obaysch’s daughter lived to the age thirty-six and left no offspring. When he died on March 20, 1878, at th fairly early age of 29, Punch note Obaysch’s passing with a long hipposoli oquy, which included the lines: URM’P! Urm’p! A feeble grunt! I fail apace. Old Hippo’s mighty yet melodious bass Sinks to a raucous whisper, short, not sweet!... s I dreamt of [the White Nile] last night the unctuous ooze, Where one might take one’s ease, and bask and snooze... Ah, well! I’ve had my triumphs, and am yet A Public Pet! With the exception of Jumbo, no othe captive animal’s life had been so thor oughly recorded and popularized a Obaysch’s, although he is all but forgotter today. Biographical material on the hip popotamus that captivated Victorian Eng land now rests in the library of the Zoolog ical Society of London. Visitors enterin; that library are greeted by a statue o Obaysch made of baked Nile mud. uy . aS tothe wines of Ernest and Julio Gallc A coqut, native to Puerto Rico, clings to a bromeliad leaf. Thomas R. Fletcher = Si % LU : “B - Li - oe ° : . fe " % I ad . as My Md ra i x cae eee Roe ae rs B a be . oe 7 . * a * oe # Frequent Fliers Each dawn, thousands of Puerto Rican rain forest frogs dive out of the treetops “Sige by Margaret M. Stewart A predawn downpour threatened at four o’clock in the morning, but still I sat on a boulder in the Puerto Rican rain forest waiting for something I had never seen: a shower of frogs. If frogs did indeed “rain” down, their behavior would explain sev- eral of my prior observations of the small frog called the coqui. I had been studying coquies for five years and knew their habi- tat well, even at night. I felt comfortable in the midlevel rain forest on the slopes of the Luquillo Mountains (see “This Land,” Natural History, October 1991), where tabonuco, guarea, Cecropia, and Sloanea trees formed a sixty-foot canopy over my head, and sierra palm fronds waved qui- etly in the balmy air. This area, near El Verde Field Station in the Caribbean Na- tional Forest, had become almost a second home for me. Every summer and between semesters I studied the frogs there. In 1979, two Cornell graduate students, Carol Beuchat and John Thorbjarnarson, told me about an unexpected experience they had had at dawn after attempting to watch coquies throughout the night. “Meg, we saw an amazing thing that you’ve got to see! At dawn the trees liter- ally rained frogs! Frogs were ‘plopping’ all around us. What is going on?” It was four years before I was able to follow up on their observations. But there I was on a warm June night waiting for the falling frogs. Sure enough, at about five A.M., something landed on the leaf litter near me. It sounded heavier than a falling leaf, but not so sharp as crackling twigs: a sort of dull “plop.” I rushed to the spot and found a coqui, sitting on top of a leaf that was still swaying from the frog’s impact. Then I heard something land on a palm frond near my head. Another coqui! I heard several more, but could not see them. Coquies are so well camouflaged that sometimes I could stare directly at one on the brownish leaf litter and not see it until it moved. Over the next few weeks, I repeated my dawn vigil many times. Some days, showers made it too difficult to hear the frogs land. On other mornings, strong gusts of wind moved through the forest just when the frogs should have been 4 tO ’ “plopping” and I could not hear them falling. I had been studying population regula- tion and reproductive biology of several species in this region. The coqui is the largest (less than two inches long) and most numerous of some twelve species of Eleutherodactylus that live in Puerto Rico’s montane rain forests. I was curious to know how this forest, which seemed relatively free of insects, could support frog populations as dense as 10,000 indi- viduals per acre. To understand the frogs’ population dynamics, I had set up experi- mental study plots by hanging many tree trunks with small bamboo “frog houses”: six-inch sections of bamboo stem, covered on one end to prevent desiccation. Co- quies, like other frogs of the genus, do not breed in ponds. They lay eggs in rolled leaves, under bark, in tree holes, or in other damp, semienclosed spaces. Males brood the eggs, which hatch directly into tiny housefly-sized froglets. (see Natural History, May 1987). Nocturnal by habit, coquies spend the day in their nest sites, emerging at dusk to call, forage, and court. At dawn they are back in their safe hiding places. I had suspected that available nest and retreat sites were a major factor limit- ing population density, and my first exper- iments abundantly confirmed that view. The frogs readily accepted the bamboo houses, which allowed me to elevate the populations in my experimental plots to as much as five times those in control plots lacking the artificial shelters. Except for brooding fathers guarding their egg clutches against predation by other males and from desiccation, frogs left their houses on most nights before eight o’clock, and returned before seven o'clock in the morning. Males, who: were calling for mates, preferred to sit on pep- per bush leaves in the understory at night, but females and noncalling males disap- peared and I did not know where they went. The obviou € was the canopy. Were the frogs climbing up into the trees to seek food or, perhaps, to avoid ground- dwelling predators »d escape competi- tion from other frog; 44 NATURAL History 2/93 | hotographed repeatedly with a strobe light during free fall, coqui, left, adjusts its position in midflight. During its parachuting” drop, below, a coqui assumes a typical played-out posture, which slows descent. sth studio photographs by C.E. Miller; MIT Fortunately, there was a seventy-two- ot aluminum tower in the forest near the eld station. From the tower platforms, laced at six-foot intervals, we could peer ito the canopy at various levels and see ogs sitting on large limbs and leaves. We lso tied frog houses to the corners of ten latforms on the tower. From our observa- ons we learned that frogs used retreats nd nests at all levels except the treetops Jat protruded above the canopy, which jere too dry for the frogs. Frog houses bove the canopy quickly dried out be- ause winds were much stronger there Jan within the protective leaf cover. My ‘ornell University colleagues on coqui tudies, Harvey Pough and his students, ad learned that frogs may dry out during 1e night in the canopy unless they are able ) rehydrate. Frogs do not drink, but ab- orb water from a thin area of abdominal kin, called the pelvic patch. Normally, co- uies can replace water during the day imply by staying in their moist retreats. I ave watched frogs, just after plopping down from the canopy, spread themselves against wet moss on tree roots to rehy- drate. In time, I learned that most climbing occurred after at least three days of rain, when frogs are fully hydrated. My assistant Ulmar Grafe enjoyed stay- ing on the tower; he spent several nights there observing the coquies as they re- turned to their bamboo houses. When it was raining, the frogs sometimes slid backward along the tower’s slippery alu- minum support rods, despite enlarged toe discs, and had to make several tries to reach home. Eventually, we observed frogs jumping as much as forty-five feet from their bamboo houses on the tower to the ground below. Since we knew such falls wouldn’t hurt the frogs, we decided to drop them from various heights to observe the behavior they use to control and break their falls. I “jumped” the frogs from different heights on the tower while observers on the ground timed their descent with watches. As each frog entered free fall, it extended its arms and legs, bent at the knee and elbow joints, and spread its fingers and toes. The frogs rotated slowly as they de- scended. Apparently, spreading the limbs stabilizes the body and keeps it from top- pling over and over during the fall. We observed the same behavior in a close relative of the coqui, Eleuthero- dactylus portoricensis, which also lives in the forest. Although these frogs are not true gliders, they can influence the direc- tion of their fall, deflecting it by as much as three to six feet from the vertical. Co- quies fall at angles less than 45° from the vertical, a behavior known as parachuting. True gliding frogs descend at angles greater than 45° and can turn in “flight.” Sharon Emerson’s studies show that the Wallace’s flying frog greatly influences the speed and direction of its fall. Unlike the coquies, these Borneo frogs have webbed feet and skin flaps. When we simultaneously dropped a live frog and a dead frog from heights of up to forty feet on the tower, the live frog 45 always fell more slowly than the dead frog. The posture and extended arms and legs make a difference in fall rate, even for a 2.5 to 3.6 gram frog. Because they are so light, coquies land unharmed. I reasoned that if most nonbrooding frogs go to the canopy to forage, we should be able to see many of them head- ing up tree trunks—yet we had rarely ob- served them climbing. I finally realized why. The frogs were going after their din- ner at the same time we were cooking our evening meal of beans and rice in the tiny field station kitchen. I mobilized two of my assistants, Nancy Humphrey and John Lasher, and we marked fifty adjacent for- est trees with numbered strips of yellow tape. During what had been our dinner hour, from dusk until after dark, using flashlights and moving quickly from one tree to the next, we counted all frogs . Climbing each trunk, then noted the tree’s identification numbers. Sure enough, most frogs climbed between 7:00 and 7:30, with as many as eight frogs climbing one trunk. By 7:30, the forest was dark, and the coqui chorus became ear-splitting. After making many counts under different weather con- ditions and at different times of the year, we ascertained that regardless of season, more frogs climbed on warm, humid nights and after wet days than when the weather was cool, dry, or windy. One of my team was usually “plopped” on by a coqui during the night. I remember my alarm in the dark of night when a coguif landed on my head! Not all frogs waited for dawn to return from the canopy; dry- ing winds brought some down earlier. We were surprised to learn that most frogs climbed during a fifteen-minute pe- riod. Why such coordinated mass move- ments? An important reason may be to keep from becoming another creature’s dinner. Several large invertebrate preda- tors wait on the tree trunks for large insects and frogs. Among them are tarantulas that build lichen-covered “hides” on the tree trunk, emerging at night to ambush prey. Another is an arachnid relative of scorpi- ons known as the guava, hose elongated first pair of legs detect a) 2roaching prey. 46 NATURAL History 2/93 FISH GOTTA SWIM, FROGS GOTTA FLY by Sharon B. Emerson While a coqui has no special anatomy to assist its airborne locomotion, its cousin in Borneo—Wallace’s flying frog—is well adapted for gliding through the air. First described by the British naturalist and evolutionist Alfred Russel Wallace in 1869, Wallace’s flying frog seems de- signed for flight. Most arboreal frogs are slender, but the flying frog is downright skinny, built for lightness, with parts of its shoulder and pelvic girdles often visible through the skin. In addition, Wallace’s flying frog has enlarged hands and feet, enormous toe pads, full webbing between fingers and toes, and lateral flaps of skin on its arms and legs. Close to four inches in body length (more than 60 percent of all frogs are under one inch), it is colored a bright chartreuse green, with brilliant yel- low and black lines marking the webbing between toes and fingers—a spectacular sight as it sails through the air. At home in the canopy of the Bornean rain forest, 50 to 150 feet high, the frog must descend close to the ground to breed. Smaller treefrogs can use water trapped in An illustration of Wallace's flying frog, from The Malay Archipelago, by Alfred Russel Wallace (1869) Margaret M. Stewart & the axils of plants or treeholes as nurseries but these large frogs produce big tadpoles which need more room. At breeding time the adults glide down to vegetation tha hangs just above small pools on the fores floor. There each pair produces a clutch o externally fertilized eggs, embedded in < foam nest, which they attach to a leaf When tadpoles hatch, they wriggle free o: the foam and drop into the pool, where they develop into frogs. Of the 3,400 species of living frogs fewer than a dozen are known to be “fliers,” although none of them really flies Rather they glide, holding their hands anc feet fixed laterally to their bodies and de- scending at an angle of more than 45‘ from the vertical. Mimi Koehl, of the University of Cali: fornia, Berkeley, and I have made anc tested biomechanical models of various materials to learn how frogs’ shapes affec their gliding ability. With all models, the speed of fall is related to their weight pet unit of surface. To descend at a slowet speed, they would need a lower weigh i/or increased surface area. Wallace’s ing frog has evolved both. It weighs less n other frogs of the same body length J, with webs extended, has a much ater surface area. Models also had to roximate the behavioral postures as- ned by frogs in flight. The coquies of etto Rico, for instance, “parachute” out trees while assuming the same splayed- pose as Wallace’s frog, even though y lack any special anatomy for gliding. We built a series of frog models that we ild test in a wind tunnel, just as airplane nufacturers test various aerodynamic signs. By adjusting limb positions and unging the models’ shapes, we could asure the effects on flight efficiency. st, we analyzed Wallace’s flying frog by ling each of its specialized features in- yendently to a model and recording the del’s performance with each addition. our surprise, when all the flying special- tions were in place, the total effect was ich greater than the sum of each fea- e’s individual contribution. The group flying adaptations appears to have ived as an integrated system, rather n piecemeal. When the typical flying posture was ipled with the true flying frog’s shape, sry aspect of aerial performance in- ased. Such frog models traveled longer ‘izontal distances and were more ma- iverable in the air than those that had the imal flying shape but were tested with ibs drawn close to the body. Either with without the “flier’s” shape, laterally ex- ded hands and feet dramatically in- sed stability. When the hind limbs re placed parallel and behind the body any frog model, it always landed upside wn. In contrast, when the limbs were ex- ded at right angles to the body, models yays landed right side up. When frogs th as the coqui spread out their hands 1 feet, lateral to the body, they gain sta- ity during descent despite the lack of y special modifications for gliding. eir “skydiving” behavior suggests a usible antecedent for how Bornean fly- ‘frogs may have evolved. aron B. Emerson is a research professor the Department of Biology at the Uni- ‘sity of Utah. Her research has explored - relationships between morphology, formance, and ecology in vertebrate mals. The misty rain forest canopy that surrounds the mountain El Yunque in Puerto Rico’s Caribbean National Forest provides prime habitat for coquies. Mark Warner The guava grabs frogs with its spiny pin- cers, then defleshes the frogs with its mouthparts. Fifteen of our fifty marked transect trees had a resident guavd. Somehow the frogs have “learned” to time their ascent pre- cisely, for these predators emerge only after 7:30, just after the peak of the frogs’ upward migration. Not all frogs made it, however, for occasionally we saw a guavd deflesh a coqui, and we also saw tarantulas catching coquies. Coquies are also menaced by the diminutive Puerto Rican owl, a nocturnal bird in the forest. We don’t know how or when the owl catches frogs, but its nests are littered with coqui carcasses. Frogs de- scend from the canopy just before their other enemies, the lizard cuckoo or the pearly-eyed thrasher, become active. At dusk, when the frogs emerge, these hunt- ing birds are becoming inactive for the night. Even so, coquies run a high risk from both invertebrate and vertebrate predators. What triggers the coquies to climb? Ap- parently light levels set the time, for the ascent varied with cloud cover or season- ally as day length changed (it varies by two hours during the year). By measuring illumination on the forest floor at both dawn and dusk, we learned that the frogs time their movements precisely with light levels. The frogs’ vocalizations provided an- other clue to their behavior. At dawn, the coqui chorus switches from advertisement calls (co-qui) to aggressive calls (co-qui- qui-qui, co-co-qui-qui), and the opposite switch occurs at dusk. Most aggressive calls are given at dawn just after frogs have plopped to the ground and returned to their retreats. In the evening, they give the same calls most frequently just before they leave their retreats for low calling sites or the canopy. Such sounds may even stimulate stragglers to call and to move at the appropriate time. Why would the little frogs expend so much energy and risk death by climbing way. up to the canopy every night? I sus- pected that there must be a greater abun- dance of food in the canopy, but observa- tions of night feeding were almost impossible. How could we learn what the frogs were eating in the treetops? I de- cided to catch frogs after they dropped to the ground and check their stomach con- tents. Frogs, like fishes, lack strong sphincter muscles between the esophagus AT At El Verde Field Station, a coqui secures itself to a leaf, below, using suction pads on its feet. Wallace's flying frog, right, is noticeably skinny, an adaptation for gliding. and the stomach. A little water squirted into their mouths will flush out their last meal—a convenient way to obtain data without killing the frog. My efforts to catch enough canopy frogs at dawn failed, but in 1989 we were able to take advantage of a new set of canopy towers, from which assistant Mike Flynn captured several frogs just as they were about to drop from the high branches. Sure enough, they contained many more food items in their stomachs than did frogs taken near the ground, in- cluding several prey species not found in understory frogs. Canopy foraging pro- vides a feast worth the effort and risk. Another benefit of foraging in the canopy is that it allows the frogs to feed over a much wider area ‘han does the un- derstory. When we couted frogs climb- ing tree trunks, we found ‘3+ on favorable nights as much as 70 perce .it oi the popu- 48 NATURAL History 2/93 lation took to the canopy. Larger trees with fuller limbs had more frogs using their trunk “corridor.” Since coquies are very aggressive and intolerant of other individ- uals, the distance between calling males is never less than twenty inches, and hori- zontal home territories average ten feet across. In the canopy, the frogs are “lay- ered” on the leaf surfaces, which gives them more than fifty feet of vertical range to occupy. Perhaps canopy foraging is the reason the forest can support such high densities of coquies. But why keep returning to the ground? Coquies, unlike most other arboreal frogs, do not need to find ponds or even tiny pools between plant leaves for reproduc- tion. They do need moisture, however, so most coquies lay their eggs close to the ground where desiccation is less of a prob- lem. Unless rains are frequent, the canopy becomes too hot and dry during the day. Philip A. Savo Climbing trees at night and jumping ou at dawn are behaviors not limited to frogs Charles Elton, the great English ecologist described such behavior for many wing less insects in Wytham Woods near Ox ford. Because of the abundant traffic o1 tree trunks that link the ground to th canopy, Elton likened them to the Grea Trunk Road of India. Caterpillars of man‘ nocturnal moths head down toward th ground by day and “gallop” back uy trunks after dark to feed in the canopy dur ing the night. The abundance of insec food in the canopy can provide fine forag ing for arboreal frogs. Since most birds important predators on both insects anc frogs, are diurnal, foraging at night can be much safer. Climatic conditions at nigh are also better for small creatures that ars susceptible to drying or overheating. For small animals, parachuting anc gliding are safe and energetically inexpen sive ways of getting to the ground anc avoiding predators. Most probably de: scend in steps rather than leaping the en: tire distance to the ground in one jump, al though they are capable of doing that Palm fronds provide broad surfaces fo landing pads. I even learned to recognize the sound of a frog landing on a pain frond. True gliding frogs, with webbec feet, occur in several different families o: frogs and are found in arboreal habitats or every continent except Antarctica. Para: chuting frogs, such as the coqui, are not s¢ easily recognized by their shape, but the} may be much more common among arbo real frogs than anyone expected. Just this summer in upstate New York, I watchee the common gray treefrog jump from the trees to the ground at the pond edge a dusk. It was moving from the canopy where it spends the day, to the water tc breed. The coqui, by contrast, goes from the understory, where it spends the day, te the canopy at night to forage. But it wa: the high density of the coquies that made their parachuting behavior obvious tc Carol and John, who just happened to be in the forest at dawn when the litter was dry enough so that they could hear the frogs raining down. O ‘ short-tailed weasel, or ermine, searches for prey neath the snow’s surface. fight Kuhn The Underside of Winter /hen spring comes, the hidden world beneath the snow may wake up first y Peter J. Marchand Tt was a moody fall day in the Colorado ockies when Joseph Merritt hitched up s heavy pack, gathered as much research juipment in his arms as he could man- se, and started the arduous climb toward iwot Ridge. He was headed for the high ruce-fir forest 11,000 feet up the moun- inside, where he planned to set out a grid live-traps to study the population dy- imics of the red-backed vole. For a mam- alogist, his purpose was hardly unusual. e would be capturing and examining the cretive animals, then marking and re- asing them to monitor individual devel- yment and population changes over time. That made his task more difficult than sual, however, was that this investigation ould take him all through the long winter id into the following spring—a time hen most biologists were in heated oms, comfortably working over data om their summer field season. To ob- rve his animals through the winter, Mer- tt had to haul all the paraphernalia neces- ry to construct chimneys around his aps so that after the snows covered the ‘ound with a deep blanket, he would still ive undisturbed access to the forest floor. By late spring, Merritt had acquired ore the demeanor of a Canadian fur trap- r than that of the doctoral candidate he as, although certain aspects of his rou- ne would surely have perplexed and ‘obably amused the former. Eight days a onth, from December to June, Merritt la- riously broke fresh trail on snowshoes reach his trapline. He located the traps, e at a time, by markers placed overhead the trees. At each trapsite, he would ‘op his pack in the snow, open his heavy cket, and start shoveling. About three et down into the snowpack, Merritt ould slow down a bit and scrape around gingerly until he found the top of the trap chimney. No matter how hard the work, or how many times he had done it, his antici- pation at the first sight of the trap invari- ably recharged him. One bright spring day in early June, Merritt was rewarded for his effort with a dividend. He carefully brushed the snow from the chimney of trap C12 and lifted the cover. With a pair of long wooden tongs, he reached another three feet down and gently clasped the small aluminum box at the bottom of the shaft. Once he had retrieved the box and brought it into the glistening light above the snowpack, he coaxed a small russet animal with jet black eyes, and barely any ears, from the warmth of the trap and examined it carefully. He was not expecting what he found in his trap this time: the vole was a juvenile, per- haps only two weeks old, born under the depths of snow two months before it would first feel the warmth of sunlight on the forest floor. Merritt examined it again, recorded its weight, and with a twinge of excitement, returned the young animal, christened CG-HR3, back to the dark abyss under the snowpack. Three hundred miles to the west, in Utah’s Wasatch National Forest, Frank Salisbury nudged his cumbersome snow- cat into a small, deeply drifted clearing among the aspens of Franklin Basin. With a sigh of relief, he cut the engine and sat for a few minutes listening to the stillness. Everything around him appeared pristine and natural, but for one thing: next to his machine, protruding from the snowpack, was a large, corrugated steel silo, complete with ladder and a covered hatchway on top. After a thoughtful moment, Salisbury pulled himself up and stood on the cleated track of the snowcat. He reached for a rung of the ladder and in a few steps disap- peared down into the silo. Salisbury was on an odd mission for NASA. A plant physiologist from Utah State University, he had been awarded a grant from the space agency to study plant growth under extreme environments, and he was on his way now to his laboratory— not in outer space, but instead in the inner twilight of the world beneath the deep Utah snowpack. Salisbury had built a growth chamber below ground, equipped with numerous roof-level ports and al- coves, whereby he could monitor the sub- tlest responses of plant cells to the envi- ronment of this cold, snowy underworld. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he moved across the small room to the far corner and carefully detached a metal plate from near the ceiling, opening an un- obstructed window into the dim world Voles often dig openings in the snow surface, perhaps to release built-up carbon dioxide, or perhaps to see if spring is on its way. Rod Planck £24 Over time, ice grains at the base of the snowpack change their shape and size and become brittle. Eventually they dissipate, creating open spaces under the snow, below. Peter J. Marchand around him. He peered through the narrow slit of emptiness under the delicate roof of the snowpack at a tray of germinating seeds. Satisfied with what he saw, he backed away carefully and prepared to measure with sophisticated instruments what the human eye could detect but not quantify—the penetration of solar energy to his responding plants through nearly six feet of snow. These observations of plant and animal activity under snow were not the first on record. Some of the earliest impressions of life in this environment come from the pi- oneering efforts of the Soviet ecologist A.N. Formozov, who nearly fifty years ago espoused the importance of snow cover to the successful overwintering of small mammals in the north. The studies by Merritt and Salisbury, however, sug- gested that plants and animals were not merely surviving the rigors of winter under the sheltering snow cover, but were growing, prospering, and even reproduc- ing. Their research raised several new questions about the true nature of this un- seen world. If plants and animals under six feet of snow were behaving as if it were spring, what signals were they receiving from the “outside”? And what changes were occurring within their realm? These are among the questions my students and I have been asking over the past decade 59 Natiratr Uretrory 7/02 Many small mammals, such as the red-backed voles at right, take advantage of this subnivean world. Sandra Miller about this environment, known as the “subnivean,” in which plants and animals may carry on life for up to seven months of the year. In the broadest sense of the word, sub- nivean refers to any space beneath the upper surface of the snowpack that may be occupied by plants or animals. Thus, a deer mouse that tunnels into the snowpack from the surface to form what I call a “resting cavity” is temporarily exploiting one dimension of the subnivean environ- ment. However, in a more specific sense, the term subnivean refers to the nego- tiable, although often discontinuous, space at the base of the snowpack, where the snow meets the ground. Much of the free space beneath the snowpack owes its origin to the metamor- phosis of snow crystals as they undergo transformation of shape and size. Almost from the moment a snowflake comes to rest, molecules on the surface of the ice begin migrating from sharp points to eon- cavities in the crystal to form more or less rounded ice grains. These grains of ice pack more closely together, resulting in a rapid increase in the density and bonding of the snow. In time, however, the ice grains at the base of the snowpack begin to disintegrate, forming brittle, loosely ag- gregated crystals, known as “depth hoar,” which break up easily and eventually dis- sipate. These changes occur in response t temperature and vapor-concentration gra dients within the snowpack, with wate vapor migrating from the lower, warme layers to the colder strata above, where condenses. Ice grains in the upper portio of the snowpack thus grow by accretion, ¢ the expense of those dissipating near th base. The process continues as long as" temperature gradient exists, so that ove time numerous voids develop within th litter layer under the snowpack. This is th subnivean space, where so much life goe on unseen, that I have sought to character ize in terms of its thermal stability, ligh regime, and air quality. The steep temperature gradients oftei observed within the snowpack are testi mony to the excellent insulative qualitie of snow. I have recorded subnivean tem peratures of 32° F beneath just sixteet inches of snow when the air above was ; frigid -31° F. This capacity to buffer win ter’s snapping cold is the primary advan —— ge of snow cover to subnivean plants and animals. However, not all snow cover is reated equally. Seemingly small differ- aces in snowpack density can make a sig- ificant difference in its thermal conduc- vity. From the onset of my studies I ceded a simple way to evaluate the insu- tive quality of a snow cover to determine ow much snow under a given set of cir- amstances is enough to provide the ther- lal protection that plants and animals eed. ; Over the course of several winters at the enter for Northern Studies in northern ermont, my students and I implanted nu- lerous probes within the snow and sub- ivean space to monitor temperature fluc- lations as snow cover changed over time. ve devised a simple index, dividing snow epth by density, to characterize the ther- ial quality of the snowpack. When we lotted our index against the ratio of air- ‘mperature fluctuations above and be- eath the snow, we found a magic number. Any combination of depth-divided-by- density that yielded an index value of 200 conferred maximum thermal protection; further additions of snow made little dif- ference. This meant, for example, that 8 inches of snow of 0.1 g/cm? (equivalent to avery fresh snowfall) was enough to com- pletely buffer short-term temperature fluc- tuations in the subnivean environment. As the snowpack aged and density increased to 0.2 g/cm’, then nearly twice as much snow was required for the same thermal protection. Our index proved to be just the tool we needed to assess the insulative value of different snowpacks. But perhaps of greater importance was the experience we gained collecting the data. What emerged from these studies was a vision of a sub- nivean world that, under a moderately deep snowpack, is characterized by low but stable temperatures, hovering right at the freezing mark through much of the winter. Even when spring air temperatures warm to well above freezing, the sub- nivean environment remains near 32° F until the last of the snow melts. (In the Far North, where snowcover may be thin and air temperatures very low, subnivean tem- peratures may be as low as —23° F.) How then, in such a constant tempera- ture environment, do plants and animals monitor the progression of the season? What switches on plant growth in a timely manner under the snow, and what told Merritt’s voles that it was time to repro- duce? Photoperiod, or changing day length, is a nearly universal cue for a num- ber of seasonal developments in plants and animals, so it seems a likely possibility here, too. But how might organisms under a deep snowpack perceive changes in day length? Is snow sufficiently transparent for plants and animals to measure the twilight of dawn and dusk as it shifts with the sea- sons? More questions. As I mulled over the possibilities and weighed the available evidence, I became particularly intrigued by one aspect of Merritt’s discovery. In the first spring of his study, voles became reproductively ac- tive in early March, ten weeks before the mid-May disappearance of the snow cover. During the second winter of his study, the snow accumulated to even greater depths and lasted longer—a full month longer—into mid-June. The onset of reproductive activity under the snow- pack was delayed by one month, again commencing ten weeks before the disap- pearance of the snow. If the voles were keying into seasonal changes in light, they must have been using some measure other than day length. With this in mind, I began to investigate the light-transmitting properties of snow in closer detail. From the work of Salis- bury and his students, I knew that only a small amount of light, principally in the blue and blue-green region of the spec- trum, reached the depths of the snowpack. But I also knew that snowpack density in- fluenced light transmission in uncertain ways and that in the spring the snowpack undergoes pronounced structural changes, so I decided to go after more data with the 53 ! 10w buttercups blossom beneath e snow, which then melts around eir open flower petals. nt and Donna Dannen ‘Ip of my students. We devised a simple ‘perimental procedure in which we could ympact snow to increasing densities and easure light coming through it with a nsitive silicon photocell, all the while aintaining a constant snow depth. With the changes in density that natu- lly. follow a fresh snowfall, we saw a ogressive decrease in the amount of sht passing through the snow. As we in- eased snow density to 0.3-0.4 g/cm’, ilues typical of the upper part of the iowpack in late winter, only 2 to 3 per- nt of the light that penetrated the surface the snow (a very small fraction of the tal incident light) reached a depth of six ches. We compacted the snow as hard as e could, to a density of 0.5 g/cm’, and sarly extinguished the light coming rough. We had reached the “critical den- ty’ of snow, the maximum density that in be attained by compaction alone. Then something interesting happened. ) obtain still higher densities experimen- lly, we warmed our snow to the melting nt, greatly accelerating the coalescence ‘individual grains. We were duplicating process that takes place naturally over ne within the snowpack and that is facil- ated by melting and refreezing in the ring. To our collective surprise, our light tinction curve took an unexpected turn. nce past the critical density, we began to e a small but steady increase in light ansmission. Now, the greater the density, e more light that came through the snow. ‘here light had previously been re- acted, scattered, and eventually absorbed y the many tiny ice grains within the \owpack, it was now passing through rger, fused grains with much less scatter- g and absorption. Like most small advances in our under- anding, this one came as a revelation, id it changed my view of the subnivean alm. I now believe that throughout much the winter, organisms confined to the ibnivean environment operate in virtual irkness. I calculate that less than 0.1 per- nt of incident light reaches the ground om late December to early April where ow depth is greater than sixteen inches and density exceeds 0.25 g/cm’. The in- crease in ambient light after the winter sol- stice is offset by continued accumulation and increasing density of the snowpack— until the spring thaw. Once surface melt- water begins to percolate into the snow- pack and refreeze, the structure and density of the snowpack change rapidly, and the trend of diminishing light is re- versed. Like the coming of spring light in the Arctic, dawn slowly breaks over the subnivean world. This, I believe, must be part of the answer to the timing of endoge- nous rhythms in plants and animals under the snowpack. It is surely not the only pos- sibility, however. Another possibility is tied to a curious habit of voles: in many areas, these little rodents construct tunnels through the snow that dead-end at the surface. As For- mozov noted in his early writings, “after each fresh snowfall the voles clear these ‘windows,’ but very rarely come out of them.” He postulated that the tunnels “probably serve to ventilate the deeper parts of the burrow.” Thereafter all such tunnels became known as “ventilation shafts.” The premise here is that carbon dioxide released by soil microorganisms, plant roots, even the voles themselves, eventually accumulates beneath the snow to deleterious levels and that the animals deliberately ventilate the subnivean envi- ronment by constructing these tunnels. Whether CO, accumulation is, in fact, the driving force for the voles’ tunnel building, or whether there are other expla- nations, remains problematical. My stu- dents and I have collected air samples from beneath the snowpack with meticu- lous care, using a pulse pump to draw short breaths of air with as little disturb- ance to the subnivean atmosphere as pos- sible. We sampled a wide range of habitats under a variety of weather conditions, and we found that under some circumstances CO, accumulations did indeed exceed am- bient concentrations, sometimes by as much as five-fold (levels twice that high have been reported by others). But we also observed that high levels of CO, were usu- ally transient, with the gas diffusing read- Light passing through snow crystals, top diagram, is refracted, or bent. As it scatters, some is absorbed. In general, the denser the snowpack, the less the light that gets through. Past a certain density, however, light transmission actually increases; at very high densities ice grains merge, bottom diagram, reducing the total surface area available for refraction and absorption of light. ily through the snowpack, especially on windy days. And in the laboratory we found that the amount of CO, accumulat- ing overnight in a ventilated nest-box oc- cupied by a single vole was frequently at least ten times greater than ambient levels. The voles in this case were provided with an escape route to a low CO, environment, which they explored frequently when they were active, but while resting they felt in- sufficient discomfort at the higher CO, levels to abandon their nests. So we are left with the possibility that “ventilation shafts” in nature serve some other purpose. I have excavated many such tunnels, sometimes wondering if the unexplained dips and turns might simply represent random wanderings of restless voles under the snow. One tunnel that I fol- lowed nosed twelve inches below the sur- face and meandered for more than twelve cc Pasque flowers are among the first flowers to bloom in the spring. They get a head start under the snow, developing some leaves and flower buds, and are ready to open as soon as the snow melts. John W. Matthews; DRK Photo feet horizontally, before plunging to sub- nivean depths at the base of a willow thicket. I encountered two resting cavities along the way, one sixteen inches and the other nine feet away from the “window”; both had been used considerably, as evi- denced by the accumulations of scat. Whatever drives the voles to construct these tunnels and keep the windows clear, it does bring them to the surface and thus to the daylight. Perhaps, I mused, these frequent excursions to the surface enable the voles to keep track of the changing season, constantly resetting their biologi- cal clocks to stay in synchrony with the — world above them. However, there are areas where voles are abundant but where tunnels to the surface are conspicuously absent, particularly in deep snow, such as in the Rocky Mountain site where Joe Merritt worked. So I am left with my ear- lier suspicion that in an environment char- acterized by constant temperature and un- wavering darkness through much of the winter, a spring turnaround in light pene- tration to the subnivean is somehow of paramount importance in triggering growth and reproduction. In a fledgliny, science with unknowns racing far aheac “\ answers, I am obliged 56 NATURAL History 2/93 Unseen but not necessarily unheard, small mammals living beneath the snowpack may not always escape the sharp ears of a fox. Stephen J. Krasemann, DRK Photo to speculate on one more intriguing ques- tion. Could it be that plants are the princi- pal timekeepers of the subnivean world? We know from the research of Salisbury and his students that many plants actively grow under the snowpack; some, like tansy mustard and snow speedwell, germi- nate from seed, while others, including spring beauty, dogtooth violet, western coneflower, and the common yarrow, all sprout from underground storage organs. A few species, including the appropriately named snow buttercup, even open their flowers into the snow. Undoubtedly much of the chemical energy for this activity comes from utilization of stored reserves, yet the possible role of light-energy pene- trating the snow cannot be ignored. The blue and blue-green light measured at the bottom of the snowpack by Salisbury’s group is of optimal wavelength for absorp- tion by photosynthetic pigments. And these same researchers have observed chlorophyll synthesis (a chemical reaction requiring light) in leaves under the snow, suggesting that plants may indeed be uti- lizing some of the energy that filters down from above. Regardless of energy source, the plant growth processes that Salisbury observed require active metabolism, involving the synthesis of many biochemical com- pounds, which means that there is chemi- cal information flowing. And there is a growing body of evidence that some of the chemicals regulating growth in plants may directly stimulate reproductive activity in small mammals that ingest them. Gib- berellic acid, a growth hormone especially prevalent in germinating seed, is one such compound; and a glycoside derivative pre- sent in vegetatively growing young plants (known as 6-Methoxybenzoxazolinone, or 6-MBOA) is yet another compound with demonstrated effectiveness. So perhaps the voles under deep snow cover are get- ting their information, and the stimulus to breed, from the food they eat. Plants, as re- ceptors of light energy and mediators of biochemical processes in herbivores, may be the ultimate harbinger of spring in the subnivean world. O Cushenbury Canyon, e @ California by Robert H. Mohlenbrock Only fifty miles east of Los Angeles, the San Bernardino National Forest pro- vides a wide range of vegetation, from the creosote bush and burrobrush of the Mo- jave Desert to the ground-hugging alpine plants that grow above treeline on 11,499- foot Mount San Gorgonio, the highest of the San Bernardino Mountains. Between these extremes are extensive woodlands of pinyon pine and juniper; mixed conifer forests of white fir, sugar pine, and pon- derosa pine; and subalpine forests with limber and lodgepole pines. The terrain consists mostly of granite and quartzite rock, punctuated by outcrops of carbonate rock, including limestone and dolomite. These outcrops provide the only home of five very rare plants: Parish’s daisy, Cushenbury buckwheat, Cushenbury milk vetch, the San Bernardino Mountains bladderpod, and Cushenbury oxytheca. The carbonate outcrops lie in a thirty- five-mile band running east-west along the northern slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains, at elevations between 3,500 h's daisy is one of several species coxfined to areas of carbonate rock. Pho " ins Austin-MeDermon 58 Naruxat History 2/93 and 8,000 feet. The five rare plants grow at scattered sites within this zone, most often in the understory beneath pinyon pine and California juniper, alongside the more common mountain mahogany, Mormon tea, and Mojave yucca. All but the San Bernardino Mountains bladderpod can be found in a deeply incised ravine known as Cushenbury Canyon (the bladderpod is confined to adjacent Big Bear Valley). Parish’s daisy is a ten-inch-tall peren- nial with rose-colored flower heads and narrow leaves covered by soft, silvery hairs. It is named for the nineteenth-cen- tury California explorer-botanist S. B. Parish, who first described it and some of the other five rarities. Cushenbury buckwheat has tiny, white- woolly leaves, which grow in dense mats up to twenty inches wide. In May and June, clusters of cream-colored flowers rise on four-inch-tall stalks above the cushion of leaves; the flowers turn pur- plish as they begin to wither. The sprawl- ing Cushenbury milk vetch radiates stems The flowers of Cushenbury buckwheat turn purplish as they wither. Agave, a plant found at the fringes of the Mojave Desert, grows on the floor of Cushenbury Canyon. In the distance, mining operations have exposed an outcrop of limestone. Noella Ballenger and Jalien Tulley about twelve inches long. Small clusters of purple, sweetpea-shaped flowers appear near the ends of the stems. The San Bernardino Mountains bladderpod is an eight-inch-tall member of the mustard family that bears small yellow flowers, sil- very-hairy leaves, and an inflated seed pod. Rarest of all, and the only annual, is the Cushenbury oxytheca, a four-inch-tall, white-flowered plant related to the buck- wheat. The carbonate rock that supports these plants also poses the greatest threat to their survival, for it is a desirable commodity. It is So pure that pharmaceutical companies use it as an ingredient in antacids, and other industries use it in sugar refining and rubber manufacturing, as flux for steel, as a whitener for paper, and for fixing dyes in San Bernardino Mountains bladderpod grows only in Big Bear Valley. Photographs by Marianne Austin-McDermon 60 NATURAL History 2/93 fabrics. The carbonate is also mined for conversion to cement, including the smooth, final coat applied to swimming pools. Forest plants are unable to cover the un- sightly vertical walls left by mining opera- tions. The mining also generates thirteen tons of waste material for every ton of ore produced. The gigantic piles of overbur- den that accumulate are inhospitable to vegetation, and “fugitive” dust is readily blown onto surrounding vegetation, soil, and roadways. Adjacent to cement-mak- ing Operations, a quarter-inch layer of ce- ment often covers the ground and low- growing vegetation. The five rare plants that grow on the carbonate rock, already barely clinging to existence because of their restricted habi- Ye. Cushenbury milk vetch is a dwarf member of the pea family. Cushenbury Canyon For visitoranformation write: Forest Supervisor San Bernardino National Forest 1824 S. Commercenter Circle San Bernardino, California 92408 (714) 383-5588 tat, have little chance of surviving conti ued mining operations. Before 1975, the were no federal regulations on what mi: ers could do to the terrain, and even no the laws on reclamation are weak ar poorly enforced. As a result, the U.S. Fo est Service has petitioned the Fish ar Wildlife Service, the agency that admin ters the Federal Endangered Species Ac to list the five plants as endangered « threatened. If this is done, then tho: growing on Forest Service land would | automatically protected. The mining companies have mounted major effort to convince the Fish ar Wildlife Service not to list these plant One argument used is that these plants a not restricted to carbonate rocks and ther fore could be found elsewhere, bi botanists have no evidence for this. At tl time of this writing, the mining industi has petitioned for a delay in the decisic while it attempts to strengthen its case. In the meantime, the mining indust continues to take advantage of the vet outdated 1872 Federal Mining Act, whic was designed to encourage private ind viduals and companies to utilize publ lands more fully. Those who have a plan 1 carry out mining can apply for a patent c public land. If the patent is approved t the federal government, the land become converted to private land at the price « only two dollars an acre. The mining act of 1872 undermines tk effectiveness of the Endangered Specie Act, since plants growing on private lan receive no protection. Land aquired und the act might not even be mined. In sor cases, corporations have received paten on public land under the presumption of future mining operation, then abandone the plans in favor of resorts, condomin ums, and other forms of development. Robert H. Mohlenbrock, professor emer tus of plant biology at Southern Illino University, Carbondale, explores the bic logical and geological highlights of th 156 U.S. national forests. CIDAILANJD my INCDONESIA Acmmam ° Cambodia C Laos all for Bolder Adventures EE Catalog B800-642-ASIA Specialists in Soucheasc Asia! Superior Group/ Independent Travel LANDS!—Experience the natural beauty of the utheast’s unspoiled barrier islands and coastal re- ns. Naturalist led boat excursions. Dolphins, sandy aches, shorebirds, seafood. Spartina Trails, P.O. x 2531, Savannah, Georgia 31401 (912) 232-4621 SEMIER SMALL GROUP natural history safaris and rid class fishing lodges. Great Alaska Fish Camp & faris, HCO1, Box 218, Sterling, AK 99672 1-800- 4-2261 Video/Brochure JNORAN DESERT TOURS: Beautiful Southern zona-Northern Mexico. Customized guided excur- ns. Kino Missions, Nature -Walks, Sea of Cortez, eat Photography. Six persons maximum. Box 411, Phoenix, AZ 85064 Tel/Fax (602)840-9256 MAINE WINDJAMMERS x * 1-800-648-4544 x i AMERICAN EAGLE Adi ISAAC H. EVANS LEWIS R. FRENCH HERITAGE Weekly Cruises * $310 - $645 * For Brochures write: schooner Captains, Box 482H, Rockland, ME 04841 * 1-800-648-4544 or 207-594-8007 * SOUTHWEST INDIAN COUNTRY, Grand Canyon to Santa Fe. Navajos, Pueblos, stars, birds, rocks, sun- sets. Just relax, leave it to experienced guides. 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Dive or snorkel A- board m/v Dream Too! 1-800-741-5335 Experience the real Vermont — its people, customs, lifestyles and landscapes For a catalog of weekend workshops write to: VERMONT Burlington, VT 05401 4qQ I ee Hes 802-863-2535 Interactive Learning in Vermont Settings 2 Church Street Room 3D VOLUNTEERS NEEDED for Green Sea Turtle re- search in Tortuguero, Costa Rica, Sponsored by Car- ibbean Conservation Corporation. Ten and 17 day program cost average $1,700—$1,900 per person. For information call: Massachusetts Audubon Society, 1-800-289-9504 Video BELIZE: THE SEA, THE LAND, THE PEOPLE. 30 minute, Color Video. Outstanding Natural History Pho- tography. $25.00 ppd. Naturalight Photography, Box 197, Kerrick, MN 55756 RATES AND STYLE INFORMATION $3.70 per word; 16 word minimum. Display classified is $405 per inch. All advertisements must be prepaid. Rates are not structured for agency or cash discounts. All advertisements are accepted at NATURAL HISTO- RY's discretion. Send check/money order payable to NATURAL HISTORY to: The Market/NATURAL HIS- TORY Magazine, Central Park West at 79th St., New York, NY 10024. Direct any written inquiries to Eileen O'Keefe at the above address. Please include your personal address and telephone number, issue pre- ferred, and suggested category. Deadline -- 1st of the month, two months prior to cover date. men Selling flowers, Brno, Czechoslovakia rich Grunzweig 63 REVIEW: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Michael J. Bean One of the little-known casualties of this country’s race to be first on the moon was a tiny bird found only in the coastal salt marshes near Cape Canaveral, Florida. With the nation’s eyes fixed on the heav- ens, few noticed that a unique form of life was being almost literally crushed under- foot. Mark Walters’s account of the de- cline and extinction of the dusky seaside sparrow is a fascinating story with few he- roes and some rather surprising villains. Walters spent his childhood in Florida near Cape Canaveral and witnessed the beginning of what he calls “the transfor- mation of Brevard County from a jewel to a trinket.” Years later, he returned to re- create the final chapters in the history of a bird that had almost certainly survived many storms equal to Hurricane Andrew but not the onslaught of human develop- A dusky seaside sparrow in Merritt Island Wanita Wildlife Refuge, 1978 Jeff Foott; Bruce Coleman, Inc. 64 NATURAL History 2/93 ment. Walters tracked down many of tt principal players in this modern conserv: tion drama, interviewed them, and metict lously examined their notes and corr spondence. His story is a depressing on recalling the determined and ultimate: failed efforts of a few individuals stru; gling against bureaucratic lethargy, offici bungling, greed, missed opportunities, ar simple bad luck. Until 1960, the dusky seaside sparrow salt marsh habitat had been little change by the population growth that was occu ring elsewhere in Florida. After Wor! War II, the Air Force had begun operatir A SHADOW AND A SONG: EXTINCTION ¢ THE DUSKY SEASIDE SPARROW, by Mai Walters. Chelsea Green Publishing Cc $21.95; 256 pp. Soy missile-launching facilities on Caf Canaveral, and their extensive DD spraying of nearby marshes for mosqui control had affected the dusky’s popul tion. Nevertheless, when the spraying ws halted in the 1950s because the local mo quitoes had become resistant to DD’ probably several thousand birds remaine With their habitat still intact, their nun bers might have rebounded, but in 195 NASA began buying up much of the Cay for its planned space center. To build ar operate the center, NASA wanted more e fective mosquito control. The successor to DDT in the unendir war against mosquitoes was physical m nipulation of the marshes. By diking o the flow of salt water and flooding tl marshes with fresh water, they would r longer serve as breeding areas for the mo ge RN MEMES SY American Museum of Natural History FAMILY ADVENTURES Join the American Museum this summer on an exciting travel adventure designed for the whole family. Discovery Tours has developed three travel opportunities, taking into consideration the diversity of interests and special needs of family travel. Lecture programs for both children and adults will be held in tandem with Museum and guest lecturers who will help us explore and experience the natural wonders and traditional cultures of three spectacular destinations. NATURAL WONDERS OF COSTA RICA July 8-17, 1993 Explore the enchanting Monteverde Cloud Reserve, the wonderland of enormous trees and lianas known as Carara Biological Reserve, and beautiful Santa Elena Forest Preserve in search of monkeys, armadillos, coatimundis, anteaters, toucans, macaws, quetzels, motmots, storks and much more. AUSTRALIA: NATURAL WONDERS DOWN UNDER July 11-24, 1993 Enjoy Australia's delightful kangaroos, koalas, bandicoots, platypuses, crocodiles, bowerbirds, parrots, and extraordinary marine life as you visit the spectacular Great Barrier Reef, the dramatic Atherton Tablelands, luxuriant Daintree National Park, the rain forests of Lamington National Park, the Bathhurst Farmlands and Sydney. WILDLIFE OF THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS AND AMAZON JUNGLE July 13-24, 1993 Discover two vastly different wildlife areas: the isolated Galapagos Islands, with sea lions, land and marine iguanas, tortoises and a wide variety of seabirds, as well as the Upper Amazon Basin, where the rain forest offers American refuge to monkeys, peccaries, river dolphins, Wieeconlth of macaws, toucans and parrots. AEN EB History Discovery Tours Central Park West at 79th Street New York, NY 10024-5192 Toll-free (800) 462-8687 or in NYS (212) 769-5700 a Rediscover Your World bothersome species of mosquitoes. Fresh- water impoundments also attracted many more ducks, and no institution of govern- ment has had a longer love affair with ducks than the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser- vice, to which NASA turned over a major chunk of its marsh holdings to create the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Unfortunately, these marshes were one of only two population centers for dusky seaside sparrows, which depended upon marsh grasses that grew only in tidal marshes, not freshwater impoundments. When researchers began linking the con- tinuing decline of the duskies to the way in which the marshes were being managed, the Fish and Wildlife Service ignored the information for fear of alienating both mosquito-minded NASA and its own duck-hunting constituency. On March 11, 1967, the dusky seaside sparrow became one of the first “endan- gered species” designated under newly en- acted federal legislation. Its select com- pany included the whooping crane, California condor, black-footed ferret, and Florida manatee. Although its chances for survival on Merritt Island were grim at the time it received legal protection, the out- look for the dusky brightened the follow- ing year when a second major population center—with more than a thousand birds—was located in the Saint John’s River marshes nearby. Those brightened prospects quickly faded, however, when plans were an- nounced in 1969 to build a highway through the center of the newly discovered habitat. In the opinion of local developers and officials, the space center could be a major tourist attraction in its own right, a side trip for the millions of visitors des- tined for Orlando’s Disney World—if only anew road linking the two sites were built. Walters recounts a series of failures on the part of the Fish and Wildlife Service: to anticipate the explosion of growth that the road would fuel, to take advantage of land acquisition opportunities when it finally recognized the threat, and to manage ef- fectively the parcels of land that it ulti- mately acquired. In a few short years the dusky seaside Sparrows were nearly gone. The final por- tion of Walters’s book chronicles a last- ditch effort to perpetuate the dusky’s lin- eage with the handful of birds—all males—that were still alive. The idea was to crossbreed the surviving males in cap- tivity with females of a closely related subspecies, and then backcross with 1 resulting offspring until a nearly “put dusky resulted. The Fish and Wildlife S vice could not decide whether this v permissible under the Endangered Spec Act and, according to Walters’s accou their vacillation, hedging, and dawdli contributed to the dusky’s ongoing sl1 toward extinction. Ultimately, the Fish and Wildlife S vice washed its hands of the bird, allowi the few remaining captive males to housed at Disney World, where the cro: breeding effort would be carried out w strictly private funding. Walters saves | final arrow for Disney World. Hinting tl their motives from the beginning had be only to garner favorable publicity, Walte alleges that Disney fabricated a story tl a storm destroyed the remaining dusky h brids; this story was to cover up the fé that after the last pure dusky, Oran Band, died in 1987, Disney World lost i terest in the project and allowed the hybr offspring to perish through neglect. Lo books that supposedly documented tt neglect mysteriously disappeared. The death of the last dusky seaside spé row on June 16, 1987, was the first extin tion of a North American bird since t Members $8.95 Non-members $11.50 on atop Natural History T-Shirts King of the dinosaurs or a ferocious tiger 1 top quality 50% cotton - 50% polyester t-shirt. No shrinking. Our Tyrannosaurus Rex shirt is available in blue with gold lettering and design. Our tiger shirt is available in red with white lettering and design. Either one is great as a gift or for yourself. Members save 30% — only $8.95 — nonmembers $11.50. Tiger T-Shirt a BA ~Niamrmar Litenmmowv 9/02 1 1 I Sizes Adult §, M, L, XL Quantity Size Seer Children 10-12, 14-16 Size $A Say Tyrannosaurus Rex T-Shirt Postage & Handling $ 2.00 1 Quantity___Size $ NYS Residents add 8.25% Tax $ © | i Sizes Total Enclosed Se eae NAME 3 1 t DIDI Ee 1 1 CITY STATE ZIP 1 Tiger Make check or money order payable to American Museum of Natural History. Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery. Money back guarantee if not satisfied. NATURAL HISTORY T-Shirt Member Services Central Park West at 79th Street New York, NY 10024-9981 sing of the heath hen in Massachusetts re than a half-century earlier. Only two mths before, the last California condor 1 been taken from the wild as part of a t-ditch captive-breeding effort. Al- ugh condors have bred successfully in tivity, whether they will ultimately sur- e reintroduction to the wild is an open >stion. One of two captive-bred condors eased into the wild in 1991 recently per- ed after drinking from a puddle of an- eeze near a roadway. The dusky seaside sparrow and the Cal- mia condor illustrate the odds against vival for any species reduced to a mere idful of members. Yet the raging con- versy in the Pacific Northwest over the ‘thern spotted owl and the future of its “lent forest habitat shows the difficulties building a consensus for conservation en 2 species is still relatively abundant. Mark Walters’s account of the dusky side sparrow appears at an important le. The Endangered Species Act is sud- ily the object of much public and con- ‘ssional hostility because of controver- s over the northern spotted owl and er less-known species. The new Con- ‘ss that convened in January will con- er a number of proposals to change the , including many that would cripple its lity to stave off extinction for the more n 700 plants and animals that the act w protects. Walters’s book reminds us w fragile the present law’s protection is 1 invites us to ponder whether a weak- sd law could possibly hold off a torrent other extinctions. In his classic work, A Sand County AI- mac, Aldo Leopold wrote that “for one cies to mourn the death of another is a w thing under the sun.” Mark Walters’s ok is something newer still, a work of tature that embodies both journalistic estigation and a personal requiem for a uished life form. The saga of the dusky seaside sparrow a riveting tale. Walters is a talented iter with a keen understanding of nat- il history. His story of the dusky is both gedy and farce. Everyone old enough to id this book once shared the earth with : dusky, but few ever heard of it and ver still ever saw it. Yet readers will ure Walters’s profound sense of loss that : dusky seaside sparrow is no more. ichael J. Bean, an environmental vyer, is chairman of the Wildlife Pro- am of the Environmental Defense Fund d author of The Evolution of National Idlife Law. American Museum of Natural History CLASSIC ISLANDS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN Stepping Stones of Culture June 29 - July 13, 1993 The islands of the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas, among the loveliest in the world, are steeped in myth, legend and history. This summer, a team of American Museum and guest lecturers invite you to join them for a special voyage among these islands aboard the luxurious Aurora I. Cushioned between visits to the great cities of Athens and Barcelona, we will enjoy the dramatic landscapes, archeological sites, historic towns and charming villages of Santorini, Crete, Malta, Sicily, the Aeolian Islands, Ponza, Corsica and Sardinia. Join us for an unforgettable Mediterranean adventure. American Museum of Natural aR History Discovery Cruises Central Park West at 79th Street New York, NY 10024-5192 Toll-free (800) 462-8687 or in NYS (212) 769-5700 Rediscover Your World WANTED: EXPLORERS AGES 8-14 FACES explores the lives and cultures of people around the world with exciting articles, tales, legends, puzzles, and activities. “...one of the most innovative children’s magazines in recent years.” —PARENTS’ CHOICE AWARD FACES The Magazine About a ee Diode Sad ea ree send check or money order payable to FACES, American Museum of Natural His- tory, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024. AMNH Members pay just $18.95 (foreign add $8) for a full year sub- scription of 9 issues. ISLANDS OF INDONESIA Sumatra, Java and Bali July 11-28, 1993 With ancient temples, exotic arts and architecture, lush rice-terraced moun- f tain slopes and unusual wildlife, the | islands of Indonesia are a natural and | cultural treasure trove. Join a Pacific ethnologist for a look at Sumatra's orangutans and Lake Toba region, Java's magnificent temples of Borobudur and Prambanan and Bali's | renowned landscapes and traditions. L. y hae Discovery Tours Central Park West at 79th St. New York, NY 10024-5192 Toll-free (800) 462-8687 or in NYS (212) 769-5700 62 Natiirmar Uretmnev 9/02 On the Solar System's Edge by Gail S. Cleere In the southwestern sky, brilliant Venus marks the general direction of a newly dis- covered member of the solar system. The object is impossible to spot without a large telescope, but its location in the sky is near the “circlet” in Pisces. It shares the far reaches of the solar system with Pluto and is only some 125 miles in diameter. Dis- covered by David Jewitt of the University of Hawaii and Jane Luu of the University of California at Berkeley, the reddish ob- ject has been temporarily designated 1992 QBI. A formal name will not be bestowed on the object until its orbit is better known— perhaps in a year or so. Jewitt and Luu like the name “Smiley” after George Smiley, the John le Carré spy, but the International Astronomical Union, a worldwide organi- zation of astronomers and astrophysicists, will make the final decision. 1992 QBI1 represents the first discovery of one of the “planetesimals” or “mini- planets” that are assumed to orbit the sun at a distance one-third to three times as far as the most distant known planet, Pluto— the realm of the so-called Kuiper Belt, a flat disk of large, inactive comets that are thought to be orbiting the sun in the same plane and direction as the planets. 1992 QB1’s orbit is more typical of the planets than is Pluto’s orbit, which is tilted away from the plane of the ecliptic by almost 18 degrees. (The postulated Oort cloud, which harbors trillions of comets even far- ther from the sun than the Kuiper Belt, is thought to be the origin of the comets-that become visible in our sky. Gerard Kuiper, a Dutch astronomer working in the United States, proposed the existence of the belt’s icy fragments, which, he reasoned, would be left over from the formation of the plan- ets.) Largely because of the bitter cold in the far reaches of the solar system, 1992 QB1I has probably changed little since the major planets coalesced out of gas and dust at the birth of our solar system sor 4.5 billion years ago. Jewitt and Luu report that the reddi color of the new object is consistent witt surface composition rich in organic mate ial that has been bombarded with cosm rays over the eons. However, Jewitt note 1992 QB1 is so distant that this radiatic has changed the object’s structure on very slightly over time, making it a gre solar system time capsule of sorts. After searching the edge of the knov solar system for five years, Jewitt and Li found 1992 QB1 on August 30, 1992. “D one was ever completely comfortable wi the idea that the outer fringes of the sol system could be completely empty,” sa David Jewitt. “1992 QB1 is probably primeval remnant of all that early dust a1 gas.” Astronomer Jim DeYoung, who hi been using images taken with the 61-in« astrometric (position-measuring) tel scope in Flagstaff, Arizona, to track tl object, is one of a handful of scientis who are observing 1992 QB1 with the a curacy needed to help calculate its orb Because of the paucity of observing tin available on the world’s largest telescope only a few astronomers—in Hawaii, A1 zona, Texas, and Australia—are observir 1992 QBI. THE PLANETS IN FEBRUARY Mercury is visible in the early evenir western sky during the latter half of tt month. Best viewing will be right aft midmonth, when the planet nears its grea est distance (elongation) from the sun- about 18 degrees east of the sun. Just aft sunset on the 23d, look for a sliver of new moon 3 degrees north of Mercur Venus is high above them both. Venus steals the show all month long i the southwestern evening skies. It reache its greatest brilliancy of the year on th h, coming within one-half a degree of moon on the same evening. Watch as lus appears to perch atop the illumi- -d cusp of this four-day-old moon—a at performance on a cold winter ning. The show ends by 8:00 P.M. with setting of the moon. Seen through a scope or binoculars, Venus appears as escent. . Viars continues to put on a good show he constellation Gemini, where it is ] up in the southeast as the sky grows k. The red planet lies almost on a line ween the two bright stars that mark the ns Castor and Pollux and the V-shaped rism called the Hyades in Taurus the ]. (Don’t mistake Mars for the red star lebaran in the Hyades cluster.) Over the hts of February 1-4 watch as the wax- gibbous moon skims the top of the ades, passes high above Orion the nter, and then glides just below brilliant rs on the 4th. jupiter rises about midevening in the stellation Virgo and is up for the rest of night. Around midnight, brilliant iter dominates the southeastern sky, ‘above the bright star Spica. On the h, the waning gibbous moon passes h the planet and star. saturn emerges from behind the sun _ before sunrise very late in month, but st in the solar glare. Jranus and Neptune are to the left of handle of the Sagittarius “teapot,” ris- together some two hours before the . If you know exactly where to look, y may be barely visible with binoculars ore twilight very low on the southeast- horizon. On the 17th and 18th, the ning crescent moon pays a call. The lat- news about Uranus is that it contains ion H,*; the discovery was made with eat Britain’s infrared telescope on una Kea in Hawaii. The ion is thought ye a building block of more complex in- CELESTIAL EVENTS terstellar molecules in the universe. Dr. Laurence Trafton, a scientist at the Uni- versity of Texas at Austin’s McDonald Observatory, says “Astronomers have been looking for years for this ion in inter- stellar space to test the hypotheses that H,* plays a central role in the chemical evolu- tion of molecular clouds, where stars are born. All life as we know it requires com- plex molecules, and we know that when H,* combines with other molecules, it ini- tiates the interstellar chemistry to build bigger molecules. This is a way of going from the simple to the complex.” Trafton cautions that scientists have not yet estab- lished that the chemistry involving H,* has any relation to the chemistry that led to the building blocks for life on Earth. “It is sim- ply an early step.” Pluto rises about midnight, and by dawn is well above the southern horizon. At 13.7 magnitude, it remains hidden in the constellation Serpens and requires a detailed chart to locate. On February 18, sixty-three years ago, Clyde Tombaugh, a young astronomer from Kansas working at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona, dis- covered the ninth planet in the solar sys- tem while he was looking at photographic plates taken with the observatory’s thir- teen-inch telescope. After making this mo- mentous discovery, he casually walked down the hill to report his finding to his boss, and then walked to town to see Gary Cooper in The Virginian. The Moon is full on the 6th at 6:55 P.M., EST; reaches last-quarter on the 13th at 9:57 A.M., EST; is new on the 21st at 8:05 A.M., EST; and does not reach first-quarter until March Ist 10:46 A.M., EST. Gail S. Cleere writes on popular astron- omy and is a founding member of the International Dark Sky Association, an organization dedicated to preserving the skies for astronomy. Rediscover Your World DISCOVERY TOURS Land Adventures with Expert Lecturers Cultures and Folkart of the Oaxaca Valley March 6-14, 1993 Towns, villages and markets in the Oaxaca Valley and the ancient sites of Monte Alban and Mitla. Mexico’s Copper Canyon March 13-20, 1993 The Sierra Madres, Copper Can- yon and the towns of Creel, Divisadero and El Fuerte. China's Silk Road by Train May 7-21, 1993 Ancient cities and stunning land- scapes, including Beijing, Xi'an, Binglingsi Buddhist Caves, Dunhuang, Mogao Caves, Turfan and Urumchi. Berlin to Istanbul by Train May 13-26, 1993 Cities and towns of Eastern Eu- rope, including Berlin, Dresden, Prague, Krakow, Budapest, Transylvania, Sofia and Istanbul. Islands of Indonesia: Sumatra, Java and Bali - July 11-28, 1993 Sumatra's orangutans and tradi- tional villages; Java's renowned archeological sites; and the beauti- ful art and architecture of Bali. American Museum of Natural Ba BR History Discovery Tours Central Park West at 79th St. New York, NY 10024 (212) 769-5700 in NYS Toll-free (800) 462-8687 Shades of Carolina Rice The coastal plantations are gone, but an African-influenced style of cooking remains by Raymond Sokoloy “Tn all these years, she’s never wrecked the rice,” That nauseatingly condescend ing line (Or something quite like it; quote from memory) capped a television ad that used (O run seemingly every ten minutes in prime time, Ehaven't seen it lately, but I think it still speaks to our national ner vousness about rice, Indeed, throughout northern Europe and many of its former colonies, a lack Of assurance and easy mastery of the world’s most popular food grain is endemic, lam not talking about sophisticated preparations, What Pim saying is that if you buttonhole people on the street in New York or Dubuque or Seattle (or Lon don or Mainz or Lyons) and ask them how they cook plain, raw white rice, you will not pet 4 lot of confident replies, All bets are off here i you hiton people of Latin or Asian heritage, For them rice is the staff of life, Their cuisines are built around it, and they know what to do with it in order to produce the kind of rice they like, The English-speaking world is not rice centered, Por us, tice is primarily a starehy side dish, like potatoes; itis almost never the pointofthe meal, as iLalmost always is in hundreds of millions of Chinese house holds, ‘The Chinese language enshrines this dominance of tice in the Chinese diet by making a single word stand both for ree and for food in general: fan, Tn eon eept, then, a Chinese dish or meal can be construed as riee with other things added lor variety of taste and nutrition, Likewise in Japan, gohan, the word for cooked tice, is also (he word for a meal, English appears to offer the same syn Onymy: Moakycunerepast, But this is only Superfien:!!) the couse, Meal/repast de 71) NATAL bienoapy 9/093 scends from a word meaning fixed time, as in modern German mal, while meal/grain comes from the same root that gives us mill, Meal is grain that has been milled, So for English speakers, the grain-centered diet in the Asian sense is a truly exotic no- tion, 1 stll have difficulty accepting, for example, that sushi for the Japanese is not identified fundamentally as a raw fish con- coction but as mini-cuisine based on rice lossed in specially seasoned (rice) vinegar, Nevertheless, one American region, the lowlands of South Carolina, does have a ti- zocentric heritage, Louisiana, a rice-pro- ducing state, lives on rice, but not in the overwhelming and unique way that South Carolina did for so long, Those days are over, They ended along with slavery and the rise of machine- farmed rice on drier land elsewhere, 1 vis- ited a defunct South Carolina rice planta: tion for this magazine some years ago, looking for survivals of foodways from antebellum times, The great estate | saw still had working sluices and other rem. nants of the slave-made-and-maintained rice farm that had once flourished there. The modern owners used the place to hunt birds that fed on the grasses and to fish in the old paddies, It was a haunting sight and the memory of it gives me a slight shiver how when I see a box labeled Carolinarice and realize that virtually no rice comes from the region any more—only the name lingers, This vanished world has just come to life again, for readers anyway, in Karen Hess's meticulously researched study The Carolina Rice Kitchen: The African Con- nection (University of South Carolina Press, 1992), Hess has combed the records with the energy familiar to readers of h annotated editions of Martha Washin, tons Booke of Cookery and The Virgin House-Wife. In the lost wet world of loy land Carolina she finds not only a shinit exception to our historical insensitivity rice, but she also documents the cruci link between African and southern Ame ican cooking. Anyone who cared to think about th matter always knew that certain southe: ingredients were brought across the A lantic with slavery and must have perms ated the white menu because black cool put them on the slaveholder’s table. Oki is one such African American immigrai assimilated into the white cuisine of th Old South, Black-eyed peas have never r ally lost their African flavor, But in Sout Carolina, when mixed with rice in Hoy pin’ John, they are everybody’s emblen atic New Year’s dish, Hoppin’ John, okra—the list is easil expanded—were only the most visible e\ idence of the influence of black cooks 6 the South at large, But few people hay suspected, or dared to say, how mue more fundamental black cooking wast the whole rich plantation cuisine that hi survived as the most complete and thriy ing traditional regional menu of the Unite States (the cooking of what is now th Southwest evolved as a northern offshoc of Spain’s colonization long before Ney Mexico or even Texas had had their cor nection fully severed from Mexico), By segregating contemporary blac cookery as soul food, both black an White enthusiasts have actually underet the importance of Africa in the kitchens ¢ the South, early and late. Anyone wh A MATTER OF TASTE cares to take an unprejudiced look at the dishes called southern and the dishes called soul food will be hard pressed to find a significant difference between the two. The cuisines are fundamentally the same, in fact and in origin. The cooks who evolved the menus for the Big House of slaveholding plantations were black women. Just as in France, no- blemen tended to appropriate the creations of their chefs, so too the white culture of the South has taken an unfair share of the credit for southern cooking. This claim doesn’t stand up to logical scrutiny, espe- cially when a cursory scan of the recipes in a survey of the Creole cookery of the West Indies such as Elizabeth Lambert Ortiz’s The Complete Book of Caribbean Cooking (M. Evans, 1973) leads inex- orably to the conclusion that United States southern cooking is not unique to our southeast. It is the northernmost extension of a continuum of dishes common to all the slaveholding territories of the Atlantic and Caribbean New World. The similari- ties can only be explained by the single factor common to every one of these ‘ colonies, whether French, Spanish, Eng- lish, or Dutch in governance: African slaves. The transatlantic commerce in people led to’a transplantation of their foodways and then to a creative adaptation to new conditions and new ingredients. Viewed this way, the hush puppy of our South is a first cousin of the acaraje of Brazil, with cornmeal substituted for black-eyed pea flour. Both are deep-fried. We might say “southern-fried.” This is the conveniently nonracial term we use for our most popu- lar native dish: chicken that has been * wae voman fans rice by the Santee River, South Carolina, circa 1890. tice Museum; Georgetown, South Carolina dredged in flour and fried. But southern frying is not a method that can properly be claimed as ours. The entire Creole (read: ex-colonial slaveholding) New World sur- vives on southern-fried fish and vegeta- bles and fritters. Hess shows how the settlers of Carolina brought the island Creole culture with them from Barbados and the Bahamas in the seventeenth century. They brought their slaves and a Creole attitude born of a century of colonial life in the islands. Al- most half of them, moreover, were French Huguenots. Many of their slaves already understood rice culture and cookery, be- cause they came from the rice lands of Africa. When they saw the rivers of the Carolina low country, they knew what to do. Carolina rice was the famous result. In the kitchen, they built a New World regional cuisine around rice. That is Hess’s main subject. She weaves a fine web of careful speculation about the path that rice took to Africa and how the non-African rice dish pilau made its long, slow way to Charleston. Her thesis maintains that rice followed Islam westward through Malay-speaking Madagascar across Africa to the rice lands of West Africa, the region that was also the original source of the slaves who were forced to work New World fields. This route of transmission, Hess argues, brought to Carolina people accustomed to cooking rice in a special style peculiar now to Carolina tradition and to India (and food cultures related historically to India). The basic biology of rice lies behind this connection. Both India and plantation South Carolina evolved cuisines based on long-grain rice. There are many other vari- eties of rice in the world, each of which has special cooking qualities (Italy’s short- grain rice lends itself to the gradual ‘ab- sorption of stock in risotto, Spain’s medium-grain rice behaves similarly in the restricted environment of the paella pan). But long-grain rice is the main staple of Asia’s billions, who have settled, as Hess acutely observes, on two radically different methods of cooking it: the Indian and the Chinese. In the Chinese method, a- measured quantity of rice is combined with a mea- sured quantity of salted water (conven- tionally in the ratio, by volume, of one to two, although somewhat less water prob- ably yields better results). After the water boils and cooks the rice to the point where most of it has been absorbed, and steam holes appear on the s: , the pot is cov- ered, heat reduced t ost nothing and 79 . Natripar Uretmapyv “7/02 the rice left to steam for several minutes until all the water is absorbed. This is the more energy-efficient method, and it is the world’s favorite. However, it produces a slightly sticky rice, ideal for consumption with chopsticks, rather than the completely separate, fluffy grains created by the Carolina/Indian method. That basic method is: Bring a large, un- measured quantity of salted water to a full Medium-Grain Rice: The Spanish Method Arroz con magro de cerdo y habas Rice with Pork and Fava Beans (Slightly adapted from The Heritage ‘of Spanish Cooking, by Alicia Rios and Lourdes March, Random House, 1992) “4 cup olive oil 4 pound lean pork, diced 13 ounces shelled fresh fava bean I tomato (3% ounces), peeled and finely chopped 1 teaspoon paprika 5% cups chicken or beef broth 1 pinch saffron Salt - 1% cups medium-grain rice 1. Heat the oil in a casserole. Fry the diced pork, followed by the fava beans and tomato. Add the paprika, followed immediately by the broth. 2. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes, accord- ing to the tenderness of the beans, then add the saffron. 3. Check the seasoning, add salt to taste, then add the rice and cook uncovered over medium heat for 16 to 18 minutes. Taste the rice to check that it is ready. Remove from the heat and serve immediately. Yield: 4 servings Short-Grain Rice: The Italian Method Risotto with Celery (Slightly adapted from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, by Marcella Hazan, Knopf, 1992) 5 cups homemade beef broth or 1 cup canned beef broth diluted with 4 cups water tablespoons butter tablespoons vegetable oil cup chopped onion cups celery stalk, diced very jine I tablespoon chopped leafy tops of the celery heart NOW N & boil. Then add an unmeasured quantity rice but ope that is much smaller than 1 volume of boiling water. Cook over hi heat for five to ten minutes. Drain t water. Return the rice to the fire, cover 1 pan, reduce the heat to very low, a “soak” until done. Raymond Sokolov: is a writer whose sj] cial interests are the history and prepai tion of food. 2 cups imported Italian risotto [short-grain] rice Salt Black pepper, freshly ground 4 cup freshly grated parmigiano- reggiano cheese 1 tablespoon chopped parsley 1. Bring the broth to a very slow, steady simmer on a burner near where you'll be cooking the risotto. 2. Put 2 tablespoons of the butter, the vegetable oil, and the chopped onion in a broad, sturdy pot. heat to medium high. Cook and stir the onion until it becomes translu cent, then add half the diced celer; stalk, all the chopped leaves, and pinch of salt. Cook for 2 or 3 min: utes, stirring Lo to coat celery well. 3. Add the rice, stirring quickly. an thoroughly until the grains are coated well. Add % cup of simmer-_ ing broth and cook the rice, stirrin. constantly with a long woode spoon, wiping the sides and bott of the pot clean as you stir, unt liquid is gone. Never stop sti and be sure to wipe the bottom of the pot completely clean frequentl or the rice will stick to it. When there is no more liquid in the p add another 4 cup, continuing al ways to stir as before. a heat at a lively pace. 4. When the rice has cout for minutes, add the remaining « dice celery, and continue to stir, adding. broth a little at a time. ee 5. Cook the rice until tender bur rm to the bite, with barely enough liq uid remaining to make the consis- tency somewhat runny. Turn off the heat, add a few grindings of} pepper, the remaining tablespoon of butter, and all the grated parmigiano, anc stir thoroughly until the cheese melts and clings to the rice. Taste and correct for salt. Mix in the chopped parsley. Transfer to a plat- ter and serve promptly. Yield: 6 servings . ) AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY N Exploring the world with expert lecturers a DISCOVERY CRUISES ANCIENT TRADE ROUTES Bombay to Alexandria April 1-20, 1993 — ncient and modern cities, including Bombay, India; Muscat id Salalah in Oman; Sana'a, Yemen; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; etra, Jordan; and the Suez Canal and Alexandria in Egypt. hip: 64-cabin Sea Goddess CIRCUMNAVIGATING THE BRITISH AND IRISH ISLES May 9-24, 1993 ledieval ruins, archeological sites and spectacular landscapes fthe Scilly, Skellig and Aran Islands, Dartmouth and Donegal, ya, St. Kilda, the Orkneys, Shetlands, Mousa and Fair Isle. hip: 41-cabin Polaris GALAPAGOS ISLANDS AND QUITO June 11-23, 1993 ortoises, turtles, marine and land iguanas, sea lions, a magnifi- ent array of birdlife and dramatic volcanic landscapes. hip: 20-cabin /sabela I THE TIDES OF HISTORY Rediscovering Russia and the Baltics June 14-29, 1993 listoric ports, including St. Petersburg, Kronstadt and aliningrad in Russia; Tallinn, Estonia; Riga, Latvia; Klaipeda, ithuania; Gdansk, Poland; Rugen and Lubeck in Germany; nd Amsterdam, Holland. hip: 41-cabin Polaris. CLASSIC ISLANDS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN June 29 - July 12, 1993 eautiful Mediterranean islands, volcanoes, ancient sites and harming towns at ports-of-call on Santorini, Crete, Malta, icily and Corsica, ending at the city of Barcelona. hip: 44-cabin Aurora | American Museum of Natural History/Discovery Cruises and Tours Central Park West at 79th Street New York, NY 10024-5192 BRIDGING THE BERING STRAIT Alaska and the Russian Far East June 29 - July 11, 1993 Wildlife and magnificent scenery from Homer to Nome, in- cluding Alaska's Katmai Peninsula, the Aleutians and Pribilofs, and Russia's Providenya and Arakamchechen Islands. Ship: 69-cabin World Discoverer BEYOND THE NORTH CAPE Bergen to Spitsbergen June 30 - July 15, 1993 Norway's spectacular fjords, as well as glaciers, icebergs, pack ice and Arctic flora and fauna of the Lofoten Islands, Bear Island, and Spitsbergen. Ship: 41-cabin Polaris EXPLORING ALASKA’S INSIDE PASSAGE July 10-19, 1993 Spectacular fjords, channels, rivers, glaciers, whales, sea lions, bears and a wealth of birdlife in Alaska’s Inside Passage. Ship: 37-cabin Sea Lion EXPEDITION THROUGH THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE July 19 - August 5, 1993 An historic transit aboard a powerful icebreaker through Canada’s ice-packed Northwest Passage, stopping at remote Inuit villages and islands associated with great Arctic explor- ers of the past. Ship: 59-cabin Kapitan Khlebnikov THE JOURNEY OF ODYSSEUS Retracing the Odyssey in the Mediterranean August 16 - September 1, 1993 Historic islands, cities and sites in the Mediterranean along Odysseus’ route, including Istanbul, Troy, Mycenae, Malta, Jerba, Corsica, Monte Circeo, Naples, Corfu and Ithaca. Ship: 44-cabin Aurora / (800) 462-8687 or (212) 769-5700 Monday - Friday, 9-5 E.S.T. AT THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HiSTORY “JUMBO” FILM FESTIVAL In conjunction with the Museum’s cur- rent exhibition “Jumbo: The World-Fa- mous Elephant,” six films about elephants will be presented in the Linder Theater on Saturday, February 6, starting at 10:30 A.M. The films, which are free with Mu- seum admission, are Horton Hatches the Egg, Dumbo, Maya, Babar’s First Step, Elephant Boy, and Billy Rose's Jumbo. A Sci-Fi CLASSIC February’s feature in the classic sci- ence-fiction film series will be This Island Earth. In the 1955 production directed by Joseph M. Newman, earthlings find them- selves trapped on a planet being bom- barded by meteors from another planet. The film is preceded by a thirty-minute slide show hosted by Brian Sullivan, the Hayden Planetarium’s production de- signer, and will be shown on Saturday, February 6, at 3:00 P.M. in the Kaufmann Theater. Tickets are $7 ($4 for members). AN AMERICAN ROMANCE The relationship of photographer Alfred Stieglitz and artist Georgia O’ Keeffe is the subject of a lecture by Benita Eisler, a writer and editor who has just completed O’Keeffe-Stieglitz: An American Ro- mance. She will speak in the Kaufmann Theater on Wednesday, February 10, at 7:00 P.M. Tickets are $10 ($6 for mem- bers). UNDERSTANDING ANIMAL Ways Naturalist Bill Robinson returns to the Museum for a thirteenth year to present “The World of Animals,” for children five years and up, on Saturday, February 20, at 11:30 A.M. and 1:30 p.M. Robinson will ap- pear on stage with a legless lizard, an alli- gator, a snapping turtle, an armadillo, a Burmese python, and other live animals. Tickets are $8 ($5 for members), Rio ROOSEVELT EXPEDITION — 1992 Tweed Roosevelt participated in a joint Brazilian—American expedition last year that retraced his great-grandfather odore Roosevelt’s 1914 exploration of tio River of Doubt (later renamed Rio Reosevelt). On Thursday, February 25, at as CEES 7. 0. in the Kaufmann Theater, Tweed DeLong star ruby, magnified three times Harold and Erica Van Pelt 74 -NATURAL History 2/93 oosevelt will talk about his adventure own the Amazon tributary. Tickets are 10 ($7 for members). Call (212) 769- 606 for ticket availability. YUINCENTENNIAL PERSPECTIVES The Museum’s education department ontinues its free programs from a non- luropean perspective for the Columbus Juincentenary. Traditional jazz and African dance will ¢ performed by the Savoy Swingers and y Message From Our Ancestors in the Aain Auditorium on Thursday, February , at 7:30 P.M. In the Linder Theater: Chinese-Ameri- an writers will read selections from their yorks on Friday, February 5, at 7:00 P.M. Vriters include David Wong Louie, tephen Lo, Fae Myenne Ng, and Linda hing Sledge. On Sunday, February 28, at :00 and 4:00 p.m., C. Scoby Stroman pre- ents poetry, dance, slides, and videos howing African American contributions ) folk art. In the Kaufmann Theater: Mickey D. nd Friends will give an African Ameri- an presentation that includes plantation lave dances, 1940 “‘barbershopsanding,” nd ballroom duets on Sunday, February , at 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. On Sunday, Febru- ry 14, at 2:00 pM., University of Col- raco’s Evelyn Hu-DeHart, professor of istory and director of the Center for Stud- ss of Ethnicity and Race in America, will ilk about Asians in the Americas, their mmigration, settlement, and relationship vith other ethnic groups. Kimati Dinizulu nd the Kotoko Society will offer Sankofa,” a musical genre of the African iaspora played on instruments like the ben (warrior horn) of Jamaica and the accine (bamboo trumpet) of Haiti on unday, February 21, at 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. In the Leonhardt People Center: folk qusic by the West African Akyene Baako insemble, blues dance forms by the Jrban Griot Society, and Dorothy Hen- erson and the B-1 Storytellers’ dramati- ation of the story of the Middle Passage vill be among the events presented every aturday and Sunday in February from :00 to 4:30 P.M. These programs are made possible in art by grants from The Chase Manhattan Bank, Citibank, the Samuel and May Rudin Foundation, Vidda Foundation, and the family of Frederick H. Leonhardt. For a complete schedule, call (212) 769-5315. AFRICAN AMERICAN CEMETERIES Recent cemetery excavations that have added to what is known about New York City’s early African American community will be highlighted in three Monday evening lectures, beginning February 22. Cheryl Wilson, urban historian and an- thropologist, will host the programs. Se- ries tickets are $30. Call (212) 769-5305. THE NIGER RIVER’S ANCIENT CITIES Rice University professor of anthropol- ogy Roderick J. McIntosh will give a slide-illustrated talk about the recently discovered city mounds and funerary tu- muli of the Niger River floodplain on Tuesday, February 23. Tickets are $15. Call (212) 769-5305. Cross-CULTURAL FILMS How filmmakers have represented other cultures will be explored in scenes from documentary classics on three Tuesday evenings beginning February 23. Elaine Charnov, programmer of the Margaret Mead Film and Video Festival, will hest the event, which will include Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness, Grey Gardens, Babakiuria, and Harold of Orange. Series tickets are $30. Call (212) 769-5305. WONDERFUL WILDFLOWERS OF THE NORTHEAST From carnivorous bog plants to arctic creepers, the northeastern United States is home to thousands of species of wildflow- ers. William Schiller, lecturer in botany for the Museum’s education department, will give two identical series of five slide- illustrated lectures, the first on Mondays at 2:30 pM. beginning February 22, and the second on Thursdays at 7:00 p.m. begin- ning February 25. Series tickets are $40. Call (212) 769-5305. THE MUSEUM’S GEM COLLECTIONS Joseph J. Peters, senior scientific assis- tant in the Department of Mineral Sci- ences, will talk about four sections of the Museum’s gem collections: diamonds; emeralds, rubies, and sapphires; semi- precious gems; and ornamental and or- ganic gems. Tickets for the series of four Thursday evenings, starting February 25, are $35. Peters will also lead a tour of the J.P. Morgan Memorial Hall of Gems on Friday, February 26. Tickets are $15. Call (212) 769-5305. YOUNG SCIENTISTS IN TRAINING Ten high-school juniors started doing research recently under a new program, the Precollege Science Collaborative for Urban Minority Youth, at the American Museum of Natural History. Over the next five years, thirty-five students will design their own two-year projects at the Mu- seum in biology, paleontology, and ecol- ogy. Scientists from the Museum and Co- lumbia University’s Teachers College will be mentors to the students in twice-weekly sessions and colloquia throughout the school year. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute provided support for the program. UNDER THE STARS Performers Cheryl Byron and Some- thing Positive will dance, play music, and tell traditional African sky lore under the Planetarium’s star-filled dome. The pro- gram will be on Tuesday, February 16, at 7:00 pM. Tickets are $10 ($8 for mem- bers). As part of the Planetarium’s ongoing lecture series, Margaret Geller of the Har- vard Smithsonian Astrophysical Observa- tory will give an illustrated talk, “Map- ping a Large Scale Structure of the Universe” on Wednesday, February 10, at 7:30 P.M. in the Sky Theater. Tickets are $8 ($6 for members). For information about Planetarium events, call (212) 769-5900. These events take place at the American Museum of Natural History, located on Central Park West at 79th Street in New York City. The Kaufmann and Linder theaters and the Leonhardt People Center are located in the Charles A. Dana Pduca- tion Wing. The Museum has a pay-what- you-wish admission policy. For more in- formation about the Museum, call (212) 769-5100. Ts Storm Warming Unfazed by a Ma h snowstorm in 2 creat harmed owl a Ske “ow 4 -. =>. ~} coss round-inhe-C ~loc Xv o> the hp)) on oh in the hollow of an old oak. Great homed owls begin their anm —— ee otha soo —— CURE UMERD? ALS In the Gead OF Winter. LCahea > havek’sc ehenrinne chek n rou . a hawk's abandoned stick n yo lerees fee } hol : eho and kh UR SA BESS BOE CER WIS Teauied, iRs © N TWO C w three whi ush Poos, R CER LERINEE USS oC —~ tho >het eS VLAD. UA. > bom with an appetite for nHakchiMN es. bor with an appente for introduced to camiv ory. [he feed the owlets for about six weeks in the nes Smet nc VUES paid off; two vou Aan a OV = > + = — > Conon Ul fT WL ) few FLARE EUR GAC | weeks after the owl lav a tha n Malte Us 4 FP Photoeraph by Scott W Sha c LRA eraph by CO Sha arke\ 2 O74 Wad a OO e 7 Ba lp mel merol atc ee ulomel eee feed explore by yacht more islands than any other (eral lel ovele ors. orl Loa MMC omelet Le "splendid yacht charters, from scuba diving to seri- ous hiking: No one else offers as many ways’to experience the Galapagos because no one else specializes exclusively in the.Galapagos.’ 60 trip dates. Machu Picchu option. FREE-BROCHURE. 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For a furtl ing the responses of coyotes and lynx to discussion of how different. methods changing snowshoe hare densities in the _ rearing offspring develop, the authors st Yukon. Wife and coauthor Susan Stuart gest T. H. Clutton-Brock’s The Evoluti THE WIDEST SELECTION OF THE WIDEST SHOES ANYWHERE! NAME ADDRESS CITY | STATE ZIP HITCi!OCK SHOES, INC. studied coyotes at the College of the At- of Parental Care (Princeton: Princet ept. : Hingham, MA 02043 lantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. While she re- _ University Press, 1991). 78 NATURAL History 2/93 AUTHORS Vhen Nina J. Foot pate 34), ihe ibrary services for the American Mu- m of Natural History, gathered infor- ion for a biography of the nineteenth- tury natural history illustrator Joseph if, she combed the rare book collec- is of the American Museum, the ithsonian Institution, and the British seum of Natural History. “In the rse.of my research,” she said, “I found Wolf painted a hippopotamus named iysch both as an infant and as an adult. came curious about Obaysch and was ntually captivated by the animal’s bi- aphy.” A graduate of Hunter College Pratt Institute, where she took her ter’s degree in library science, Root directed the American Museum’s li- 'y since 1970. For the past two years, has overseen the building of the Mu- n’s $11 million library, which houses r a million volumes. For further read- on Obaysch, she recommends The Ark 1e Park; the zoo in the nineteenth cen- by Wilfrid Blunt (London: Hamish nilton, 1976). The, Ultimate in Museum quality replicas you build yourself. 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CRUISE CALM CANADIAN RIVERS Turn-of-the-Century Steamships y 1 Pix L. 8 Lunes aba aye ayers steeped in breathtaking i NATURE §V\/45 Global experience, exceptional guides and superior itineraries to over 30destinations on six continents. Call for our free catalog, The World Leader INTERNATIONAL EXPEDITIONS INC One Environs Park Helena, Alabama 35080 * 205/428-1700 hel 1-800-633-4734 KIAWAH ISLAND RESORT GUIDE & RESERVATIONS 1-800-845-3911 Ext. 803 NEAR HISTORIC CHARLESTON ¢ SITE OF RYDER CUP RAVENEL ASSOCIATES, TWO BEACHWALKER, KIAWAH, SC 29455 Rare Wood Egg Collecting Over 150 different woods from Africa, India, Mexico, Brazil, Middle-East, Asia, USA. Send $1.00 for brochure & price list™ WOODS OF THE WORLD, INC. 897-B North Bend Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45224 ie Cultural Folk Tours Int'l »-~ & Bora Ozk6k presents /1993 Tours of TGRKEY The Cradle of Civilization . . Hospitable people, beautiful country, good climate. facredble amount of history. We will stress culture, people, folklore, handicrafts, folk music, village visits, photography & much more. GREAT TOURS - GOOD QUALITY -REASONABLE PRICES GOOD HOTELS - GOOD FOOD- GOOD SHOPPING For a free brochure 9939 Hibert St., Suite 207 San Diego, CA 92131 1- 800-935-TURK | (619) 566-5951 8875 From the magnificent "1000 Islands" through the International Seaway locks to the “=| staggering Saguenay Fjord and picturesque capital of Canada. Kingston Ontario Canada K7L 224 1-800-267-7868 70 Why is this man wincing? Scott W. Sharkey (page 76), attempting to photo- graph a great horned owl’s nest, explains: “T had gotten only ten feet up the nest tree when the female attacked with a vengeance and knocked me out of the tree. The torn shirt is from her talons.” But owls are still one of Sharkey’s favorite subjects. He photographed the nesting owl in the “Natural Moment” from the safety of a convenient hillside. At eye level with the nest, which was some twenty-five feet up in a huge oak, he used a Nikon camera with a 400mm lens. An assistant professor of medicine at the University of Min- nesota in Minneapolis, Sharkey considers photography a serious hobby. He has been interested in owls since high school when his family “learned that great horned owls do not make good pets.” Sharkey consid- ers owls to be the most successful urban raptors and often photographs them in local parklands. 80 NATURAL His'rory 2/93 On a trip to Jamaica in 1966, Margaret M. Stewart (page 42) turned over a pile of coconut husks and watched, entranced, as dozens of Eleutherodactylus frogs jumped out. “I had never seen so many frogs in so small a space,” she recalls. The Jamaican species is shy and difficult to observe, however, so Stewart turned to the related coqui, which is abundant in Puerto Rico. Since 1979, she and her graduate students have worked intermittently at El Verde Field Station in the Caribbean National Forest. “Everyone in Puerto Rico knows the coqui,” she says, “because it is every- where, calling from window screens and planters in hotel lobbies and chorusing Peter J. Marchand (page 50) says he has loved snow since his Massachusetts childhood and has just found different ways to play in it as he has grown older. He got serious about snow while conducting a winter study at the timberline of Mount Washington for his doctorate at the Uni- versity of New Hampshire. Marchand was associate professor of ecology for ten years at Johnson State College and also became associate director of the Center for Northern Studies, both in Vermont. He then founded and now directs Southwest- ern Field Studies, an organization that in- vestigates alpine and desert ecosystems. His current research revolves mainly around plants and animals in the winter, but now that he is living in the desert, Marchand has become intrigued by the problems of plants and animals during hot summers. For more on winter ecology, readers may turn to Marchand’s Life in the Cold (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1991) or Winter: An Ecological Handbook, by James C. Halfpenny (Boul- der: Johnson Books, 1987). from the marshes underneath arriving j at the airport.” A professor at the Sté University of New York in Albany, Ste: art grew up in North Carolina and studi frog ecology in Africa for her thesis. Wh she is not “frogging,” she enjoys photo raphy, baroque music, and gardening. F more reading, see Juan A. Rivero’s L Anfibios y Reptiles de Puerto Rico, in En lish and Spanish (Puerto Rico: Editor Universitaria, Universidad de Puerto Ric 1978). For more information on coquie see “Arboreal habitat use and parachuti by a subtropical forest frog,” by Margar Stewart, Journal of Herpetology, vol. 1 pp. 391-401, 1985. | “One Of The Ten Best.’ -Car and Driver Hy Intrepid ES Ce ee 60 5-0 510) ‘Best Of Al Ee None -Motor Trend Buckle up for safety. 14 22 30 34 46 54 60 84 88 90 94 96 100 102 . Look Maw, No Teeth! NG le ae eet tak I TT SE | NATURAL ee PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE IISTORY Vol. 102, No. 3, March 1993 COVER: In Brazil's Atlantic forest, two female muriquis demonstrate their friendship. Story on page 34. Photograph by Adriana O. Rimoli. LETTERS WITH My DAUGHTER Lois Beck What’s a good age to start anthropological fieldwork? How about five? THIS VIEW OF LIFE Stephen Jay Gould Modified Grandeur NATURE’S INFINITE BOOK Jared Diamond Drowning Dogs and the Dawn of Art THIS LAND Robert H. Mohlenbrock Black Branch Barrens, Texas MENU FOR A MONKEY Karen B. Strier By eating certain plants, some South American monkeys rid themselves of intestinal parasites. ONE SMALL STEP FOR AN ARTHROPOD William A. Shear A fantastic host of tiny predators apparently led the first invasion of solid Earth. CARIBBEAN DIASPORA Samuel M. Wilson Many Jews, fleeing persecution, were among the early European settlers of the islands. FlorDS DOWN UNDER Ken R. Grange and Walter M. Goldberg In some unusual New Zealand inlets, black coral and other creatures of the deep thrive near the surface. CELESTIAL EVENTS Gail S. Cleere What’s in a Name? SCIENCE LITE Roger L. Welsch No Chance REVIEWS Joseph L. Sax Crusaders of the Lost Park AT THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY A MATTER OF TASTE Raymond Sokolov The Teff Also Rises THE NATURAL MOMENT Photograph by Franklin J. Viola AUTHORS ALAN P. TeRNES Editor ELLEN GOLDENSOHN Managing Editor THOMAS PAGE Designer Board of Editors RoBeERT B. ANDERSON, FLORENCE G. EDELSTEIN, REBECCA B. FINNELL, JENNY LAWRENCE, Virrorio MAESTRO, RICHARD MILNER, JuDy RICE, KAY ZAKARIASEN (PICTURES) Contributing Editors Les Line, SAMUEL M. WILSON Lisa STILLMAN Copy Editor PEGGY CONVERSANO Asst. Designer Mary ERIN CULLEN Editorial Asst. Davin Ort1z Picture Asst. CAROL BARNETTE Text Processor JONNA HUNTER Receptionist L. THOMAS KELLY Publisher Bart S. Epwarps General Manager ERNESTINE WEINDORE Asst, to the Publisher . EDWARD R. BULLER Business Manager Cary CastLe Circulation Director _ Ramon E. Atvarez Direct Mail Manager Jupy LEE Asst. Circulation Manager BRUNILDA Ortiz Asst. Fulfillment Manager Mark ABRAHAM Production Director Marte Y. Munpaca Asst. Production Manager : JoHN MatrHew Ravina Advg. Prod. Coordinator ADVERTISING SALES (212) 599-5555 310 Madison Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10017 JoHN Moncure Advertising Sales Director EpGar L. Harrison New York Sales Manager SAMANTHA Loomis Travel Manager Account Managers INGE PoLAK, UrsuLA WEBSTER Tuomas J. NOLAN Research and Marketing Mer. Chicago: Jerry Greco & Assoc. (312) 263-4100 Detroit: Globe Media Inc. (313) 642-1773 Los Angeles: Globe Media Ine. (213) 850-8339 San Francisco: Globe Media Inc. (415) 362-8339 Toronto: American Publishers Reps. (416) 363-1388 WILLIAM T. GOLDEN Chairman, Board of Trustees GeorcE D, LANGDon, Jr. President and Chief Executive Natural History (ISSN 0028-0712) is published monthly by. the American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, N.Y. 10024. Subscriptions: $28.00 a yeat, Ia Canada and all other countries: $37.00 a year. Sec- ond-class postage paid at New York, N.Y, and at additional mailing offices, Copyright © 1993 by American Museum of Natural History. All rights reserved. No part of this periodi- cal may be reproduced without written consent of Natural History. Send subscription orders and undeliverable copies to the address below. Membership and subscription information: Write to address below or cali (800) 234-5252 if urgent. Post- master: Send address changes to Natural History, Post Office Box 5000, Harlan 1A 51537-5000. j 2 NATURAL History 3/93 THE EGG AND GOULD I was surprised to read in the December 1992 issue that Stephen Jay Gould could find no colleagues in the “not so rarefied and intellectual” environment of Cam- bridge, Massachusetts, who could solve the mystery of Columbus and his egg. Had he queried this Cambridge resident, he would have learned not only the story but also a popular method by which the lesson was taught. A number of early nineteenth century paintings in the Peabody and Essex Mu- seum collection portray Columbus and his nonplused dinner companions as he per- forms his feat. In all of them, he gestures toward the vertically oriented egg as if to say, “Now, gentlemen, you can all do it!” The image had a potent didactic mes- sage for the members of the East India So- ciety of Salem, Massachusetts, an associa- tion of sea captains who made daring voyages beyond the capes Horn and Good Hope to establish trade in the East Indies and Pacific. In 1805, the society commis- Columbus performs the egg trick. Peabody and Essex Museum sioned the artist Michele Felice Corn paint a copy of a then well-known im by William Hogarth showing Columb lesson to adorn their meeting hall. To East India Marine Society, Columbus a hero who had accomplished for the time what others would repeat later \ ease. DANIEL FINAM Salem, Massachus Stephen Jay Gould’s version is not story I heard almost seven decades _ when I attended the West Buckl School in Devonshire, England. Yes was indeed a con job, but much more s tle than the trick that young Gould scribes. Columbus is supposed to h challenged the others to stand an egg o1 end without crushing it. He himself | surreptitiously made an imperceptible tle mound of salt on the tablecloth which he could perch the egg on its e When he picked it up again, he had sleight of hand swept away the deposi with his little finger, so that they Idn’t see how he did it. Yes, a con, but ore clever con, one that they could not licate. B. ORCHARD LISLE Fort Worth, Texas believe I encountered the legend 1etime between ages ten and fourteen le living in the blue- and white-collar urb of Lyndhurst, New Jersey. In my oolboy version, Columbus performed feat before his first voyage. At some of gathering, perhaps in the presence ‘erdinand and Isabella, he was asked y the earth could stay in place if it were nd, as he stoutly maintained (implying, iess, that if it were round, it would roll iy). Whereupon Columbus performed cracked egg trick (presumably just to t up a crank so he could get on with his h for support). LAWRENCE J. HALL Bethesda, Maryland Alany of your readers probably first en- ntered the Columbus-and-egg story, erred to by Darwin and cited by phen Jay Gould, in their college Eng- class. In Part 4 of “The Bear,” William ilkner described how “men snarled r the gnawed bones of the old world’s thless evening until an accidental egg -overed to them a new hemisphere.” VICTOR STRANDBERG Durham, North Carolina PHEN JAY GOULD REPLIES: have never before had so much fun n the correspondence engendered by »ssay. More than fifty letters have come way, filled with as many versions of story about Columbus and his egg. The at majority come from older readers yst of European backgrounds), thus af- ning my key claim that the story has sed among us indigenous young *uns less we had access, as I did not, to the - source that keeps the tale sputtering 0 this generation—the 1949 film ristopher Columbus, starring Fredric March in the title role. Halliwell’s Film Guide labels it “an extraordinarily te- diously paced historical account of basi- cally undramatic events”—prominently featuring the egg scene, no doubt. Time magazine, in a contemporary review, wrote: “Even ten-year-olds will find it about as thrilling as an afternoon spent looking at Christmas cards.” So Colum- bian film flops are no new phenomenon, and Mr. March did not win immortality with the egg). I was most struck by the extraordinary diversity among my correspondents’ ver- sions of the tale, and in their interpreta- tions of its message—a standard circum- stance for “canonical stories.” Basically, my letters divide about equally into three different versions—(1) that Columbus hard-boiled his egg while the others tried raw eggs; (2) that Columbus cracked the shell (either surreptitiously or with panache, depending upon your interpreta- tion); (3) that Columbus secretly dumped a pile of salt on the table, then placed the egg in the pile and blew the unneeded grains away. Literary references abound: Tolstoy treated the incident as a joke in War and Peace. Faulkner obviously took it more seriously, as Mr. Strandberg’s letter attests. Sherwood Anderson, in his 1921 story The Egg, agrees with my reading of trickery. One character exclaims: “That Christo- pher Columbus was a cheat.... He talked of making an egg stand on its end. He talked, he did, then he went and broke the end of the egg.” Anderson had been weaned on version two. (My thanks to Donald Fiene of Knoxville for this source.) But the most interesting and reyealing tidbit comes from Vincent Zichello of New Rochelle, New York, who has grati- fied me no end by proving that the story is a canonical tale with versions predating Columbus, thus illustrating my main argu- ment of the following month’s essay (Jan- uary 1993 on Haldane’s beetle remark)— that more famous figures “attract” old legends and that such tales teach us more about the literary biases of preferred modes in storytelling than about historical fact. Giorgio Vasari, in his Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Ar- chitects, written in 1546, tells a tale of the selection of Filippo Brunelleschi to build the dome of the Florence cathedral: [He proposed] that whosoever could make an egg stand upright on a flat piece of mar- ble should build the cupola.... Taking an egg, therefore, all those masters sought to make it stand upright, but no one could find the way. Whereupon Filippo, being told to make it stand, took it graciously, and giving one end of it a blow on the flat piece of mar- ble, made it stand upright. The craftsmen protested that they could have done the same; but Filippo answered, laughing, that they could also have raised the cupola, if they had seen the model or the design. And so it was resolved that he should be com- missioned to carry out this work. Thus, Vasari placed version two in 1420, when this incident occurred, thirty-one years before Columbus’s birth—although I suppose that Phidias tried the same caper when doubters told him that his great statue of Athena would surely collapse under its own weight. NABOKOV AND MERIAN’S BUTTERFLIES Maria Sybilla Merian’s art had Russian connections far beyond those mentioned by Sharon Valiant in her fascinating essay, “Questioning the Caterpillar” (December 1992). The Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov owed at least some part of his lifelong interest in butterflies to Merian’s work. An eight-year-old Nabokov discovered her Metamorphosis Insectorum Surina- mensium in the attic of his family’s sum- mer house near Saint Petersburg. As Nabokov later wrote, he “dreamed” his way through these exotic volumes. Lov- ingly described butterflies are a motif in much of Nabokov fiction and are the sub- ject of an entire chapter in his Speak, Memory, where he tells of his childhood encounter with Merian’s books. D. BARTON JOHNSON Santa Barbara, California 3 ly or drive to Atlantic Canada’s closest and vost accessible province along U.S. I-95 or ‘oastal Route 1 for exciting outdoor dventure. We have two distinct and eautiful coastlines stretching for 1400 miles aturing a variety of rich eco-systems. 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New &é Brunswick With My Daughter In mountainous Iran, an anthropologist’s five-year-old child adapts quickly to pastoral life by Lois Beck In May 1991, my five-year-old daugh- ter, Julia, and I traveled to southwestern Iran, where I was resuming anthropologi- cal research among Qashqa’i nomadic pastoralists. The nomads and their sheep and goats were at their summer pastures high in the Zagros Mountains, at an eleva- tion of approximately 9,000 feet. I had lived with this same group of people for more than a year in 1970 and 1971 and for shorter periods in 1977 and 1979. Since 1978, Iran had experienced a revolution, an Islamic government had taken power, and a devastating eight-year war with Iraq had been waged. The Qashqa’i are members of a tribal confederacy of approximately 400,000 people. Their low-elevation winter pas- tures and high-elevation summer pastures sii iH La HH During a visit to « seighboring te child of a Qashga’t ‘amily. Photographs by Lois Beck 6 NATURAL HIstTory 3/93 f q MIR if HH OSES nt, Julia holds the are separated by hundreds of miles, and each spring and autumn migration be- tween the two areas lasts from two to three months. One of Iran’s many ethnic minori- ties, the Qashqa’i speak Turkish and are Shi’i Muslims. In the 1960s and 1970s, the regime of Mohammad Reza Shah had pressured many Qashqa’i to abandon no- madism and settle in villages and towns. More recently, the current government has attempted to reverse this policy, and a high-level state agency is endeavoring to provide the nomads with such benefits as veterinary services, modern medicine, for- mal education, new roads, and improved access to water. Julia and I arrived at the summer pas- tures in late afternoon after a long drive from the provincial capital of Shiraz. A new, paved road to the town of Semirc had turned the formerly arduous, dus bumpy drive into a pleasant one. North Semirom, we made our way along a ni row dirt track farther into the mountains Up against a mountainside, just where used to be, was the black goat-hair tent Borzu Qermezi. The former tribal hea man was leaning on a cane and peering ¢ at the approaching vehicle. I was ove joyed to see him, for I had heard thir hand reports that he had been seriously i His wife, Falak, came down to greet with embraces and kisses and escorted back to the tent. Borzu held my hand a1 kissed my face, then leaned down ai kissed Julia many times. Two trucks hired to transport sheep ai goats to market pulled up to the camp in flurry of dust. Their arrival gave Julia chance to become accustomed to the su roundings and enabled me to point out ce tain individuals to her while everyone ha tened to load the animals. Borzu called his son Mohammad Karim to collect lamb from the herd. Realizing his intent kept Julia from seeing him slit its thro< Even though the lamb’s sacrifice w: meant to honor our arrival (and to provic meat for a welcoming meal), it was not th first image I wanted her to have. Julia ar I spent the rest of the day greeting ar talking with people who came from nea by camps to see us. The weather becan cold as the sun set, and Julia sat close t me in the large tent. After the celebratory dinner, Mohan mad Karim wanted to pitch the canvas tel I had brought his family from the Unite States asa gift in 1977. I told him we ha a new one and began to unpack a bag thi the nomads thought impossibly small an too lightweight to hold a complete ten Presenting the ultimate fully motorized replica of America’s most beautiful locomotive. THE SCENT LIMITED The traditional, fully motorized HO-scale locomotive arrives with a Model shown smaller than handsome display witha actual size of 127/16" Ec. genuine brass nameplate for showcasing when not in use. 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Prior to ship- ment, I will be billed for a deposit of $79.* and after shipment, for the balance in 4 monthly in- c * stallments of $79* each. *Plus my state sales tax and a one-time charge of $3. for shipping and handling. SIGNATURE at oe ALL ORDERS ARE SUBJECT TO ACCEPTANCE MR/MRS/MiSs= == San PLEASE PRINT CLEARLY. ADDRESS=- == SSS ee ee Ciy/STATE = ZIP TELEPHONE:# (22253) SS © 1993 FMPM 14032-6TPB-64 Exclusively from Franklin Mint Precision Models. poles and all. They needed several camels to carry each of their tents. Because the surrounding land was still muddy from the melting snow, Borzu insisted we pitch our tent inside his, where we would be warm and less buffeted by the wind. His daugh- ter Fariba spread a ground cloth in a part of the tent usually reserved for guests and placed a finely woven carpet on top. There we set up our compact, brilliant turquoise nylon tent. Julia was tired, so I was glad to unpack our sleeping bags and get her settled down to sleep. The night was so cold that water in the nomads’ goatskin bags had partly frozen by morning, but Julia and I were toasty in our tent. She slept through the night and upon awakening in the morning was disappointed to learn that she had missed the tumult of the camp dogs chas- ing away wolves that had tried to attack the sheep. After a tasty breakfast of freshly baked flatbread, new butter, and yogurt, Julia began to explore the camp. Mohammad Karim’s children gave her a newborn kid, all black except for one white leg. When the frisky animal escaped, Julia tried to re- cover it but could not. When the children raced after it, she watched their technique, and by the end of the day she, too, could capture White Foot by anticipating the di- rection in which the kid would leap and then lunging after a rear leg. Julia soon became a real help in camp, in ways that I had never been. I was not competent in the tasks that women of my age performed, but Julia was soon accom- plishing practically all the tasks that chil- dren performed. Two injured and ill sheep were tethered near a stone wall off to one side of the tent. On her own Julia took responsibility for their care. She went with Borzu’s son Dar- iush to cut long grass growing by a moun- tain stream and fed it to the animals, and she often untangled the ropes from their legs. She would pat their heads and mur- mur encouraging words to them as she looked into their eyes. Julia also worried about a baby goat with apparent neurological problems. Borzu’s brother Jehangir kept the kid in an open wooden box, for it could not stand. When Julia carried the animal to its mother, it lay on the ground bleating with desperation, its legs splayed helplessly be- neath it. Julia figured out how to hold both the kid and a teat so that the young animal could nurse. Jehangir showed her where to feel the kid’s belly to know when it was adequately fed. Julia learned to mimic exactly the “baaing” of the lambs and the kids, and even the nomads sometimes did not know if it was Julia teasing us from the rocky mountain slope behind the tent (where we could not see her) or an actual lamb or kid. Julia quickly formed a special relation- ship with each person in Borzu’s house- hold. Because Borzu was still ill and could not easily stand or walk, Julia learned to anticipate his requests. She scattered chickens from the tent, and we gradually became used to abrupt, panicked squawk- ings as she disrupted yet another group of In a trick learned from other children, Julia sneaks a tasty curd ball from ao ying i011 8 NATURAL History 3/93 roosting chickens. One day Borzu spott a large lizard, considered by the nomads be polluting to the home, on the re screen’ in front of the tent. Julia came Borzu’s assistance, grabbing his cane a chasing the lizard away. At night Borzu did not sleep well a would often cry out, “Pain, pain!” Jul awakened by his cries, would call, “It’s. right, Borzu. Go back to sleep.” Sor times, when the pain was severe, he wot lament in his sleep, “Mother, moth where are you?” (His mother had di twenty years earlier.) As we travel through the summer pastures visitil other families, Julia would always ask r to tell Borzu’s many brothers and siste about his pain and his calling for the mother. Julia worried about him a1 would often sit close by him to play wi her toy sheep and goats and patiently she him how to solve the puzzles she h brought from home. Several nights after our arrival, Jul asked me to identify the adolescent b« who sat slightly out of the circle of peop around the open fire. I replied that he w Ayad, Borzu’s hired shepherd. She imm diately inquired, “But where is Falak shepherd?” I laughed and then translate for everyone, to their amusement. Fala Borzu’s wife, joked, “You know, I real do deserve my own shepherd. I perform ¢ the work around here” (which was in fa partly true, especially since Borzu hé been ill). Borzu’s sons who were still at hom Dariush and Bizhan, both in their earl twenties, became Julia’s companion They often took her with them when the did their various chores, including the da they permanently separated the lamt from the ewes. She always helped bring i the lambs at night and settled them in the pen, and she worried when they bleate anxiously for their mothers. Julia sensed the tension between Borz and Dariush. The two occasionally argue because Dariush wanted a salaried job i the city, while Borzu needed him to carr on pastoral tasks and to maintain the far ily’s nomadic life style. Dariush and Bizhan taught Julia most ¢ the Turkish words and phrases sh learned. On her own, she picked up the ex clamations and mild curses that people ut tered, and she would insert them in he conversation, which the others found en tertaining. “You offspring of an undet sized donkey!” she would suddenly show at a billy goat trying to eat wild herbs dry ing on a tray in the sun. Perhaps there's a reason why so many investors feel drained after April 15th. adviser about the benefits of Nuveen tax- For many investors, April 15th is not the happiest of days. Because it’s then they realize the problem with most of their investments is that the more income they earn, the more taxes end up being taken out. Perhaps that's why so many investors have been selecting the tax-free invest- ments of John Nuveen & Co. Incorporated. Because Nuveen allows them to keep more of the money they earn. Now, if you’d like to make the 15th of April a little less taxing, ask your financial free investments. Or call the toll-free number below, and we'll send you our special kit that'll show how your tax-free savings can keep you from feeling drained. For more complete information on Nuveen Tax-Free Open-End Value Funds and Unit Trusts, including charges and ex- penses, send for a prospectus. Please read it carefully before you invest or send money. 1 = 80,0 sO mete e0 Dez NUVEEN Quality Tax-Free Investments Since 1898. *Income may be subject to state and local taxes, as well as to the alternative minimum tax. Capital gains, if any, will be subject to capital gains taxes. Fariba, Borzu’s only daughter still at home (four older daughters were married and in their own tents in other camps), taught Julia how to churn yogurt and water to make butter, spin yarn from raw wool, fill goatskin water bags, gather wild herbs, and retrieve the donkeys. Shy about enter- ing a tent filled with male visitors, Fariba would peek around the side, catch Julia’s eye, and beckon to her. Julia would scam- per out and be gone. She would come back later telling about her adventure and spouting new words and phrases. Fariba showed Julia how to roll out wet curds to dry in the sun. Julia had seen young chil- dren quietly sneak a ball of drying curd to eat, and one day I saw her doing the same thing, exactly the way that they did it, reaching up from underneath to the mat raised on poles. We visited practically every family in these pastures. They were all people I had known before, and I was happy to see them again and renew ties. Many had lost sons in the Iraq—Iran war (1980-1988), and we wept together. I could not help re- membering that many of these young men had been Julia’s age when I first knew them, and I had watched them grow up. © Boord gz I had expected that Julia might be shy when we went from tent to tent, meeting new people, but she was not. I would ex- plain in advance how each person was re- lated to Borzu by kinship and marriage. She became familiar with the arrangement of the tents and camps and learned about customary and proper behavior. Julia became friends with Shapur, the teen-age son of Borzu’s married daughter Zohreh. Whenever we visited their camp, Shapur took Julia with him as he did his chores. She collected feathers of all sorts and enlisted Shapur in this pursuit; he obliged by holding a live rooster still while she plucked out a particularly attractive feather. One day Shapur took Julia to show her a young wild bird he had found aban- doned in a nest high on a mountain cliff. She returned with the bird, an unwieldy young falcon with a wingspan greater than the reach of her arms. Shapur nursed the falcon until it learned to fly and to hunt on its own. On the afternoon we visited Jehangir’s family, Julia showed him the fossil of a snail she had found. “Come with me,” Je- hangir promptly responded, “I know a place where there are many.” And off they “Dr. Hooper is excited about his new project.” 10 NATURAL History 3/93 went, hand in hand, to a nearby hillto collect what he called “stone money flat, round fossils of mollusks and | chiopods the size of large coins. When we first arrived in May, the sor Khalifeh, another former tribal headn took me aside to whisper that Khalifeh died many years before. When Julia a1 visited his camp several weeks late went to pay my respects to Khalifel climbed to the graveyard on a hillt tapped on Khalifeh’s inscribed gravest with a nice round stone I had found on way, and told him how sorry I was no have seen him again. Then I saw Jt climbing up the hill. She too had foun stone on the way and came over to grave beside me. Without my sayin; word, she tapped on the gravestone < solemnly spoke, “Khalifeh, I wish I coi have known you.” I had not remembe: telling Julia about the ritual. Perhaps ; saw someone else perform it. Nights were always special for Ju Before going to sleep, we would take short walk to admire the changing she of the moon, the bright planets, and 1 multitude of stars. The high altitude a the absence of artificial lighting allowed to see a bright sky (despite the smoky ha drifting across the Persian Gulf to Ir from Kuwait’s oil fields, set afire by Sz dam Hussein’s army several months pre ously). Julia was often the first to set down to sleep, and she would listen as t family completed the work of the dé Bizhan, last to get under the blanke’ would often play an audio cassette poignant Qashqa’i music. The tent final silent, the camp’s dogs would begin work themselves into a frenzy of barkii as they defended the camp and attack any stalking wolves, foxes, and hyenz Julia laughed at the dogs’ sudden transfo mation, for during the day they lay in stupor in the shade along a stone wall ar would barely raise an eyelid as she pass« by. Julia did not hear the sounds just bi fore dawn—the crackle of the fire Falé was starting, Fariba rolling out brea dough and slapping the thin sheets on flat pan over another fire, Bizhan takir out the lambs eager to graze, and Borz clearing his head of the night’s distresses One night Julia woke me up to whispe that an animal was in our tent. She said sh thought it was nibbling the ball of drie curds she had hidden. Telling her it was dream, I patted her and told her to go bac to sleep. About an hour later, I felt some thing crawl up my back and into my hair. hastily brushed it off and then unsuccess he world is full of guarantees, no two alike. As a rule, the more words they contain, the more their protection is limited. The Lands’ End guarantee has always been an unconditional one. It reads: “Tf you are not completely satisfied with any item you buy from us, at any time during your use of it, return it and we will refund your full purchase price.” We mean every word of it. Whatever. Whenever. Always. But to make sure this is perfectly clear, we’ve decided to simplify it further. GUARANTEED. prrion: If you’d like a free copy of our catalog, mail in this coupon or call us free on: 1-800-356-4444 Name Address Apt. City State Zip Send to: Lands’ End Direct Merchants Dept. #QN 1 Lands’ End Lane, Dodgeville, WI 53533 THE LAST SILVER OF IMPERIAL CHINA | Legendary 1890-1911 Silver | "Dragon” Dollars Historic treasures from the romantic silk-and-spice “China Trade” era, these mag- nificent silver “Dragon” dollars were the last issued under the Ch’ing dynasty in the twi- light of Imperial China. Their high silver content matched the largest silver trade dol- lars of Western nations, and their intricate Dragon design symbolized bounty and China’s ancient culture. Only a tiny fraction has survived China’s turbulent 20th century. Only $49 each, 5 for $225 or 10 for $395. Order #6702. Add $2 for postage. Each big 39mm original coin contains 27 gms. of .900silver. To order by credit card, call toll-free 1-800-451- 4463 at any time. Or send a check or money order to: International Coins & Currency, Inc., 11 E. State St., Box 218, Dept. 2697, Montpe- lier, VT 05601. Money-back guarantee — 30-day home examination. INDONESIA Sumatra, Java and Bali July 11-28, 1993 } With ancient temples, exotic arts and { architecture, lush rice-terraced moun- | , tain slopes and unusual wildlife, the | islands of Indonesia are a natural and | cultural treasure trove. Join a Pacific ethnologist for a look at Sumatra's orangutans and Lake Toba region, Java's magnificent temples of | Borobudur and Prambanan and Bali's § renowned landscapes and traditions. | a= American yy Museum of 3, Natural ane aK History Discovery Tours Central Park West at 79th St. New York, NY (0024-5192 Toll-free (800) 4:52-8687 or in NYS (212) 763-5700 {2 NATURAL History 3/93 fully tried by flashlight to find out what sort of creature it was. . The next morning, as people sat in a cir- cle in the tent discussing their response to the imposition of an Islamic government, Julia shouted, “Mommy, crab, crab!” She knew she should not interrupt me, except in an emergency. There, close to all of us, was a large, black scorpion, its barbed tail poised, moving across the carpet (in crab fashion, as seen by a child). Fariba grabbed a metal pincer and dropped the scorpion into the fire. Everyone marveled that none of us had seen it and that Julia had rescued us from a possibly lethal, cer- tainly painful sting. Perhaps it was the an- imal that had crawled up my back and into my hair. Julia delighted in animal stories. One night Jehangir told of having seen that day a large snake devouring a smaller snake. Julia, who had begun to fall asleep in my arms, roused herself to ask me to tra: his storyand then questioned, “Head fi tail first?” We all laughed, for each of u formed a vague mental image of the sr feast but had not bothered to inquire ; the details. “Head first or tail first?” be a popular joke for the rest of our stay. Shortly before our departure, Mohan Karim and several kinsmen set off to sh wild boar for us. I protested, but to no wild game was important in the Qas diet, and serving it was a way of honorir The hunters returned tired and irritate next day. “We rode to a place where | dig for truffles,’ Mohammad Karin ported, “but we saw no sign of them. ’ we hiked to the spring where tracks had spotted earlier. Thirty to forty boars drunk there but were gone.” “But with boars prancing about ai spring,” Julia responded, “and with so r hoof marks, how could you possibly k “It obviously was in the path of a migrating tribe from the north.” | number?” and she demonstrated with Berd insers the prancing of AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY fs. We all laughed. Mohammad Karim logized for not being able to present “cbwecs'" CIRCUMNAVIGATING THE e some for our next visit. ust before we left, we visited the near- tribal school. At first Julia was puzzled, BRITISH | then I realized she had expected some- 1g similar to her own school at home. AND IRISH _there, on a barren slope, was a small, nd, open-sided canvas tent, two black- * rds, a rusty can of chalk pieces, a bat- | ISLES d folding chair for the teacher (Borzu’s hew), and a tattered and faded Iranian : flapping from a pole. The children | MAY 9-25, 1993 ried their own few books back and h every day. Julia asked, “But where the ‘learning areas’?” (as found at her school). Then she gazed at the moun- is around us and laughed at the irrele- Seaside cliffs, verdant hills, ce of her question. nesting seabirds, quaint vil- Jn our way back to Borzu’s tent, we lages and historic seafaring ‘ted a small footbridge that had just towns characterize the coasts n built over a mountain stream. Fresh, of the British and Insh Ides. ist cement covered the top. Suddenly | — en : a was walking across it. I asked her Next spring, join a dynamic at she thought she was doing. She | _ team of lecturers on an exciting lied, “I want to leave footprints so that circumnavigation of these ple will remember that I was here.” | ~—_— he autiful and historic shores. er that day I told people what she had e, so they would look for her small With extensive coastlines, the histories of the British and Irish Isles are tprints in the hardened cement. inextricably entwined with the sea. Our exploration of these islands will 3izhan offered to drive us to the town of nirom so we could catch a ride back to provincial capital of Shiraz. I packed focus on the natural and human history of these vibrant coasts. Along the way, we will enjoy the beauty of Ireland’s renowned Ring of Kerry, riedly, while Julia sat stunned by the subtropical gardens « on the Scilly Islands, multitudes of seabirds and vast den departure. Everyone was in tears carpets of brilliant wildflowers throughout. © on we kissed goodbye. At the outskirts Semirom, Bizhan began to drive ex- Our ship, the 80-passenger Polaris iS ideally saicd fot this type of _ voyage. Her high degree of maneuver- ability and fleet of Zodiacs allow us to explore remote islands that are virtu- _ ally inaccessible to larger ships. She | also offers an ideal forum for our team of lecturers who will enrich our experience with their knowledge of this region. dingly slowly. I could not understand it | watched him out of the corner of my . Julia sobbed, “Bizhan wants us to S our ride, so that we won't have to ve.” She was right. \fter we had left Semirom and were eling along the road to Shiraz, we saw ny tents of other groups of Qashqa’i nads. “See that herd? They haven’t sold ir year-old lambs yet,” Julia exclaimed. ok! I bet Borzu wishes he still owned els like those. It’s so dry. here. I won- American: how far the women have to go for er. The people over there have only Museum of ~ vas tents, no goat-hair ones; they must Natural gypsies.” Julia was right on these History nts, too. Discovery Cruises s Beck teaches anthropology at Wash- Central Park West at 79th Street ton University in Saint Louis. Her lat- New York, NY 10024-5192 book is Nomad: A Year in the Life of a (212) 769-5700 in NYS or shga’i Tribesman in Iran. Toll-free (800) 462-8687 Modified Grandeur A crumbling pedestal supports our arrogant views of life by Stephen Jay Gould This is an essay about adjectives. In an old theatrical story, W. S. Gilbert was leading a rehearsal for the premiére of his most famous collaboration with A. S. Sullivan, The Mikado. At one point, Nanki-Poo learns that his beloved Yum- Yum is about to marry her guardian, Ko- Ko. Searching for a straw of light, he asks: “But you do not love him?” “Alas, no!” she replies. On hearing this sliver of miti- gation, Nanki-Poo exclaims “Rapture!” — or so Gilbert originally wrote. But at the rehearsal, Nanki-Poo stated his line too forcefully, given the limited comfort pro- vided by Yum-Yum, and Gilbert shouted down from the balcony: “Modified rap- ture.” The poor tenor, not grasping that Gilbert had only meant to correct his tone, and thinking instead that he had flubbed his line, exclaimed, “Modified rapture” at the reprise. This unintended correction elicited a good laugh, and so the line has remained ever since. If something so un- varnished as rapture must often be modi- fied, let me pose a question in a similar vein: how shall we modify grandeur? I asked myself this question in ponder- ing the array of deep issues embedded within the most famous paragraph of our biological literature—the closing lines of Darwin’s Origin of Species. Rarely have so few words raised so many hackles and fomented so much discussion. I quote from the definitive sixth and last edition of 1872: There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning end- less forms most beautiful and most wonder- ful have been, and are being evolved. Two feature: of this paragraph have 14 NATURAL History 3/93 been batted back and forth about the liter- ature of the history of science (including a good deal of circulation through these columns). First, why did Darwin use theis- tic language here and only here, when he was at least agnostic in personal persua- sion, and certainly believed (in any case) that worldly phenomena must receive nat- uralistic explanations? (The first edition uses the word “Creator” seven times, al- ways in negative comparison to illustrate the superiority of evolutionary explana- tions.) We will never know the answer for sure, but one fact speaks volumes: the phrase “by the Creator” was interpolated by Darwin into later editions; the original passage, as published in 1859, read: “,..having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one...” I rather suspect that simple diplomacy can best explain this dubious addition. Second, why does “evolved,” the very last word of the book, appear nowhere else in the Origin of Species (Darwin calls the process—later to be named “evolution” — “descent with modification”)? I believe that Darwin shunned this word because he recognized that natural selection, his the- ory of evolutionary mechanisms, con- tained no postulate about progress as a necessary feature of organic history—and, in vernacular English at the time, the word “evolution” meant progress (literally, un- folding according to a preset plan). But I want to focus on a third feature of this closing statement—its opening words. Why does an evolutionary outlook (“‘this view of life”) imply “grandeur,” and of what does this grandeur consist? Why does Darwin use the word here at all, and for the only time in the entire book? I started to ruminate about this issue be- cause, by chance, I recently came upon an- other reference to “grandeur” from the THIS VIEW OF LIE ¥ generation before Darwin, and in a g work of exactly opposite import. This me to consider the chronology grandeur—in particular its apparent duction, as illustrated by nouns and adj tives, through three stages: the creatioi world just before the Origin of Spec Darwin’s evolutionary reformulation, ; our modern view of life’s history. We 1 that we have gained greatly in factual ; theoretical understanding through th three stages; but if we have lost a degree grandeur for each step of knowlec gained, then we must fear Faust’s barge “For what shall it profit a man, if he st gain the whole world, and lose his o soul?” (Mark 8:36.) Stage One: Pre-Darwinian Grandeu was recently invited by the American $ ciety for Surgery of the Hand to pres the inaugural lecture at their annual me ing in Phoenix. I was given a free rein topics, and could have chosen anythi from evolutionary manifestoes to creatic ist manipulations. But a Darwinian bio gist with a sense of history could move only one direction: toward his booksh and a copy of the last great summary of t distinctively English brand of creationi: known as “natural theology”—the vic that not only God’s existence, but also ] attributes of power and goodness, may inferred from the character of his creatic particularly the good design of organis! and the harmony of ecosystems. TI work, published in 1833 by the celebrat British anatomist and physician § Charles Bell, is entitled: The Hand: . Mechanism and Vital Endowments | Evincing Design. 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Military History 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 NNNNNNNND c pea an anaanad the power, wisdom, and goodness of God, as manifested in the Creation.” The entice- ments were virtually irresistible, for the nominating committee included the Presi- dent of the Royal Society (Britain’s lead- ing scientific organization) and the Arch- bishop of Canterbury, while the good earl had specified “moreover, that the profits arising from the sale of the works so pub- lished should be paid to the authors of the works.” The resulting eight volumes, collec- tively called the Bridgewater Treatises (at least by their friends, for doubters usually referred to them as the “Bilgewater Trea- tises”), therefore featured a collection of famous authors, including William Whewell, Britain’s leading philosopher of science; William Buckland, Oxford Uni- versity’s first professor of geology; and Peter Mark Roget, of thesaurus fame. The distinguished nominators selected Sir Charles Bell for one of the few topics that the earl of Bridgewater had specifically designated for treatment in his will—“the construction of the hand of man.” The Bridgewater Treatises represent the last major statement of natural theology, a distinctively English tradition in both reli- gion and natural history, with roots in John Ray’s late seventeenth-century writings, a trunk in William Paley’s Natural Theology of 1802, and a last set of branches in the earl’s posthumous literary legacies. A great lumberjack named Charles Darwin visited this particular glade a few years later. As one would expect from title and con- text, Bell’s volume focuses on the human hand as an ultimate expression of divine wisdom in creative design: It is in the human hand that we have the consummation of all perfection as an instru- ment. This, we perceive, consists in its power, which is a combination of strength with variety and extent of motion; we see it in the forms, relations, and sensibility of the fingers and thumb; in the provisions for holding, pulling, spinning, weaving, and constructing; properties which may be found in other animals, but which are com- bined to form this more perfect instrument. But Bell also extended his argument further to’ consider the entire pattern of life’s history through geological time— and he promptly ran into a difficulty that confronted all natural theologians. The fossil record seemed to indicate an im- provement in complexity of design through time—invertebrates only in the oldest rocks, followed by fishes, reptiles, mammals, and a creation of man so recent (for no human fossils were then known) that his remains are unrecorded in our ge- ological strata. Superficially, this pattern looks good for God—a series of creations and extinctions, with mounting excellence in each new try as the eventual entry of man draws nigh (I am purposely using the justly abandoned, gender-biased language invoked from time nearly immemorial through Bell to just a few years back). But a natural theologian, committed to the proposition that God creates in perfection, must balk—for God can always make just right; so why should he have created something less than perfect at first? Surely he doesn’t need to practice, and could have fashioned absolute organic optimality a millimicrosecond after creating the uni- verse itself. Bell resolved this paradox (following his colleague Buckland’s lead in the geo- “Paper, no wait...plastic, no...please don’t hit me!” 16 NATURAL History 3/93 logical treatise of the Bridgewater seri by arguing that each successive creatior both perféct for its own time and more « cellerit in design than the previous and ¢ tirpated version. Perfect can only me ideally adapted to local environmen Suppose then that the environment | came tougher and more diverse throu time—a general result of the earth’s co ing in Buckland’s scheme. The langu low-lying topographies of the early ea were made for simple creatures, and t suited to exalted human capacities. B wrote: These animals inhabited shallow seas, a estuaries, or great inland lakes. ..the surfs of the earth did not rise up in peaks a mountains.... It was flat, slimy, and covet with a loaded and foggy atmosphere. Th is, indeed, every reason to believe that 1 classes mammalia and birds were not th created; and that if man had been placed this condition of the earth, there must he been around him a state of things unsuit to his constitution, and not calculated to c forth his capacities. The simple creatures of these times we perfect for their primitive surroundin; “No fault is to be found with the constr tion of these instruments; they are suited their offices, and no bone is superfluous, misplaced, or imperfect.” The history life is, therefore, simultaneously a tale perpetual perfection and continuous ; crease in complexity of design. Bell, in summarizing this noble visic waxed poetic and spoke about grandeur. in fact, grandeur beyond grandeur, as ill trated by a well-chosen adjective. Whe! discovered this passage, and compared. adjectival embellishment with Darwi unornamented grandeur, the disturbi germ of this essay (later resolved, at les personally) took root in my own glac Bell wrote: r There is extreme grandeur in the thought an anticipating or prospective intelligenc in reflecting that what was finally accor plished in man, was begun in times incalc lably remote, and antecedent to the gre revolutions which the earth’s surface h undergone.... If we seek to discover the 1 lations of things, how sublime is the relati established between that state of the eartt surface, which has resulted from a long su cession of revolutions, and the final conc tion of its inhabitants as created in accc dance with these changes? Let us review the components of th scheme that would lead a man like Bell call its grandeur extreme—or at least wo drously suited to human arrogance: ar mals are always perfectly designed f Van Kampen Merritt® WHAT DO WE NEED TO GET MORE _ THAN JUST TAX-FREE INCOME? DIRECTION. Today, you hear a lot about higher taxes and the advantages of tax-free income. The Van Kampen Merritt Insured Municipals Income Trust® is designed to offer even more: monthly income exempt from federal, and depending on where , you live, state and local income taxes; plus insurance for prompt payment of principal and interest. 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Or, call direct: 7 days a week...24 hours a day. 1-800-DIAL VKM ext. 2001. their immediate world; yet life’s history also displays a linear trend to increasing excellence culminating in the recent ar- rival of man. In fact, man is foreshadowed from the very beginning, and his eventual origin is the pith and purpose of the entire panoply. What could be more grand, more extremely grand, than such a purposeful drama that puts Homo sapiens both in per- petual center stage and atop the ultimate peak at the end of the last act? Stage Two: Darwin the lumberjack lops off an adjective. | cited Darwin’s statement about unvarnished grandeur earlier in this essay. Of what does this grandeur consist in our scientific culture’s first fully defen- sible theory of evolution? Darwin gives us the answer in a brilliant comparison later in his final paragraph. He contrasts plane- tary motion in the Newtonian cosmology with directionality in the history of life. Planetary history, at base, is endless repe- tition to nowhere—essential, no doubt, to our planet’s continued existence, but not very interesting in lacking any directional component: “whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity...” Darwin writes. But life’s his- tory, by explicit contrast, is an endlessly ramifying tree, growing upward toward the light—and such motion constitutes grandeur: “from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved.” The “grandeur in this view of life” lies squarely in the contrast of cyclic- ity on a physical home with directionality of the biological inhabitants. But Darwin has taken us down a peg, at least in terms of our standard cultural hopes and deep-seated arrogances. Bell’s progressive creationism gave us a foreor- dained history of life, always perfect but moving upward toward an inevitable apotheosis in the origin of Homo sapiens. Darwin still sees expansion from original simplicity (the ever-ramifying tree of life in his metaphor), but specific outcomes are no longer ordained, and increase in com- plexity is only a broad trend, not a grand highway toward life’s primary goal. Does this change—a demotion in psychological comfort at least—explain why Bell could call his grandeur “extreme,” while Darwin applied no adjective at all? Stage Three: Wonderful perhaps, but is it grand? Darwin remained deeply am- bivalent on the crucial issue of progress in life’s history. He understood that the “bare-bones mechanics” of natural selec- tion included no such principle, and he was enough of a philosophical radical to revel in the extensive implications of such a discomforting view. (Natural selection only produces adaptation to changing local environments, not global progress. A “Hello, Dr. Sedgwick? It’s about Norton. He seems to be building himself a nest somewhere again.” 18 NATURAL History 3/93 woolly mammoth is well-adapted glacial climates, but cannot be callec generally improved elephant.) But Darwin was also a truly emin Victorian—a wealthy, white male co mitted to (and greatly benefiting from society that had, perhaps more than a other in human history, made progress t centerpiece of its credo. How could D. win jettison progress altogether in this a of industrial might, military trrumph, a colonial expansion? Darwin therefc placed a modified form of progress ba into his view of life through a suppleme tary argument about ecology and compe tion. The “struggle for existence,” Darv argued, proceeds in two basic mod against the physical environment, or w other members of a population in a bat for scarce resources. Darwin writes: “T canine animals in a time of dearth, may truly said to struggle with each oth which shall get food and live. But a ple on the edge of a desert is said to strugs for life against the drought.” Struggle against the physical envirc ment yields no vector of progress, for | merely tracks a fluctuating and nondire tional history of climate and topograpl But true battle against one’s peers (t “gladiatorial view” in Huxley’s term might validate a trend toward improv ment, since such global features as mc stamina, increased intelligence, a greater complexity of weaponry mig now be favored. Therefore, if this orgar mode of competition tends to be more fi quent than the inorganic style, life mig show an overall tendency toward progre: Darwin then argued that organic cot petition does predominate because m«c habitats are chock-full of species, and ne forms can insert themselves only by pus ing a competitor out in overt struggle. weakly directional progress therefo characterizes life’s history. Darwin write The inhabitants of each successive period the world’s history have beaten their pred cessors in the race for life, and are, in so fi higher in the scale of nature; and this m account for that vague yet ill-defined sen ment, felt by many paleontologists, that ¢ ganization on the whole has progressed. Is it any wonder, then, that Darwir grandeur is an adjective less intense thi Bell’s? Darwin still gives us a form progress—his tree of life does grow u ward—but what a paltry thing (in conve tional terms) compared with Bell’s versic of a straight and narrow road to hum: transcendence. And where are we today, when mai Introducing The Revolutionary New TROY-BILT® Chipper/Vac! It’s here! Total yard debris recycling — all from one machine! No more raking. No more pile- making. No more bagging. You simply walk behind this revolu- tionary new machine to pick up, shred and bag lawn clippings, leaves, sticks, etc. without ever touching the debris! 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Minimum finance charge is $.50 (except for residents of AR, CT, DC, HI, ID, KY, LA, MD, MO, NE, NM, NC, ND, OR, and RI.) $750 of paleontologists espouse a view of life with even less emphasis on progress (if not an outright denial of the concept in any con- ventional sense), and increasing sensitiv- ity to the many elements of randomness and contingency that make any particular pathway—including the route to Homo sapiens—utterly unpredictable and un- likely ever to arise again if the tape of life could be replayed from scratch? Bell ex- alted humans as the top rung of an in- evitable ladder. Darwin perceived us as a branch on a tree, but still as a topmost shoot representing a predictable direction of growth. Many paleontologists, myself included, now view Homo sapiens as a tiny and unpredictable twig on a richly ramifying tree of life—a happy accident of the last geological moment, unlikely ever to appear again if we could regrow the tree from seed. If Darwin could only muster an unmod- ified grandeur for his weak version of progress, what can we offer today? The next step down from no adjective is loss of the noun as well—that is, no grandeur at all. Indeed, I recently wrote a book on this revised concept of life’s history. I found the new view intellectually thrilling and utterly fascinating as a challenge to our so- cial traditions and psychological hopes. I called the book Wonderful Life, but I don’t think that I ever spoke of the fossil record in terms of grandeur. How shall we react to this loss of tradi- tional comfort and exaltation in consider- ing the paths of life’s history—this demo- tion of grandeur in three stages from extreme to unvarnished to absent? Must an increase in knowledge and understanding always carry the price of psychological sadness? We might just react stoically and recall J.S. Mill’s dictum that it is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a pig satisfied. Or we might look favorably upon the good lesson that comes with a cold bath, and re- member Sigmund Freud’s famous obser- vation that each revolution in the history of science greatly augments our power and understanding, but also dislodges us from a pedestal of previous cosmic arrogance. We first located ourselves at the center of a limited universe, but Copernicus and Galileo taught us that we inhabit a periph- eral speck in a cosmos “of a magnitude scarcely conceivable.” We then imagined that God had created us in his own image on this little speck, until Darwin “rele- gated us to descent fron an animal world.” (In one of the least modest statements of intellectual history, . \-\ then says that at 20 NATURAL HIstTory 3/93 least we believed we had rational minds until he discovered the unconscious.) I want to propose another approach, for I yearn to reestablish an appropriate notion of grandeur. Previous concepts have doled out grandeur to life according to its degree of conformity with our hopes and arro- gances—most to Bell for placing us on a foreordained and inevitable top; less to Darwin for retaining a progressive direc- tionality to contrast with planetary cy- cling; none to a modern view that demotes us to twigdom on a tree of life more strange and fascinating than ever. As its primary definition of grandeur, the Oxford English Dictionary offers: “transcendent greatness or nobility of in- trinsic character.” Does not this definition permit, nay compel, us to imbue life’s his- tory with a notion of grandeur even firmer than Bell’s? We have erred in the past by assessing grandeur largely in terms of how nature depicts our origin and our status. But this ruling dictionary tells us that grandeur rests upon “intrinsic charac- ter’—and nature can therefore only be grand in its own terms. For me then—and I will admit that grandeur must remain a largely personal and aesthetic concept— the modern view is grandest of all, for we have finally freed nature from primary judgment for placement of one little twig upon its copious bush. We can now step off and back—and see nature as some- thing so vast, so strange (yet comprehensi- ble), and so majestic in pursuing its own ways without human interference, th grandeur becomes the best word of all fi expressing our interest, and our respect. But we surely need an adjective, for th grandeur is greater even than Bell’s. I ha played with many alternatives and rema open to suggestion. I considered “ineff ble” or “unspeakable,” but then I couldr write any more essays. As a fan of wor with both vernacular and rarefied meai ings, I toyed with “terrific,” but finally di murred in recalling the older and literal d finition of “terrifying”—for nature may t strange, but is neither scary nor evil. My current favorite is “awesomr grandeur ’—a nice mixture of the vernact lar kiddie-culture sense of “terrific” or “r ally cool, man,” with the older and mo: sublime version captured by the Oxfor English Dictionary in tracing an appropr ate historical path from theological drea to reverent fascination: “From its use i reference to the Divine Being this passé gradually into: Dread mingled with vene ation, reverential or respectful fear; reve ence in the presence of supreme authorit moral greatness or sublimity.” And finall to the next and best sense: “The feeling ¢ solemn and reverential wonder, tinge with latent fear, inspired by what is terr bly sublime and majestic in nature.” ] other words, properly modified grandeur. Stephen Jay Gould teaches biology, geo ogy, and the history of science at Harvar University. 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Natural History 3/93 Lowe ee Le ee ee a a a a a a a a a a nner Drowning Dogs and the Dawn of Art As we achieve new understanding of Cro-Magnon cave paintings, we may in turn gain new insights into our future by Jared Diamond On two walls in southwestern Europe, a few hundred miles apart, stand two fa- mous, gripping, and disturbing paintings of animals on the verge of death. One de- picts a drowning dog, with only its head showing above the water’s surface. The water is painted a rich brown rather than blue, and its surface isn’t horizontal but slopes upward from left to right across the painting, growing into a pillar of water that dwarfs the dog. Directly over the dog tow- ers yet another column, a void of golden air. The dog’s expression seems strangely impassive in the face of its impending doom. Why did the artist use that strange color, slope, and expression? What does the painting mean? The other painting depicts two horses hurtling over a cliff. The horse in front has already shot out into the void, somer- Clay bisons in : Robert Bégouén Iyd~ caliente In =e oN Bo ee ee ee «2 d'Audoubert Cave, France saulted upside down, and is plunging with its extended legs pawing the air. The horse behind is about to go over the cliff in full gallop; one of its forelegs has just cleared the edge as it leaps toward its companion. The literal meaning of the scene is vivid enough. But what did the artist mean, de- picting the horses at this moment? Drowning Dog, mounted on the walls of Madrid’s Prado Museum, is one of the famous Black Paintings executed by the Spanish artist Francisco José de Goya about 1820. The falling horses, painted on the walls of Lascaux Cave in southwestern France, were executed by an unknown Cro-Magnon artist about 15,000 B.c. The comparison of the two paintings furnished a sobering start to a recent study tour that I made through Lascaux and other Cro- Magnon caves, in the hopes of better un- S INFINITE BOO! derstanding those ancient artists. We knot Goya’s name. Detailed biographies of h life are available, many of us still speak h: language, his culture lives on today, an we know the circumstances under whic More on Early Humans The new Hall of Human Biology and Eve lution will open on April 23 at the Amer can Museum of Natural History. In cor junction with this event, the April an May issues of Natural History will cor tain special sections on human evolutio _and paleolithic art. he created his Black Paintings. Despite-a that, we still cannot plumb Goya’ thoughts: his Drowning Dog remains ir scrutable. If I could not understand Goya painting, how could I hope to understan paintings by unknown artists, speaking a unknown language in the remote past, an practicing a vanished life style? My interest in visiting Cro-Magno caves grew out of my recent book, Th Third Chimpanzee, in which I had tried't find animal precursors for our apparent uniquely human traits. That effort shoul be possible because our genes are still 98. percent identical with chimp genes, an because our behavior was largely apelik as recently as a hundred thousand year ago. [had no difficulty tracing murder an genocide by humans directly to the sam practices in chimps, with little differenc except for our more efficient weapon: While human language, sexuality, and toc use may appear to be unique, clear precut sors exist in chimps. American Museum of Natural History FAMILY ADVENTURES Join the American Museum this summer on an exciting travel adventure designed for the whole family. Discovery Tours has developed three travel opportunities, taking into consideration the diversity of interests and special needs of family travel. Lecture programs for both children and adults will be held in tandem with Museum and guest lecturers who will help us explore and experience the natural wonders and traditional cultures of three spectacular destinations. NATURAL WONDERS OF COSTA RICA July 8-17, 1993 Explore the enchanting Monteverde Cloud Reserve, the wonderland of enormous trees and lianas known as Carara Biological Reserve, and beautiful Santa Elena . Forest Preserve in search of monkeys, armadillos, : coatimundis, anteaters, toucans, macaws, quetzels, motmots, storks and much more. AUSTRALIA: NATURAL WONDERS DOWN UNDER July 11-24, 1993 Enjoy Australia's delightful kangaroos, koalas, \._bandicoots, platypuses, crocodiles, bowerbirds, parrots, and extraordinary marine life as you visit the spectacular Great Barrier Reef, the dramatic Atherton Tablelands, luxuriant Daintree National Park, the rain forests of Lamington National Park, the Bathhurst Farmlands and Sydney. 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Tre ack, Dept. 250C3 104 Peavey Road, Chaska, MN 55318 f ©1993 NordicTra In \ CML Com erved., ; Ki aS IA Alanqyvrmatr UCronnanxr 92 [Mf The most puzzling human product for me was art, which suddenly burgeoned about 30,000 years ago at the time of our “great leap forward,” when other signs of human inventiveness also appeared rather suddenly in the archeological record. I thought that I could tentatively identify some remote forerunners of human art, such as bower decoration by bowerbirds. Nevertheless, human art is so distinctive that I had to wonder whether it really is an expansion of those animal precedents, or something basically new and unprece- dented. Most of human prehistory has left be- hind no convincing trace of art at all. Per- haps our remote ancestors painted their bodies, but if that was the first art, it wouldn’t have survived for us to know about. The first preserved art developed more or less simultaneously in Europe, Africa, and Australia, with some further recent discoveries of old art in Asia and the Americas as well. That dawn of art was also the flowering of human inven- tiveness, reflected in the rapid develop- ment of sewn clothing, complex houses, multipiece specialized tools, and many other inventions. Early art itself assumed many forms, ranging from wood- and bone-carving, en- graving, bas relief, and three-dimensional sculpture to painting and music. Best known to modern Europeans are the cave paintings of so-called Cro-Magnon people in France and Spain, living in the era termed the Upper Paleolithic (from about 40,000 to 10,000 years ago). Those cave paintings rivet our attention not only be- cause they include great art by any star dard but also because of the obvious que: tions that flash out. What sort of peop! were those painters? What motivate them to paint and why did they do it i caves? How did their style change wit time? Was Cro-Magnon art a brief fad or long tradition? Why did it end so abruptl about 10,000 years ago? Curiosity about all those questions le me to jump at an opportunity to visit La: caux and Altamira, the Sistine Chapels ¢ Cro-Magnon art, as well as other nearb caves. I owe a large debt to Margaret Cor key, Laurence Beasley, Count Robert Bé gouén, Jean Clottes, and Henry Hopkin for their patience with all my questions. As a serious cave explorer during m student years, my first reaction was appre ciation for the Cro-Magnon speleologic: accomplishments. In multilevel cave: such as Tuc d’ Audoubert and Gargas, th scattered artifacts prove that Cro-Magno people reached all accessible galleries o several levels. They explored many mile of passages in long caves like Rouffigna and Niaux and were stopped only b sumps (passages flooded to the roof which also stopped twentieth-century spe lunkers until the recent development c cave-diving gear. Why did they explor the caves? The answer seems obviou upon entering. The long, high, silent blac corridors of Gargas and Rouffignac fill th viewer with awe, while the riot of colore stalactites and stalagmites in Cougna stuns us with its beauty. Probably Cre Magnon spelunkers explored for the sam reasons. In that respect, as in so many oth { s, they were modern humans, whereas eir predecessors, the Neanderthals—like odern apes—trarely penetrated the caves syond the zone of sunlight. We think of cave art as made by “cave- en,” a term that immediately evokes im- 4 . ; zes of hairy brutes, partly draped in ani- al furs but with at least one shoulder ire, Clubbing instead of wooing their ides, and grunting over a fire. Even the formational film shown to tourists at the ‘cavated Cro-Magnon site of Abri Pa- ud perpetuates this nonsense. In fact, the Cro-Magnons lived far from ives, as well as within them; we think of em as cavemen only because the gar- ige they left in caves is more likely to ive been preserved than other artifacts. ‘om their garbage, burials, and art, we 10w that they had needles, buttons, sewn othing, and parkas and were probably as armly dressed as modern Eskimos. Rela- mships among existing languages today iggest that fully developed languages ad already arisen tens of thousands of sars ago; the Cro-Magnons may have yoken a language ancestral to a modern 1e. Their caves are still littered with their one lamps, fuel caches, paving stones, uints, crayons, palettes, and even their ces and food scraps. They marked caves extinct; horse, bison, and red deer lations declined in western Europe; loving reindeer vanished from France Spain and retreated north to Scandi- 5 and cold-loving ibex retreated to- the tops of Europe’s mountains. In the cause of these population crashes wofold: global warming at the end of leistocene ice ages, plus overkill by creasingly sophisticated weapons of ng numbers of Cro-Magnon hunters, nk of that chain of events: human ation explosion; destructive tech- €s; global warming; a crash in food '; a crash in human numbers; the ors fragmented into local bands, out +h with each other; a collapse of ciy- n and art; people reduced to daub- ts of paint on pebbles. It all sounds iliar because it is the oft-discussed imental holocaust that we fear may ur children in the twenty-first cen- hile our sophisticated weapons are er made of stone or wood, and e ourselves, rather than astronom- les, are the cause of today’s global g, the scenario is otherwise eerily I. Is the whole world now spiraling to another Azilian age? The mean- -ascaux’s horses may remain in- >, but there is no misreading the } Warning to us. ‘amond is a professor of physiol- 'CLA Medical School, and a re- ssociate in the Museum’s depart- rnithology, CRUISE CALM CANADIAN RIVERS males. In the past ten years, this muriqui group as more than doubled in size, from venty-two members to the current forty- ine, each one distinguishable by its nat- ral markings. Important social changes ave coincided with this population rowth, including a greater tendency for 1is Once-cohesive group to split into maller, temporary mixed-sex groups. entually it may divide permanently, but o far the entire group still tends to reunite yhenever large concentrations of fruits, uch as figs or the deliciously sweet wild langoes, are discovered. A fruit tree, left, provides a group of muriquis with easily digested, energy-rich food. The group will camp out there until the supply is exhausted. An adolescent male muriqui, below, will remain in his natal group throughout his life. The distinctive mottling that develops on the muzzles of the monkeys as they mature enables researchers to identify and track individuals over the years. Both photographs by Karen B. Strier In recording the monkeys’ diet, I ob- served pronounced variation from month to month, owing to seasonal differences in rainfall and available food. Over an annual cycle, the muriquis at Fazenda Montes Claros devote roughly half of their feeding time to leaves; one-third to fruit; one-tenth to flowers and flower products such as pollen and nectar; and the remainder to bark, bamboo, ferns, and grasses, which they come to the ground to eat. But despite the high contribution of leaves to their overall diet, muriquis almost always prefer to eat fruits and flowers, settling down to a protracted banquet whenever they can. The pursuit of energy-rich fruits and flowers appears to dictate the muriquis’ far-ranging movements. When these foods are scarce, muriquis travel faster and far- ther to find them. In contrast, leaves are usually eaten haphazardly when the mon- keys are shifting from one fruit source to another and are paid little more than pass- ing attention unless fruit is in short supply. But by consuming both types of food, the muriquis have evolved a successful adap- tation to the Atlantic forest, which because of its distance from the equator is more seasonal ihan, for example, the Amazon basin, where energy-rich fruit is available year round. In its adaptation, the muriqui differs from the brown howler monkey, which oc- cupies the same Atlantic forest habitat and lives a lazier life, filling up mainly on leaves. The muriquis’ digestive system cannot handle such a limited diet. Howler monkeys have elongated intestines rela- tive to their body size, and there is ample time for nutrients from leaves to be ab- sorbed as food travels slowly through their gut. Muriquis also have proportionately long intestines, but food passes through them much more rapidly. In a study of captive animals, primatologist Katharine Milton found that food passed through a muriqui’s digestive tract more than twice as fast as it did through a howler mon- key’s. In the wild, muriquis defecate every few hours throughout the day, whereas the howler monkeys defecate just once after waking in the morning and once before nightfall. While the muriquis’ faster digestion prevents them from subsisting on leaves alone, it also provides an advantage: they aA- id Claudio Marigo on't have to be as careful as howlers bout what leaves they eat. Primatologist enneth Glander found that although ‘osta Rican howler monkeys eat substan- al quantities of foliage, they are highly elective about what leaves they forage n, avoiding those with high levels of tan- ins and compounds such as alkaloids and henolics, which can be anything from uldly to severely toxic. Plants produce 1ese often unpalatable chemicals to de- ond themselves against insects and other nimals that might consume them. Howler monkeys must be extremely hoosy about their foods because their 1ore deliberate digestive systems make rem vulnerable to absorbing toxic com- ounds along with essential nutrients, but le muriquis’ quick processing means that lant tannins and toxins, as well as many utrients, are excreted before they can be bsorbed. Ecologist Mark Leighton and hemist David Marks analyzed some urty muriqui foods I had collected from 1e forest—fruits, leaves, and flowers— nd found them to be unusually high in annins and phenolics when compared vith similar foods eaten by other monkeys nd apes in other tropical forests. And yhen we compared the plants normally vailable at the same times of year, we ound no evidence that the monkeys se- scted the ones with lower levels of tan- ins or other harmful compounds. These biochemical and physiological ata made sense of my observations that luriquis generally prefer fruits over saves despite the greater effort required to nd them. Ripe, fleshy fruits, in particular, re usually easier to digest than leaves and lus, ounce for ounce, are a better source f nutrients and energy for a primate with uch a rapid food-passage rate. Sorting out muriqui feeding habits ould have marked the end of my study, ut by 1989 two new questions had begun ) intrigue me. With the help of Brazilian tudents who follow the muriquis year ound, I had accumulated enough demo- taphic data to detect a consistent birth eason during the dry months, from May Only one pair of twins, opposite page, was born in the muriqui group monitored by the author for the past ten years. As the infants matured, the overburdened mother could carry only one. The other managed to tag along but eventually disappeared, perhaps lost in some mishap. Below: Resting in the branches, a male muriqui (center) examines a female’s genitals while her son and a playmate look on. Andrew L. Young to September. I wondered whether this might be related to the muriquis’ seasonal diet. And after reading two separate ac- counts of chimpanzees consuming plants with medicinal properties when they were suffering from intestinal parasites, | won- dered whether the high level of the defen- sive plant compounds in the muriquis’ diet provided them with similar protection. These questions could be explored si- multaneously because they shared a com- mon denominator—diet. But how could I examine the effects of diet on reproduc- tion, when female muriquis showed no visible signs of ovulation or pregnancy? And‘ how could I detect parasitic infec- tions, when the parasites were hidden in the gut? Capturing the monkeys—to take blood samples to measure ovarian hor- mones or to probe their intestines—was out of the question. The muriquis are an endangered species, and I did not want to 20 Andrew L. Young An adolescent male chews leaves, below, taking advantage of an abundant source of food. Right: A baby clings to the back of its mother. Andrew L. Young; Photo Researchers Subject them to possibly harmful proce- dures, nor did it seem worthwhile to dis- turb them and thus risk interfering with the long-term behavioral study. After considering all kinds of sophisti- cated approaches, I realized that the solu- tion to this dilemma lay in a naturally abundant and renewabl : muriquis’ feces. To mone levels, I bes mine ovarian hor- porating with re- productive endocrinologist Toni Ziegler, who developed a technique to monitor muriqui feces for estrogen and proges- terone. And biologist Michael Stuart, whose specialty is identifying parasites in dung, has helped me in investigating muriqui intestinal parasite infections. By following recognized individuals until they defecated, I could collect the fecal samples needed for these studies and also keep track of what the muriquis were ea _ ing. Phytochemist Eloy Rodriguez is ani lyzing muriqui plant foods for steroids a bioactive compounds, and by combini the results from these studies, we will ul mately be able to evaluate the relatio ships between muriqui diet, reproductiot and parasite infections. While simple in theory, my role in thes investigations has not been easy. The bic chemical analyses of the plant foods re quire gathering a grocery bag full ¢ leaves or fruit from each plant species, a doing this after the muriquis ha swarmed through one of their feedi trees is not as simple as it sounds. Collec ing fresh fecal samples from identified i dividuals is equally laborious. The fece themselves are not so unpleasant to collec as one might suppose because they ca n aromatic scent from the cinnamon eaves that muriquis consume. The chal- enge, rather, is to get almost directly un- erneath the targeted individual at the mo- ent of defecation so that the greenish rown dung can be spotted before it is amouflaged after hitting the ground. Occasionally the feces land neatly in y glove, but more often they splatter use- essly in the tangled vegetation—or else all alongside another muriqui’s feces, so at I cannot be sure whose is whose. So ven though the muriquis defecate often d, in the case of adults, abundantly each me, getting a clean sample sometimes neans tailing one muriqui for up to six jours without pause. The rewards for these efforts are new ndings as promising and intriguing as verything else we have learned about muriquis. At Fazenda Montes Claros, Oc- tober is the onset of both the rainy season and the muriquis’ mating season, and at this time the muriquis’ feeding behavior changes. From late September to mid-Oc- tober, when edible fruit abounds, the mon- keys eat mainly the leaves of just two spe- cies in the legume family, Apuleia leiocarpa and Platypodium elegans. And in contrast to the casual treatment they give most other leaves, the muriquis camp out at these leaf sources, behaving as if they were preferred fruits. Preliminary analyses suggest that these leaves may contain some antimicrobial substances and are exceptionally low in the tannins so prevalent in other muriqui foods. The chemical role of tannins is to bind proteins and make them more diffi- cult to digest, rendering plants less attrac- tive as food sources. By eating these leaves instead of the fruits available at this time, both male and female muriquis may get an important surge in protein, fortify- ing them for the upcoming mating season. During this same critical time of year, muriquis also alter their behavior by mak- ing speedy excursions away from the cen- tral part of the forest, where they usually hang out, to the periphery, where the forest gives way to surrounding pasture. Once there, they leap across gaps in the canopy to.reach the fruit of another species of legume, Enterolobium contortisiliquum, whose common name is monkey ear. Un- characteristically, both male and female muriquis abandon the monkey ear trees long before the fruits are depleted, sug- gesting that they only need a taste.to be satisfied. What they are seeking in these fruits is unknown, but monkey ear fruits contain stigmasterol, a steroid used in the labora- tory synthesis of progesterone. We don’t know yet whether this plant hormone also stimulates steroid production in muriquis or whether it is excreted without conse- quence. But recent studies, including one by anthropologist Pat Whitten, indicate that plant hormones can regulate repro- duction in some animals. Thus stigmas- terol, or some other hormone lurking in the muriquis’ diet, may turn out to be linked to the monkeys’ seasonal fertility. That plants regulate muriqui reproduc- tion remains a highly speculative proposi- tion, but that they combat parasites is more apparent. Our first analysis showed that the muriquis at Fazenda Montes Claros were completely free of intestinal para- sites, a discovery so startling that we re- peated the fecal sampling during different seasons in subsequent years and looked at samples from the local howler monkeys for comparison. We also collected feces from another population of muriquis in- habiting the much larger and more pristine forest at Carlos Botelho State Park in the state of Sao Paulo. The subsequent analyses confirmed and extended our original findings: No para- sites were found in the muriquis and howler monkeys at Fazenda Montes Claros, while at Carlos Botelho at least three species of parasites were identified and nearly 90 percent of the monkeys sampled were infected. Such marked vari- ation could result from any number of dif- ferences between the two sites, but it may be more than mere coincidence that many of the plants eaten by both muriquis and howler monkeys at Fazenda Montes Claros are the same species used by Ama- zonian peoples for controlling intestinal worms and other parasites. If these plants are effective in humans, there is every rea- son to believe that they are similarly effec- tive in muriquis, even if in muriquis the ef- fects are incidental rather than intentional. Far fewer of these medicinal plant species have been identified at the Sao Paulo for- 42 NATURAL History 3/93 The friendly embrace of two males, below, typifies the peaceful relations within the group. The group’s males, which are closely related, cooperate in chasing away any rivals from outside. Right: Muriquis rest in the branches of a tree. Both photographs by Luiz Claudio Marigo est; this may explain why parasite infec- tions are more prevalent there. These pharmacological clues have set an urgent agenda for the next decade of muriqui research. Our ability to explore the medicinal properties of plants in Brazil’s Atlantic forest is jeopardized by continued habitat destruction. In the past century, the Atlantic forest has been re- duced to less than 5 percent of its original area, threatening rare plants, and the mon keys that depend on them, with permanen extinction. While traditional peoples oi the Amazon have survived long enough te impart to us some of their knowledge ot forest plants, the indigenous human soci: eties of the Atlantic forest are long gone The muriquis and other monkeys may pro: vide humans with their best guides to thy forest’s medicinal value. ’ For ideas and savings on gourmet pizza, look for st F Julio Gallo displays in participating USS, stores. . OE. & J. Gallo Winery, Modesto, CA : 4 370-million-year-old fossil, left, from deposits near Gilboa, Vew York, reveals the head and upper body segments of the zarliest known centipede. <400 (na giant leap in the history of life, invertebrates set foot on land more than 400 million years ago ) by William A. Shear _ As the sun goes down over a tropical swamp, mist begins to form, drifting in wisps among the stems of leafy plants growing along the margins of a sluggish, shallow stream. Down in the mat of fallen, decaying stems, life stirs. A spider watches for prey at the entrance to its silk- lined burrow. It may not have to wait long; a centipede is forcing a path between the tangled stems. Before it reaches the spi- der’s burrow, the centipede suddenly Swings its flattened head to one side, snatches its own prey, a primitive-looking wingless insect, and immediately begins to feed. Nearby, another tiny predator grooms its appendages. It is a false scor- pion, which will soon begin a slow, blind hunt amid the debris, using long hairs ex- tending from its pincerlike palps to detect the movements of mites and other small creatures. While this vignette could describe the night life in nearly any community of soil- and litter-dwelling animals today, some of these creatures are definitely unfamiliar. When the false scorpion does detect and capture its prey, the victim is likely to be a small, flattened, multilegged animal quite unlike anything even the most observant soil ecologist has ever seen. Abundant among the predators are animals that, for all their similarity to spiders, lack the typi- cal spider silk-spinning apparatus and have armor-plated bodies and unusual compound eyes. Even the plants in our scene have a curiously primitive look. De- spite the tropical environment, there are no trees; only shrublike plants grow above a tufted mat of tall but mossy herbs. The combination of the familiar and the strange should tell you that you have been indulging a paleontologist in a favorite pastime: imagining what life might have been like when ancient plants and animals, now known only by traces in rocks, were alive. The brief story I have told is from the Devonian period some 370 million years ago and might have taken place along the Hudson River not far from New York City. The scene is of special interest because it reflects a stage in an important, ongoing process in the earth’s history: the populating of the continents with plants and animals. Like other scenarios of an- cient life reconstructed by paleontologists, this one is supported by evidence from the fossil remains of animals. Most of that ev- A centipede guards its eggs. Photographs by William A. Shear idence has come to light only in the past twelve years. In 1981, I attended a scientific meeting in Radford, Virginia, where I met a col- league from Scotland, Ian Rolfe, who was on an extended visit to the United States to study arthropod fossils. At that time, I would have been hard pressed even to rec- ognize an arthropod fossil, aside from the common trilobites. All my research in- volved the systematics and evolution of living arthropods, especially arachnids (spiders and their relatives) and myriapods (millipedes and centipedes). Ian had just visited a paleobotanical, or fossil plant, laboratory at the State University of New York at Binghamton in upstate New York AT and had brought back pictures of some un- usual fossils. If I liked, I could see them the next morning at breakfast. That event turned out to be a pivotal moment in my research career and brought out the hidden paleontologist in my makeup. The pictures were of tiny specks of brown matter that had shown up with plant fossils. When I examined the pictures, I felt as if I were viewing samples taken from a contemporary community of litter dwellers, yet Ian assured me that these had come from rocks more than 370 million years old. The level of preservation was remarkable; in some of the highly magni- fied pictures I could see the creatures’ tiny hairs and even the impressions of individ- ual epidermal cells on the outer cuticle, or exoskeleton, they had secreted. The fossils had been discovered nearly ten years ear- lier by two paleobotanists, Patricia Bonamo and Doug Grierson. Specialists in the study of Middle Devonian plants, they worked in Binghamton, virtually in the center of some of the most extensive Devonian continental rock exposures in - the world. When lens-shaped layers of black shale containing plant remains ap- peared during the excavation for a pumped storage project near the villages of Blenheim and Gilboa, Doug and Patricia were invited to collect material for study. - The truckload of black shale from Gilboa that they took back to their lab proved to be rich in beautifully preserved plants of several species. One of the techniques for extracting material for paleobotanical study sounds quite drastic: immersing fossil-bearing rocks in hydrofluoric acid (HF). HF has the interesting property of being able to dissolve silicates, including glass, which is why it is always kept in plastic bottles. As the rock is eaten away, the fossil material, not affected by HF, is left behind. On ex- amining one treated sample, Doug Grier- son spotted a tiny, flattened, spiderlike creature with its legs still stuck in the rock. This whole animal and other, mostly frag- mentary ones were recovered and mounted on microscope slides. As the pro- ject continued, more animal specimens ac- cumulated and were duly mounted. Doug and Patricia were eager to find a paleozo- Ologist to work with them in studying these remains, but most specialists were skeptical of the extraordinarily preserved but fragmentary fossils. Paleobotanical labs take extreme pre- cautions to prevent contamination of their samples with contemporary pollen, spores, and plant fragments found in dust. 48 NATURAL History 3/93 Despite this, scoffers contended that the animal bits had fallen out of the light fix- tures or from cracks in the walls. But a* good look at the pictures, as well as the story of the original discovery, convinced me that this could not be the case. One fos- sil, a set of centipede jaws, resembled some I had seen that were unique to a spe- cies found today only in Tasmania and New Zealand, and the spidery creature that Doug had found with its legs still in the rock turned out to be a representative of a group of arachnids that had been ex- tinct for about 280 million years. My excitement about the fossils, and my extensive background in living soil os Photographs by William A. Shear Hairs and claws are visible on a tiny, primitive mite from Gilboa. , X18 o * a arthropods, convinced Patricia and Dot to let me collaborate with them. Later, v organized ‘€n international team of speci: ists with unique combinations of experti to work together on these animals. Out | these studies has come some of the ey dence we need to reconstruct the way | life of tiny soil animals that lived 370 mi lion years ago. My own research hi moved outward to encompass the earlie known terrestrial ecosystems, an excitir field of paleontological work that is chan; ing how we think life came to land. We were able to extract many more fo sils from the Gilboa rock and begin pie ing together the bodies of animals, a pro ss not unlike doing a jigsaw puzzle with- ut the picture on the box. While we could > guided in some cases by the living rela- ves of our ancient arthropods, some of ie fossils have proved to be unlike any eatures we now know. Reconstructing icient animals, such as the ones in the pening scenario, requires extensive and stailed knowledge of the significance of articular adaptations and the distribution f those adaptations among evolutionary neages. The ancestry of spiders, for example, is mystery. The first definitive fossil spi- srs are found long after the close of the evonian, in the Late Carboniferous, eo, ™ icknamed the Angry Dragon, a fossil pse udoscorpion used its jaws about 290 million years ago. But the exact identity of even these fossils is dubious be- cause most of them lack the characteristic adaptations of spiders, especially poison fangs and spinnerets, the small, modified abdominal appendages that carry the out- lets, or spigots, of the silk glands. Imagine my surprise, therefore, when a box of Gilboa fossils mounted on microscope slides contained one specimen bearing a beautifully preserved, isolated spinneret. This fragment is the earliest unequivocal evidence of spiders in the fossil record. I contacted two colleagues who had been working intensively on the structure and function of spider spinnerets: Jackie w self-grooming and to secure and tear apart its prey. as book lungs, evidence that it lived on land. Palmer, of Western Carolina University, and Jon Coddington, of the Smithsonian. We determined that this spinneret could not have come from any group of spiders alive today. The overall appearance of the appendage was vaguely similar to that found in the group of living spiders that in- cludes trapdoor spiders and tarantulas; and the spigots closely resembled those of a much more primitive line, the mesotheles, restricted today to the Asian tropics but probably found worldwide in ancient coal swamps. The spinneret also bore a charac- teristic cuticular pattern that allowed fossil spider expert Paul Selden, of Manchester University in England, to relate it to dozens of other enigmatic fragments. Paul and I were able to reconstruct a whole leg, locate jaws and poisonous fangs, and put forward hypotheses about how the whole animal (named Aftercopus, from the Anglo-Saxon word attercop, or “poison spider”) may have lived. For example, spinnerets with many uniform spigots on one side are often found on spiders that live today in silk-lined burrows, so that habit is suggested for our fossil animal as well. Now that we can recognize bits of Attercopus, we expect to be able to recon- struct more of it from additional fossil fragments and speculate further about its way of life. Pat Bonamo discovered one of the smallest fossils from the Gilboa trove, a creature that earned the lab nickname “Angry Dragon” because it looked like a rampant dragon with open jaws. My work with soil animals allowed me to recognize it as a false scorpion, a group of abundant and important soil-dwelling predators that look like minute scorpions without sting- ers. As with Attercopus, this fossil turned out to be the oldest known example of its kind, fully 300 million years older than any previously described. Because of its appearance, we have given it the scientific name Dracochela, “dragon pincer.” Working this time with Wolfgang Scha- waller of the Stuttgart Museum, in Ger- many, who has studied more fossil false scorpions than anyone else, we came up with a remarkably detailed reconstruction. False scorpions have jaws that are the Swiss army knives of the animal world, tiny but highly varied tool kits serving many functions. For example, the jaws carry special sensory setae, a silk-emitting spinneret, teeth for securing and tearing up prey, and a special set of combs used to clean the other appendages. All these tools were visible on our fossil, thanks to the ex- ceptionally fine preservation. The big pin- AO cers of Dracochela were studded with sensory hairs called trichobothria, which can work only in air, telling us that these were fully terrestrial animals. So far, I have mentioned only creatures from our fossil collections that closely re- semble other animals still living. What can be done with fossils of groups long ex- tinct? Perhaps the most abundant animals at Gilboa, and at other sites for early ter- restrial animals, are the trigonotarbids, or “trigs” for short. Trigs are evidently re- lated to spiders. Their bodies have two basic divisions, cephalothorax and ab- domen, as well as six sets of ap- pendages—jaws, leglike palps, and four pairs of walking legs. But unlike those of spiders, trig abdomens are covered by a characteristic series of armor plates and bear no silk-producing organs. We have found no evidence (we’ve looked hard) of poison fangs, and instead of the simple eyes of spiders, trigs have eyes with as many as ten or twelve loosely packed lenses, an evolutionary reduction from what we think were originally large com- pound eyes with many tightly packed facets. Trigs first appeared in the Silurian period, about 415 million years ago, and seem to have died out near the end of the Carboniferous period, about 285 million years ago. What does their structure tell us about how they lived? Clues came from another Devonian site, the 405-million-year-old Rhynie Chert, in Scotland, where trigs have been found clustered in the empty spore cases of some of the fossilized plants. This led one group of paleontologists to speculate that trigs ate spores. Yet no living spore- eating animals have robust jaws with long, strong fangs opposing triangular basal teeth and fitted with brushes of setae used to filter liquid food. All these adaptations, found in trigs, are characteristic of animals that capture active prey and digest it by re- gurgitating enzymes that dissolve the vic- tim’s tissue. The predators then suck up the resultant liquid, filtering it through the setae. We found further evidence in the muscle attachment points on the cephalothorax of one of our Gilboa trig: species; such muscles might have served to operate the sucking pump. Among our fossils are some wadded masses of arthro- pod cuticle that are very much like the re- mains of spider meals, specifically of those spiders with strong jaws for chewing up their prey, presoftened by the spit-up enzymes. Open'ngs on the undersides of our specimens resembled the spiracles, or breathing pores, of living arachnids. This 50 NATURAL History 3/93 helped confirm another feature of the Rhynie Chert fossils: book lungs, the char- acteristic air-breathing organs of spiders and their relatives. This provided more ev- idence that both the Rhynie and Gilboa an- imals were fully terrestrial. We also noted that the first few abdom- inal segments of our trigs were fused and had a heavy transverse ridge. Coupling our information with some that Paul and his student Jason Dunlop had gleaned from Rhynie trigs, we reasoned that the vulnerable junction between the cephalo- thorax and abdomen of a trig could have been protected by locking the abdominal ridge under the rear margin of the cara- pace, the upper cover of the cepha- lothorax. This suggests that trigs had something to fear, perhaps Attercopus or one another. We have also found many specimens of tiny, delicate, multilegged animals that so far have proved very difficult to catego- rize. We think they may be the precursors of a group of gigantic millipedelike arthro- pods, the arthropleurids, which grew to more than six feet in length, thrived in the Carboniferous coal swamps, and died out at the end of that period. But our little crea- tures are at most a quarter of an inch long. We have established that they have ten body segments behind their heads, but we still do not know the number of legs. The heads themselves are difficult to under- stand; instead of antennae they may have had a bizarre, trumpetlike organ on each side that protruded through notches on the right and left edges of the first segment be- hind the head. Fossil myriapod expert The fossil spider Attercopus may have lined its burrow with silk John Almond, then of Cambridge Unive sity in England, realized that there we two distinctive kinds of posterior ends : our fossils. Perhaps this is evidence of tw species or of males and females of tt same species. More work will be require to understand these creatures, which ai unlike anything alive today. While the Gilboa site provides the earl est evidence of some of the major grouy of land animals, the earliest land-livin creatures have recently been discovered | Ludford Lane, in Wales, by Andre Jeram, Paul Selden, and colleagues. Usin the same technique—HF digestion « rocks—and again using well-preserve plant fossils as guides, they have unco\ ered 415-million-year-old trigs that a1 very similar to those found at Rhynie an Gilboa, as well as enigmatic fragments ¢ other animals yet to be identified. Ver primitive land plants called Cooksonia at found with these animals and may hav created an environment that looked lik living Astroturf. The discovery of wel adapted terrestrial animals at this great ag suggests that applying the same method to older rocks will push the age of land ar imals back in time even further, perhar eventually leading to fossils of the trans: tional stages when terrestrial invasion fir: took place. Our optimism is justified by discoverie made by University of Oregon palec botanist Jane Gray in Ordovician sed: ments about 468 million years old. Usin HF to dissolve rocks, she has found foss: spores, which, for a number of reasons likely came from land plants. If plant produced by hairlike spigots on its spinneret, above. Attercopus may have resembled the modern spider at right. William A. Shear { vere on land so long ago, could animals iave been far behind? Jane Gray’s discov- ries tell us that the tiny Cooksonia, which iccompanies the trig fossils of Ludford -ane, may not have been the first land lant. * In the past, we have tended to interpret incient ecosystems in terms of modern mes. The traditional picture of the devel- ypment of life on land has followed this yattern: First vascular plants invaded the and, followed at some later time by herbi- vores, or plant-eating animals, and then sven later by predator species. But the sommunities at Ludford Lane, Rhynie, ind Gilboa, spanning nearly 100 million years, are dominated by predators and de- ritivores, animals that eat dead plant mat- er. Aside from some enigmatic wounds in ynie plants that might have been caused dy volcanic cinders or by some other sort of mechanical injury, we have no evidence of animals eating living plants until her- vivorous insects first appeared in the mid- lle of the Carboniferous period, nearly 50 illion years after Gilboa. Richard Beerbower, of the State Uni- > ee ‘Stee, ree versity of New York at Binghamton, has suggested that in Paleozoic terrestrial ecosystems, nearly all potential food from plants had to be at least partly decayed and broken down by detritivores before be- coming available to larger animals. He calls this the “litter box” hypothesis. Per- haps the eating of living vascular plants was a habit that took eons to develop. One deterrent may have been the formidable array of toxins and antifeeding chemicals vascular plants contain. These chemicals probably did not appear originally as a re- sponse to predation but as natural byprod- ucts of the synthesis of lignin, a compound almost exclusive to vascular plants, and which provides their extraordinary struc- tural strength. Even when herbivorous in- sects first appeared, their diet seems mostly to have consisted of spores, seed contents, and plant juices, rather than chemically defended leaves. Of course, an alternative is that the few sites we have explored, scattered sparsely through time, sample only soil and litter communities, which even today are domi- nated by predatory and detritivorous arthropods. Perhaps we do not know what was going on above the soil, among the living plants. Certainly the appearance of large, winged insects in the Middle Car- boniferous is deceptively sudden. Where were their ancestors? We have a great deal yet to learn. We are fairly certain, however, that complex communities of plants and ani- mals were established on land long before our own vertebrate ancestors emerged from the ponds and streams late in the De- vonian. But evidence for vertebrates eat- ing vegetation appears only near the very end of the Carboniferous, some 50 million years after their apparent emergence on land. Before that, all land vertebrates ap- pear to have been predators, especially on insects. The same story, a long transition to true herbivory, could have been the case with early land arthropods as well. As we find more fossils to test this and other hypotheses about how early land ecosystems were organized, I think we will discover not similarities, but striking differences between them and our present plant and animal communities. O di o “ Pa ated { ° eS eee ee / <> A Ls et aa = Nw he : 5 ae 9 ag wr 1 a, Fee Te oe ae meet Le TER ned aia: ae The gate of the old Jewish cemetery in Charlotte Amalie, Saint Thomas, bears the common Hebrew inscription House of the Living. Beth Hatefutsoth Photo Archive, courtesy of Mordechai Arbell, Israel Caribbean Diaspora Sephardic Jews were an important link between Europe and colonial America by Samuel M. Wilson Last summer I was on Nevis for Cul- turama, that small West Indian island’s celebration of its culture. The capital, Charlestown, overflowed with people, who crowded around makeshift booths on the waterfront to buy drinks and such local delicacies as “goatwater” (a spicy stew of goat meat and breadfruit) and “salt fish” (a stewed concoction made from dried, salted cod—a rather improbable historical holdover of colonial English cuisine in a region where fresh fish is always avail- able). The occasion also featured horse and donkey races, the Culturama Queen competition, a contest for calypso singers from all over the island, and a great deal of music and dancing. Culturama is an enthusiastic celebration of African American cultural continuity and survival despite centuries of oppres- sion. A few blocks away from the crush of people at the booths, a more tranquil scene commemorates a similar lesson in sur- vival. Surrounded by a stone wall, the Jews’ Burying Ground leaves a gap the size of a couple of house lots in the middle of the bustling town. Although more than 300 years old, it is neatly tended, thanks to the efforts of the Nevisian government and writer Robert Abrahams, who divides his time between Philadelphia and Nevis. The twenty or so graves that remain are stone boxes covered by massive stone slabs. Most have a few pebbles and coins on top, put there according to local custom so that the dead will rest in their places and not roam about at night. Placing pebbles on graves is also a Jewish tradition, to show that a grave has been visited re- 54 NATURAL History 3/93 cently, but just who adorned these graves is not apparent. Many of the lids are elab- orately carved with inscriptions in a com- bination of Hebrew, English, and Ladino (a language that combines Spanish, Por- tuguese, and Hebrew elements). Ladino was, and in some parts of the world still is, spoken by the Jews from Spain and Portu- gal—the Sephardim—who were exiled from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492. The dates on the graves range from the 1680s to the mid-1700s, but the Jewish commu- nity existed on Nevis before and well after that time span. The standard view of Nevis’s history is that the island was colonized by members of wealthy English families who exploited slave labor for sugar production. The names on these tombstones, however, show this view to be incomplete. Jacob Alvarez, Abraham Isquiao David Gomes, Daniel Cohen, Abraham Bueno de Mez- queto, Solomon Israel, and several mem- bers of the Pinheiro family are buried there. (Isaac Pinheiro’s tombstone is also there, but, truth to tell, despite his fervent wish to be buried on Nevis, his body actu- ally lies in the Chatham Square cemetery of the congregation of Sherith Israel in New York City.) All were members of a thriving Jewish community that existed throughout the Caribbean at that time. The most elegant grave in the cemetery is that of Bathsheba Abudiente, who died in childbirth on August 8, 1684. The He- brew inscription on her tombstone gives her husband’s name as Rohiel Abudiente, but a second inscription in English shows that he also went by the name of Rowland Gideon. An old frangipani, or “temple tree,” with deep pink flowers leans over the slab. The Hebrew inscription reads: This heap be witness and the pillar be wit- ness that in its womb rests the modest woman, a woman of valor, crown of her hus- band, Mrs. Bathsheba, wife of Mr. Rohiel Abudiente, whose spirit was returned to God after she had borne a son buried next to her, on Tuesday, the 28th day of the month of Ab in the year 5444. For she did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. May her soul be bound up in the bond of eternal life. Many of the other graves in the ceme- tery have not withstood the years quite so Mi A ; HH th ee well. In some cases all that remains is a fragment of a tomb lid leaning against an- other grave, perhaps showing part of a name or a few Hebrew letters. A dirt path still called the Jews’ Walk leads south from the cemetery to a nonde- script square building full of fifty-five-gal- lon oil drums, bathtubs, galvanized corru- gated roofing, scrap lumber, and other things too useful ever to throw away on a small Caribbean island. The stone facing is of fairly recent construction, but the stonework inside is old and finely worked, with carved columns supporting a vaulted ceiling (the original exterior stones were i j MH iy LETT J i } HN DT? a iN LL i UL LUTEAL TO i} probably taken for use elsewhere). This building has recently been identified as part of the old synagogue. Possibly this building adjoined the main chamber of the synagogue, whose location may be marked by the adjacent pile of rubble. It may also have been the building known as the Jews’ School, where, along with many others, the young Alexander Hamilton received his earliest education. Born on Nevis in 1755, the fu- ture first secretary of the United States treasury was the son of James Hamilton, a young and recently bankrupt Scot, and Rachael Faucitt Lavien, a woman fleeing an unhappy but undissolved marriage on Saint Croix. Because Rachael was not lawfully free to remarry, their children were considered illegitimate by the Angli- can church and refused admittance to the Anglican school. So Alexander learned to read and write and to recite the Decalogue in Hebrew as a pupil of the Jews’ School. The Hamilton Museum in Charlestown is undertaking the building’s restoration, as funds permit. Other Caribbean islands have monu- ments to substantial Jewish communities that existed from the early years of Euro- pean colonization. The Mikve Israel syna- Nn Nn Samuel M. Wilson The grave of Bathsheba Abudiente, left, lies in the Jews’ Burying Ground in Charlestown, on the island of Nevis. A member of the “sizable Jewish community that existed in the Caribbean from the seventeenth century onward, she died in childbirth on August 8, 1684. Below: Miss Culturama is crowned as part of Nevis’s week- long celebration of its African American heritage. _ Errol Pemberton; E.C.P. Photographics gogue on Curacao, built in 1702, is the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the Americas. According to records from 1715, Jews constituted the majority of Cu- racao’s white population. On Barbados the synagogue of Kaal Kadosh Nidhe Israel, built in 1654 and for a long time unused, was recently spared from demolition and has been restored. Jamaica was settled by Europeans in the first wave of Spanish col- onization after Columbus’s voyages, and the island was the home of the earliest Jewish community in the New World. Like many such communities, it was made up of Jews who had been expelled from Spain and Portugal in the late 1400s. Oth- ers fled the Iberian Peninsula in the six- teenth and seventeenth centuries, as the Spanish Inquisition attempted to identify Jews who had outwardly converted to Christianity but who secretly maintained Jewish traditions. When the English cap- tured Jamaica from Spain in 1655, the Jews joined with the English in exchange for religious tolerance. They were granted British citizenship (something which Jews living in England at the time did not have) and founded a synagogue that very year. Nevis, although a small island, played more than a minor role in the history of the Caribbean. In the mid-1600s the survival of the North American colonies was not certain, given the strength of Native American resistance. New York City was Dutch New Amsterdam from its founding in 1624 until 1664. The colonies in the Massachusetts Bay area, especially those founded by religious exiles, were not part of the British government’s overall colo- nial strategy and, in any case, were not very substantial in the seventeenth cen- tury. Nor were they as profitable as Nevis and other Caribbean colonies. The Carib- bean colonies were the British foothold in the Americas before the Chesapeake Bay colonies became profitable, and they con- tinued as strongholds after the American Revolution. In the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- turies, Jews played a large part in the econ- omy of the Caribbean. Wills, journals, and other documents compiled by the Ameri- can Jewish Historical Society and the Jew- ish Historical Society of England demon- strate that the Jewish community of Nevis had far-reaching associations with Europe and other European colonies in the New World. Those buried in the cemetery on Nevis, many of whom had lived abroad, had had family and business contacts in Lisbon, London, Amsterdam, Calcutta, Brazil, Curacao, Barbados, Jamaica, Vir- ginia, New York, and Boston. Often these associations were the business links that made Nevis so profitable. The Atlantic trade in sugar, tobacco, in- digo, food, goods, and people was com- plex, involving exchanges in a half-dozen shifting currencies between markets throughout Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and the eastern seaboard of North Amer- ica. Excluded (at least officially) from Spain and Portugal, and discriminated against in much of the rest of Europe, Eu- ropean Jews of the seventeenth and eight- eenth centuries found a haven in the Car- ibbean, where they became traders, shopkeepers, and planters. The Caribbean was not free of religious intolerance and persecution, however. Nevisian Jews, like most in the Caribbean, were subject to special taxes and prohibi- tions, and their relations with other groups on the island were often strained. In 1724 the Episcopal minister Robert Robertson wrote to the bishop in London that on Nevis there were about 70 householders with their families, being in all (children included) some 300 whites where of one-fourth are Jews, who have a synagogue here and are very accept- able to the country part of the island, but far from being so in the town, by whom they are charged with taking the bread out of Christ- ian mouths. And this, with the encourage- ment said to be given to the Transient Traders, above what is given to the Settlers, is by many thought to be the true cause of the strange decay of this place—At present there is not above 3 or 4 Christian Families of note in my Parish (Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society XX:160). The Jews of Nevis in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries also owned slaves of African descent. Many whites of even modest means did at that time in both the Caribbean colonies and in North America. Wills in Nevis contain bequests of slaves, and a 1707 census lists five Jew- ish heads of households who all together owned forty-three slaves. 57 About Bathsheba Abudiente, the woman with the elegant gravestone, little is known except that she died in childbirth, preceding her husband in death by thirty- eight years. Much more is known about her husband, Rohiel Abudiente or Row- land Gideon. His maternal grandfather was Paul de Pina, of Lisbon, whose family lived outwardly as converts to Christian- ity. Paul traveled from Lisbon to Rome in 1599, supposedly to become a Christian monk, but instead he became more openly Jewish. He went to Brazil, where there was more religious tolerance than in Por- tugal, and then to Amsterdam, the city where European Jews enjoyed the greatest acceptance. In Amsterdam, Paul joined the synagogue under his Jewish name, Reuel Jessuram. He was married and had a daughter, Sarah Jessuram. Sarah in time _ married Moses Abudiente, a member of another of Lisbon’s respected Jewish fam- ilies. Their son, Rehiel (Rohiel) Abudi- ente, was born about 1650. Rohiel’s early life is not well docu- mented, but by piecing together scraps of official records, we may surmise that he had connections and relatives in several parts of the New World. In 1674, he was listed under his anglicized name, Rowland Gideon, as “Ye Jew” on Boston’s first tax roster. Subsequently he moved to Barba- dos, possibly because Jews there were more readily granted the status of perma- nent resident in the British Empire. In 1679 Rowland Gideon received such a let- ter of “denization,” which allowed him to reside in any English colony. That year he moved to Nevis and probably married Bathsheba soon after. He stayed there at least until Bathsheba’s death in 1684. Sometime thereafter he moved to Lon- don, where in 1694 he married Esther do Porto, a woman of Portuguese ancestry and a member of a powerful Jewish family in London. In 1699 they had a son they named Sampson (or Samson). In 1701 Rowland Gideon was listed as the reader of the Torah in the Bevis Marks syna- gogue in London, and {!\e next year he be- came its treasurer. He appears in official 58 NATURAL History 3/92 Robert Rattner 9 Beyond a Jewish cemetery on Curacao, below, looms the Shell Oil refinery. Many Jews came to the island after the Dutch took control from the Spaniards in 1634 and granted religious freedom to the inhabitants. Opposite page: Dating from the eighteenth century, the Honen Dalim Synagogue on Sint Eustatius was built by a congregation whose trading ties extended to North and South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Porterfield-Chickering; Photo Researchers documents a few years later representing the Nevis planters in claims for compensa- tion for the French sacking of Nevis in 1709. These proceedings show that Row- land Gideon still held property on Nevis. In 1722 he died and was buried in Lon- don’s old Jewish cemetery, Bet Hayim. Rowland Gideon left a considerable fortune to his son, Sampson, who became one of the most powerful money brokers in the British Empire. In 1745, during a period of economic chaos, Sampson ar- ranged a loan of £1,700,000 to the British Crown, and in 1749 he organized a consol- idation of the national debt, which reduced its rate of interest. With his close contacts in government, he worked successfully, al- beit at great personal cost and against vengeful opposition, to help pass the Jews’ Naturalization Act of 1753, which abol- ished special the taxes and penalties on British Jews. ¥ Sampson Gideon married Jane Ermell, who was from an aristocratic Christian family, and their children were raised in her faith. Sampson withdrew from the synagogue but continued to pay his dues anonymously until his death in 1762. In his will he left £1,000 to the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community in London, on the condition that he be buried as a Jew in the Jews’ cemetery; at the end of his will he commended his soul “to the gra- cious and merciful God of Israel.” He was buried near his father, Rowland Gideon, in Bet Hayim. As for the Jewish community on Nevis its numbers began to diminish in the an eighteenth century as Nevis’s econonjic fortunes declined. Some members moved back to Europe, and more moved to the newly formed United States. None of the original Sephardic families lives on the is- _ land today. But in the twentieth century, another migration of European Jews came to the Caribbean. Just as the expulsion of Jews from Portugal and Spain in 1492 forced the emigration of Sephardic Jews in the sixteenth century, the rise of fascism forced Ashkenazic Jews to flee from many parts of Europe in the years preceding World War II. Jewish immigration to the United States was severely restricted in the 1920s and 1930s, so many made their way to the Caribbean islands, where visas could be obtained. They settled in Ja- maica, Barbados, Curagao, the Dominican Republic, and elsewhere in the region. And there they found Jewish communi- ties, synagogues, and cemeteries that had existed for more than three centuries. O John Pawlic a Fiords Down Under In New Zealand's flooded glacial valleys, forests of deep-sea black coral thrive in shallow waters by Ken Grange and Walter Goldberg Something was different when we awoke onboard our research ship in Doubtful Sound, one of the fourteen fiords that penetrate the Southern Alps of New Zealand like fingers from the Tasman Sea. Even before we struggled out of our sleep- ing bags and up the companionway to the main cabin we could tell that this morning was unusual. The warm wind that had been blowing off the ocean from the west had changed, dropping the air temperature to a chilly 54° F. The weather was just as _ calm and peaceful as on the previous gray days, but today was brighter. A large beech tree perched precariously on the cliff above served as our mooring. Check- ing the lines that hung limply down from A rare shaft of sunlight pierces the clouds over Bradshaw Sound, the beech, we noticed the perfect reflec- tion of the snowcapped mountains in the glassy-smooth water. Only then did we re- alize that for the first time in more than a week it had stopped raining. Fiordland, the remote, uninhabited southwest corner of South Island, is New Zealand’s largest national park and one of the wettest places on earth. Fiordland lies in the path of winds that blow west across the Tasman Sea. When it reaches the mountainous coast, the moisture-laden air rises and cools, causing the moisture to condense. The resultant rainfall is prodi- gious, averaging twenty-three feet a year. Rain falls almost every day, often in amounts of ten inches or more. above, one of fourteen fiords on the west coast of South Island. After a heavy rainstorm, right, water cascades down a cliff into Milford Sound. The sheer rock walls and waterfalls are typical of the fiords, which were carved by glaciers. Darryl Torckler 60 NATURAL History 3/93 The sunshine brought out the biting black sand flies, which descended on ow bare backs and legs as soon as we steppec out onto the deck. The mottled green rair forest extended almost vertically from the water’s edge up to the snow line at 3,006 feet. The tallest mountain peak, rising < mile straight up from the sea, looked clos¢ enough to touch in the clear air. The fiord: are well known for their spectacula scenery and hiking trails, but we wer drawn to them by the unusual marine life discovered here only a decade ago. Al. though we were ten miles from the oper ocean, the 1,000-foot-deep water directly below us harbored schools of marine fist and a resident pod of bottlenose dolphins Steep underwater cliffs supported rare anc unknown species, including many usually found only at much greater depths in the ocean. One of these, the black coral, ha: been the focus of our research. Black cora usually inhabits deep water, but because 0! the special conditions in the fiords, enor: _ mous colonies of the coral sprout from the underwater cliffs at relatively shallow depths, making them accessible to divers. The heavy rainfall turns the mountain: into myriad waterfalls and streams. The runoff is sufficient to form a nearly perma: nent layer of fresh water some ten tc twelve feet thick that lies over the seawater of the fiord. Only rarely do the rains let uy enough for this layer to shrink to a few feet. The layer of fresh water persists be- cause it is less dense than seawater anc does not mix with it because large wave: cannot form in these narrow, protectec fiords. The rainwater picks up almost no silt 01 mud during its passage through the virgir forest of the park and over the hard gran. ite. Instead, as it percolates downwarc “ rec through the forest, it leaches dead leaves and twigs and becomes stained yellow- brown with tannin and humic acid. When it reaches the fiord, the fresh water is col- ored but not cloudy. It resembles lager beer or tea and obscures everything a foot or more from a diver’s face. The surface layer of fresh water acts as a colored lens, allowing only a weak yel- low-green light to filter through to the ma- rine realm below. The quantity and quality of the light passing through the upper layer is therefore generally unsuited for photosynthesis. The typical forests of sea- weeds found on most temperate shores do not exist here. This allows species nor- 62 NATURAL History 3/93 mally restricted to dark caves or deep water to flourish on the dimly lit, steep, subtidal rock faces of the fiords. At breakfast, we plan the first dive of the day. We had been working in teams, diving every three hours throughout the night to watch for spawning activity in our black coral colonies. Because of this tight schedule and a concern for safety, we con- sulted dive tables and electronic dive com- puters before planning this morning’s de- scent. We are, after all, several hours from the nearest recompression chamber, even by helicopter. Although the sun is bright and underwater visibility below the fresh- water layer will be sixty to eighty feet, we will still need our lights. The incredible water clarity is accompanied by perpetual gloom. We will dive under the vessel to a depth of 160 feet. The dive will be simple: over the side and straight down; past the spawning black coral at forty feet to the maximum depth; collect and photograph new species of soft coral, sea slugs, and feather stars; then slowly ascend past the walls of brachiopods and the twelve-foot- tall black coral colonies with their symbi- otic snake stars and perching feather stars; and finally back through the freshwater layer to the surface. After performing predive buddy checks and grabbing cameras, collecting bags and underwater lights, we brace ourselves for hitting the water. The surface layer not only will have poor visibility, it will also be several degrees colder than the seawa- fer below, since it includes snowmelt. Cu- riously enough, the rain during the past week has not increased the depth of the fresh water; the layer flows like a river atop the seawater until it reaches the mouth of the fiord and gradually mixes with the waters of the Tasman Sea. At a depth of twelve feet, we pass through the shimmering interface between fresh and salt water and break into crystal clear, rel- atively warm seawater. The steep rock face descends into the blackness below. Darryl Torckler On the descent, we pause briefly on a small ledge at forty feet to inspect a female black coral colony. The small, normally white polyps on the coral’s branches have become swollen and turned salmon pink, indicating that this colony is ready to spawn. No one has ever reported on the re- production of black coral, so with hopes of catching them in the act, we suspend a plankton net over the colony to collect spawned eggs or larvae. For a week, we have been checking the funnellike net and its collection jar, and we discovered that both eggs and larvae are released at dusk and dawn about the time of the full moon. One thing we have not found, however, is male coral polyps. Despite microscopic examination of hundreds of polyps from colonies all over the fiords we have not found a single male. We could have missed them, but it is also possible that the female polyps were reproducing by par- thenogenesis, that is, producing viable eggs without male fertilization. On this morning the jar and net are empty, so we glide over the ledge and de- scend along the nearly vertical face. Sil- houettes of large black coral colonies ap- A jock steward fish in Bradshaw Sound, left. A leatherjacket, below, feasts on the eggs of spawning black corals. When spawning, the polyps on the branches, which are normally small and white, swell and turn salmon pink. Roger V. Grace; Hedgehog House pear ghostly white against a serene back- drop of emerald green provided by the fil- tered sunshine. We leave our lights off for as long as possible, so that in the gloom we can see the faint flickering of bioluminescence. At 130 feet, a cleft about thirty feet wide in the rock face has filled with sand and shell gravel. Protruding from this soft bottom is a field of gently swaying and — twisting sea pens, each about eighteen inches tall. A gentle stroke causes each eight-armed polyp to emit a brief burst of blue bioluminescence, momentarily turn- ing the sea pen into a miniature Christmas tree in the very dim light. The rock face once again slopes steeply away below the sand slope, past unknown habitats until it reaches the muddy floor of the fiord al- most 1,000 feet below us. Only one brief submersible dive with the crew of the Ca- lypso and a few remotely operated vehicle observations have provided any informa- tion on the rock walls below normal depths for scuba diving. We level off at 160 feet and cruise slowly along a relatively barren rock face. The dominant animals are yellow gorgon- 63 At a depth of sixty feet, a community of invertebrate animals flourishes on a rock shelf in Doubtful Sound. Ken Grange; Hedgehog House ian fans, clumps of white compound as- cidians, large solitary corals, and sea perch. One light illuminates a translucent, white soft coral colony, standing about a foot tall and shaped like a cauliflower. This is an unknown species, so we photograph the colony and carefully collect it for de- scription by specialists. Another light falls on a bowl-shaped, yellow sponge with a flat sievelike top. With our brains slightly affected by nitrogen narcosis, we struggle to identify it. Gradually we realize this is a glass sponge, previously recorded only from depths of more than 300 feet on the continental shelf—yet another deepwater species that finds a safe haven in these fiords. As we begin to ascend, we find small patches of sand that almost invariably sup- port large tube-building anemones. The long tentacles stretch lazily out into the gentle current, and often one rapidly coils and spirals downward toward the mouth after ensnaring small planktonic shrimp. Back up at sixty feet we search for a side- gilled sea slug that was seen on a previous trip, but have no luck. Instead, we check on another experiment we set up a few days before. In this environment, four spe- 64 Natrirat Hietory 3/03 cies of brachiopods, survivors of an an- cient past, cling abundantly by their pedicels to the rock walls and one another. Elsewhere in the world these animals have all but disappeared, despite their domi- nance in ancient seas. Why should they be so abundant here? Brachiopods are distin- guished from bivalve mollusks internally by their double-spiraled lophophore, which serves both as a respiratory and food-collecting organ. We suspect they compete poorly against the more reproductively aggressive mol- lusks, such as mussels, and are now more or less restricted to refuges where perhaps food is too limited to support their com- petitors. To test this idea, we transplanted mussels from shallow water down to the brachiopod habitat and brachiopods up to the mussel habitat. Some of the transplants are protected from predators with cages, while others have to fend for themselves. We hope to have the results in twelve months, which, combined with other re- search, will determine whether a lack of food or increased predation keeps the mussels out of this habitat and allows the brachiopods to be successful. At depths of about fifty feet, the cliffs are dominated by large colonies of the black coral Antipathes fiordensis. More than 7 million colonies of this protectec species live in depths of 100 feet or less throughout the New Zealand fiords. This is the largest and shallowest population of black corals known. Living black corals can be white, gray, green, orange, or ever bright yellow, but never black. The term refers to the skeleton secreted by the tiny polyps, the individuals that make up the colony. Since these polyps are easily abraded and most black corals were origi- nally collected by dredge, the description was based purely on the skeleton. Black corals are not even “true” corals, since they are anatomically distinct and do not have a skeleton of calcium carbonate. Instead, the semiprecious, ebonylike ma- terial in the skeleton is a protein reinforced A snake star rests tightly coiled around the branches of a black coral. Snake stars, which are distant relatives of starfish, often remain on the same perch year after year. Darryl Torckler with chitin fibers similar to insett cuticle. The protein is yellow-brown, but in mul- tiple layers it appears jet black. The tree- like skeleton, which has no roots, is ce- mented to the submarine cliffs and provides the coral colony with a rigid and resilient support. When heated, this mater- ial can be twisted and bent, yet when cool it is hard enough to fashion and polish into jewelry and curios. Black corals, or Antipatharia, occur in all oceans, in depths ranging from shallow water to several thousand feet. About 150 species are recognized, the majority of which are found in tropical and subtropi- cal oceans deeper than 300 feet. Even so, only a few specialists worldwide can iden- tify more than a handful of species. Until recently our ecological knowledge of black corals was limited to a few studies 65 on populations in Hawaii, Trinidad, and Jamaica and a few isolated submersible observations. Because most black corals live at depths greater than 100 feet, the dives needed to conduct detailed investi- gations and experiments are difficult and dangerous. In the New Zealand fiords, however, black coral grows in water as shallow as 15 feet. Their accessibility, prominence, and potential for attracting recreational divers and associated tourism provided the impetus for an international research program. Slowly, the private lives of these little-known organisms have begun to unfold. We began with an apparently simple task: to measure growth rates in colonies of Fiordland black coral. X-rays of branches showed clear growth rings, simi- lar to those of trees, but we had no way of knowing whether these were annual or laid down in connection with such other events as food availability, reproduction, cold or warm periods, or catastrophic storms. After almost seven years of re- search, we have growth rate data from tagged colonies, size distributions, and chemical markers of the growth rings in the skeleton, all of which indicate that the rings are annual and that most colonies grow less than an inch per year. This is at least three times slower than a similar spe- cies studied in Hawaii. One colony directly in front of us is huge, fifteen feet tall from base to the top branches, and the actual length of the main, crooked branch is more than eight- een feet, indicating that this colony might be well over 200 years old. Some of the very largest colonies we measured in one of the other fiords must be 300 years old or more and may have been living when New Zealand fiords were first charted by Capt. James Cook in 1773. The largest colonies in any one area al- most always occur along sharp ridges or on comers of rock faces. At first we as- sumed this refiected an increased plank- tonic food supply sweeping past these promontories. But the growth rings in these specimei's were no wider than those 66 NATURAL Hisvory 3/93 from more sheltered sites, suggesting that they had the same growth rates. They were simply older. The increased survival of black corals along ridges turned out to be linked to the topography of the forest above. The thin veneer of soil on the steep mountain sides cannot support the oldest trees, so at some stage entire strips of forest slide into the fiord, bringing with them rocks and silt. Such slides are frequently triggered by earthquakes, which arise along the nearby plate boundary straddled by this part of New Zealand. The resultant landslide can occasionally clear a submarine swath up to 500 feet wide. Because rocks and forest debris tend to tumble to the sides, those black coral colonies perched along sub- merged ridge lines are spared. We have used this knowledge many times to find the largest colonies. We simply find a patch of forest with mature trees that shows no landslide scars and dive there. As we continue our ascent along the submarine cliff, just off to our right a large trunk of a podocarp lies at an angle across a small rock ledge. This tree fell only a year ago. We remember because it carried away twenty-one tagged black coral colonies, part of our growth rate experi- { Roger V. Grace; Hedgehog House At night, snake stars, left, feed on the tiny bits of food trapped by the black coral polyps. After gaining a foothold on a branch of black coral, a soft coral, below, is contained by the special black coral polyps with long, spaghettilike stinging tentacles. »-~. & Bora Ozkok presents “1993 Tours of TGRKEY The Cradle of Civilization . . Hospitable people, beautiful country, good climate. Incredible amount of history. We will stress culture, people, folklore, handicrafts, folk music, village visits, photography & much more. GREAT TOURS - GOOD QUALITY -REASONABLE PRICES. GOOD HOTELS - GOOD FOOD- GOOD SHOPPING For a free brochure 9939 Hibert St. Suite 207 4_ 80.935. 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Melanesian Tourist Services The only way to see Papua New Guinea. 302 W. Grand Ave., Suite 10B El Segundo, CA 90245 310/785-0370 FAX: 310/785-0314 ¢ Papua New Guinea ° - Tibet & Bhutan Travel to mysterious Tibet and exotic Bhutan, where Buddhists revere the Himalayas as the “‘abode of gods.” Visit ‘“Shangri-La’’ in Bhutan’s beautiful alpine kingdom. TILLER INTERNATIONAL TOURS 209 Post Street, Suite 1015, San Francisco, CA 94108 415 397-1966 Fax 415 397-1967 Splendours of Africa Customised Wildlife Safaris to Kenya & Tanzania Highlighting: Famed Giraffe Manor Great Rift Valley Ngorongoro Crater Beautiful Kenyan Highlands Legendary Maasai Mara The vast Serengeti Plains FOXGLOVE SAFARIS New York 800-437-4807 Nairobi WANE fy ERS i a td Ata evra. UNIQUE DESTINATIONS 30 adventure and naturalist itineraries; omads, -pygm ies, tribal peoples, festivals, , wildli AHARA to BO SWANA, * ECUADOR to PATAGONIA, INDIA, INDONESIA, ASIA and MORE. TURTLE TOURS, INC. Box #1147/Dept NHA Jarefree, AZ 85377 + (602) 488-3688 GALAPAGOS You, 9 other adventurers and our naturalist will explore by yacht more islands than any other Galapagos expedition. From simple-adventures to splendid yacht charters, from scuba diving to seri- us hiking. No one else offers as many ways to experience the Galapagos because no one else pecializes exclusively in the Galapagos. 60 trip dates. Machu Picchu option. FREE BROCHURE. Inca Floats 1311-NL 63rd St., Emeryville CA 94608 510-420-1550 \F Ri CA Small international roups, 40 programs from 1-27 “eeks all thru Africa, great prices! /est Africa Explorer - 5 weeks ‘om $1810, Botswana dventure - 16 days from 1300. ingiflots more! Gp ¢ GUERBA or free color brochure: ADVENTURE CENTER, 1311-NH 63rd St., Emeryville, CA 94608 (510)654-1879, TOLLFREE (800)227-8747 ¢ ‘> > 3p” Mss @ at NAACAPELOE FUP so \ ~“o-* Pa ee China Tibet Mongolia Bali First Time Ever!! Exclusive!! 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WILDERNESS TEE Natural history wilderness float trips on a selection of the finest British Columbia and Yukon rivers. Each a unique experience highlighting a different combination of landscapes, waters and ecosystems. Sunny forests, fjords and canyons. Glaciers, wild- flowers and grizzlies. Musk ox, narwhal & gyrfalcon in the Arctic. CANADIAN RIVER EXPEDITIONS (604) 738-4449 #31A-3524 West 16th Ave, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6R 3C1 CANADA BY RAFT Exotic Destinations Response Offer ‘se this coupon to request information from the advertisers listed below. Circle the number next to the items for which you wish to sceive information and mail this form to : lease allow 4-8 weeks for delivery. Adventure Center Australian Tourist Commission . Bolder Adventures Canadian River Expeditions . Cultural Folk Tours . Educated Traveler Newsletter . Fantasy Adventures . Foxglove Safaris NATURAL HISTORY P.O. Box 1810 Riverton, NJ 08077-9812 9. Galapagos Network 10. International Journeys 11. Intrav 12. Joseph Van Os 13. Journeys 14. Journey to the East 15. Keewaydin Island 16. Melanesian Tourist Services 17. New Zealand Treks Address State 18. Os 20. ie De fie) 24, De Papua New Guinea — Air Niugini Safaricentre SeaQuest Cruises Special Interest Tours Star Clippers Tiller International Wilderness Travel Wildland Adventures Offer expires November 17, 1993 tan RLY OR BY OR han Cana CELESTIAL EVENT What’s in a Name’? By Gail S. Cleere On March 27, about an hour after sun- set, a lovely scene takes place in the west as the five-day-old crescent moon passes just below the Seven Sisters, known to the Greeks as the Pleiades, perhaps deriving from the Greek pled, meaning “sail.” The heliacal rising of this striking group of stars, that is, the time of year that they rise in the morning before the sun, signaled the start of the Greek navigation season. The stars are still called the Sailor’s Stars in England and Germany. Best observed in the winter sky, the Pleiades has no bright stars, but it is so compact that the effect is astonishing: “like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid,” according to Lord Tennyson in his poem Locksley Hall. The stars have at- tracted the attention of other cultures, which also named them; they are known as the Needleworkers in China, the Seven Little Nanny Goats in parts of Spain, the Six Wives Who Ate Onions (cast out of their tents into the heavens by offended husbands) to one American Indian tribe, and the Lost Children to another. Marveling at the beauty and immensity of the night sky, you can be sure that all the stars you see, and a large number of those you don’t, have had their positions, bright- ness, masses, and spectral types studied and cataloged by now. And you might as- sume that all these stars and star groups, not to mention all those other celestial ob- jects, have names—like the Pleiades. But you would be only half right. Some of the brightest stars, known since antiquity, have retained their ancient names. Many of these nares were passed to us from te Arabs, whose desert life ma oe (and clear skies) necessarily made them very familiar with the stars. In his 1899 classic, Star Names and Their Meanings, Richard Hinkley Allen tells us that to un- derstand the names of antiquity we must look to the desert, “where the stars would be as much required and relied upon for guidance as on the trackless ocean.” The fourteenth-century Sultan Iderim is quoted as saying, “Thou canst not know how much we Arabs depend upon the stars. We borrow their names in gratitude, and give them love.” ° The ancient Arabs named stars for shepherds and herdsmen, horses and their trappings, cattle, camels, sheep and goats, birds and reptiles, lions, tents, ornaments, and household goods. We also find ancient names that mean The Trusted One, The Lofty One, The Unfortunate, or The Soli- tary One. Many of these turn out to be Arab translations of Greek and Roman de- scriptions. Today, contrary to the claims of those in the lucrative “business” of naming a star for the person of one’s choice, no popular names are recognized by the world’s as- tronomers. The naming of the stars and other celestial objects has passed from the storyteller and myth-maker to a select group of astronomers of the International Astronomical Union’s (AU) Commission on Astronomical Names. (Nevertheless, those who run these scams continue to col- lect money from individuals who hope to be immortalized in the heavens.) Poetry and myth have given way to numbers. As each star is identified, it is given a number according to the catalog into which it is being entered. But the old names given the *% bright stars of antiquity are happily 1 tained—and are still used, in addition their numbers. In 1603, Johann Bayer, a Germs lawyer and amateur astronomer, intr duced another way of identifying the sta by using a letter of the Greek alphabet conjunction with the star’s home const lation name in Latin. In a number of case the brightest star in the constellation named Alpha, the next brightest, Beta, a1 so on. Thus Regulus, the brightest star Leo, would be called Alpha Leonis, a1 Denebola, the second brightest, would 1 Beta Leonis. Because only two dozen of constellation’s stars could be named th way, stellar catalogs were created, wi each star receiving a number. The mi nineteenth-century German catalog, Bo ner Durchmusterung, listed about 320,0( stars designated by their BD number. | the 1920s, the Henry Draper catalog liste stars by their HD number. Over 100 noi stellar objects were listed by the eigh eenth-century astronomer Charles Messi and are referred to as Messier objec (M42, for example, is the Great Nebula i Orion). Later, in the nineteenth and twe1 tieth centuries, thousands more were liste in the New General Catalog of astronom cal objects. The last major planet to be discovere Pluto in 1930, kept with tradition and w: assigned a name from mythology. So wei many of the most recently discovere moons, or natural satellites of the out planets. But the minor planets, such < those orbiting the sun in a belt betwee Mars and Jupiter, can be given practicall any name the discoverer wishes, withi On the Trail of the Titans of Prehistory... | AME AMERICAN MUSEUM 9 ais NATURAL History ))} J AMERIC. oe “LIM of NATURAL HISpOR | | Bakogaurus | On the trail of the gigantic plan ant-eating dinosaur Each volume Over 100 specially commissioned, details the history full-color photographs, illustrations, of a species, its time charts, and maps bring the characteristics, latest theories vividly to life habitat, and daily activities Prenisroric WorLD © = Bacct Tyrannosaurus Barosaurus Specially constructed scale models show the behemoths as they lived To order, please send check or money order for $15.95 (includes shipping and handling) to: Members Choice Collection American Museum of Natural History Central Park West at 79th Street New York, New York 10024 For Mastercard/Visa orders, please call 1-800-437-0033 DORLING KINDERSLEY, INC. ==) Circle the globe in Se one hour with 24% @ sound portraits.Begin at. dawn on the§ ocean surf, thunder eee z storms... Allsynchro- & Snously arranged to teas present asingle eee view of Earth.” The. recording provid one hour of unadult erated natural sound ; available in Cassette or Compact Disc. reason, subject to approval by the IAU’s special commission. Thus there are aster- oids named for illustrious personae (living and dead), countries, cities and townships, plants, universities, electric calculators, sweets, social clubs, musical plays, and shipping lines. Recently an asteroid was named after a group of winemakers in Cal- ifornia (the Rhonerangers). Comets, on the other hand, are the only astronomical objects allowed to be named for their discoverers—hence a dedicated observer’s one chance at immortality. Once in a while NASA looks for help in naming the features on astronomical ob- jects. When the Magellan spacecraft first began mapping Venus, scientists found they needed to come up with some 4,000 new names. They appealed to the general public and were quickly overwhelmed with suggestions. Many of Venus’ features had been named for the goddesses of an- cient religions and cultures, but the craters and volcanic vents were being named for actual women. The rules noted that these ove) notable women must have been dead least three years and that they couldn’t nineteenth- or twentieth-century milité political, or religious figures. On Mercv many of the craters are named for arti: poets, and composers. THE PLANETS IN MARCH Mercury is hard to spot this month mid-northern latitude observers, reachi inferior conjunction (passing between | earth and the sun) on March 9. For the r of the month, it will be low in the morni sky. Venus dazzles us by maintaining greatest brilliancy of the year for most the month (-4.6 magnitude—no oth planet reaches this brightness). At the t ginning of the month, Venus is visi high in the west at sunset, but, as Mar progresses, this brilliant planet dro closer and closer to the horizon. On the | few days of the month, Venus will be vi ble in both evening twilight and morni twilight, a phenomenon that occurs o1 “Looks like a black hole to me, but I’ve never seen one so close to our galaxy.” { ce every eight years. Viewed with the | of a telescope, or even binoculars, nus appears as a crescent that grows nner all month. Mars maintains a planetary outpost th in the constellation Gemini, nearing *meridian (a north-south line stretching oss the sky from horizon to horizon) out sundown and setting more than two urs past midnight. On the 3d, and again the 31st, the waxing first-quarter moon ys a call just to the south of Mars. Watch ars get closer to Gemini’s bright stars stor and Pollux during the month. Jupiter rises just after sunset and is vis- e for the rest of the night throughout the ynth. This gas giant lurks against the ckground of Virgo and is easily located looking just above Virgo’s bright star ica (Jupiter will be by far the brighter of > two). Just before dawn on the 10th, k for the waning gibbous moon passing st below Jupiter. Saturn is lost in the solar glare, staying ) close to the sun’s eastern edge to be sible this month. Early in April, Saturn ll make an entrance in predawn skies. Uranus and Neptune continue to cling yether (Neptune above Uranus) just to > east of Sagittarius, simultaneously vis- e within a moderate-sized telescope’s ld—the only time in our lives that this ll occur. Both can be found in predawn ies, with the waning crescent moon ssing quite close by on the morning of > 17th. Pluto rises shortly before midnight, not ‘from the +3.5 magnitude star Mu Ser- ntis in the constellation Serpens. An sht-inch telescope and some accurate r charts are needed to see Pluto under ry dark skies as it approaches opposi- n in May. The Moon reaches first quarter on the t at 10:46 A.M., EST; is full on the 8th at 46 A.M., EST; reaches last-quarter at :16 P.M., EST on the 14th; is new on the d at 2:14 A.M., EST; and reaches first- arter again on March 30 at 11:10 PM., )T. (The same lunar phase repeating in a onth is not very common, but does cur.) The vernal equinox can be seen on the th at 9:41 A.M., EST, marking the begin- ng of spring in the Northern Hemi- here. uil §. Cleere writes on popular astron- ny and is a founding member of the ternational Dark Sky Association, an ganization dedicated to preserving the ies for astronomy. PWIA ery MUSEUM OF THE ALLOSAURUS TOTEBAG This classic black all-cotton canvas totebag announces support for the American Museum of Natural History simply and elegantly in white on the side pocket. (12" wide x11" deep, with 4" gussets) Please send Allosaurus Totebags for $23.50 each. Price includes shipping and handling within the U.S.A. and Canada. NAME ADDRESS CITY STATE/ZIP METHOD OF PAYMENT ___Check or money order MasterCard —— Visa Card * Exp. date To order send coupon with payment to Members’ Book Program, American Museum of Natural His- tory, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024. Or call toll-free 1-800-437-0033 for credit card orders. SOFT ADVENTURE CRUISES Kayak & Explore from the “Cruising Base Camp”, the M/V WILDERNESS EXPLORER, to the best scenery, tide- water glaciers, watchable wildlife & pristine wilderness areas of Alaska’s famous Inside Passage: Glacier Bay National Park and Admiralty Island National Monument. Packet” Cal 1-800-451-5952 ALASKAS Glacier Bay TOURS AND CRUISES Or write: 520 Pike St., Suite 1610, Dept. 4139, Seattle, WA 98101 Rare Wood Egg Collecting Over 150 different woods from Africa, India, Mexico, Brazil, Middle-East, Asia, USA. Send $1.00 for brochure & price list. 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Dept. 72C Hingham, MA 02043 QT No Chance Any way you look at it, smoke gets in your eyes by Roger L. Welsch The Hubbell telescope turned its astig- matic eye, I read in the newspaper the other day, in the general direction of some- where else and spotted evidence that two galaxies recently collided. I don’t know about you, but I can’t help but wonder who’s driving. I can understand running over a thirteen-striped ground squirrel on the highway now and then, but how can you miss a galaxy coming at you ona clear night? We are dealing here, I think, with aver- ages and odds, the margin, chances, the spread. Everything I know about gam- bling—poker, the stock market, or collid- ing galaxies—suggests I should put my money under the mattress. As far as I can tell, most of the stuff we think of as being a matter of chance is actually a sure thing. Horse races and lotteries are set up by law to pay out less than comes in. Right up front they tell you that you are darn near guaranteed to lose your it-is-to-laugh in- vestment. Dwaine, our mailman, brags about the time he went to Las Vegas (he calls it “Lost Wages”) and won nearly five hundred dollars. He admits, however, that he had to spend a thousand to do it. Same thing in the galactic lottery. What are the chances of a huge meteor or comet striking the earth and destroying all life on it? Now, think about it. Given a squillion years and a squillion meteors and comets and the kind of steering that allows one galaxy to sideswipe another, the chances are, roughly, 100.000 percent, give or take another googol of zeros. Same thing with marriage, speaking of intergalactic collisions. What are the chances of a marriage having a happy con- clusion? 00.000 percent, that’s what. For- getting for the moment the peculiar con- QQ Nilawmrwar LWromnnx; 2/09 vention of annulment, in which four or five grown-ups look at each other, shuffle some papers, and conclude that what hap- pened didn’t really happen, all American marriages end in death or divorce, with some question about which is worse. The premise in gambling is that the odds are close to fifty-fifty, or maybe, now and then, on Friday the twelfth and when you’re wearing the right socks, just a tad in your favor. Well, that’s wrong. Things are a lot more certain than what they ap- pear to be, and almost never in your favor. (If you think I’m being a Gloomy Gus, go to your local bank with that letter from Ed McMahon saying you’re about to win ten million dollars, and try using it for collat- eral to take out a loan.) Campfires. I have spent a lot of my life sitting at campfires. You’d think that over the long run, smoke would blow away from my face about half the time and into it about half the time. Well, no, that’s not right either. Figuring I’m not a total dufus, I should have the sense part of the time to move somewhere around the fire where I can avoid the smoke, and besides, there are four quadrants, so I should be in the smoke only 25 percent of the time, even if I pay no attention at all to which way the wind is blowing. Ha! If you sit downwind, smoke blows in your face, and if you sit upwind, the wind comes around you in little vortexes and pulls the smoke right up the front of your overalls, right into your face. If you sit at right angles to the wind blowing across a campfire, smoke still blows in your face, for reasons not yet explained by science. So no matter where you sit around a campfire, the odds are 100 percent that smoke will blow in your face. (Millennia ago, when I was in the Boy Scouts, \ built little wooden baffles upwind of o fires to serve as an open chimney, but I’ too smart for that now.) As a teacher, I used to ride my bike the university, and my knees and I oft wondered why we were always going u wind. I don’t know for sure but I suppos was going ten miles an hour (hey, my bil had fat tires, I was no longer thirty-som thing, and it was early in the morning late in the afternoon, so you can laugh ten MPH but that was pretty good, consi ering). And if the head wind was five mil an hour, then I had a relative head wind fifteen miles an hour, right? I think that most days the wind shift so I encountered the same handicap cor ing home, but assuming that the wir stayed constant during the day, I bike home at ten miles an hour with a five-mil an-hour tail wind, which means that I st had a relative head wind of five miles < hour. Everything remaining constant, had a head wind both ways. If I came to nice downhill run and got up to twen miles an hour, then my relative head wir picked up to fifteen miles an hour. Wh kind of justice is that? | I’m a Pollyanna optimist but I a1 amazed again and again at the faith oth people have in the auspicious nature « “the odds.” I was once at a concert whet two pianists were playing grand piano You know the scene: The pianos wet! nested together so the musicians were fac ing each other, flailing away at compl cated harmonies and musical intertwit ings. I turned to my friend and said, “Bo they sure are good.” He embraced th human tendency to believe in good karm and responded, “Or awful lucky.” SCIENCE LITE Similarly, a lady friend of mine once uught Mount Rushmore was a natural enomenon. She could deal with the nd carving four human heads in solid >k, but four presidents...almost too ich! I shared her bewilderment then and 1 do. I too have now and then leaned too hard presumptions of good fortune. A few ars ago I was watching a Muhammad i-Leon Spinks bout on television up at ck’s Tavern. Knowing a little bit about xing, I expressed my opinion that Ali is blowing the fight because he was cking up. “You don’t win the heavy- ight championship of the world back- yup,” I said. Mick Zangretti said, “I think you’re ong, Rog. Ali is winning, backing up or a. “Ha!” I exclaimed, remembering that ick thinks new cars are a good invest- ent, and suggested that if he knew so ich about boxing, maybe he’d like to put me money on the bar. He plunked down enty dollars, I matched it, and then he plained that we were looking at a post- ht rerun. The fight had finished while > were eating pizza an hour earlier, and i got a unanimous decision. I covered yself by saying that I was aware of that t I sure didn’t think Spinks would make > same mistakes twice in one night (I as still twenty dollars poorer). So what are the chances your big life in- rance policy will mature before a meteor urs off most of the earth’s surface? Take from me, you’d have better odds putting wn money on a rerun. lklorist Roger L. Welsch lives on a tree rm in Dannebrog, Nebraska. American Museum of Natural History BEYOND THE NORTH CAPE Bergen to Spitsbergen, Norway June 30 - July 15, 1993 The Norwegian Arctic is a spectacular area renowned for its breathtaking landscapes. This summer, a team of Ameri- can Museum experts, sailing aboard the comfortable Polaris, will explore a region character- ized by fjords, glaciers, moun- tains icebergs and ice floes. Beginning in Bergen, we will sail north along the coast of Norway, visiting spectacular Geirangerfjord, the mountainous Lofoten Islands and mist-shrouded Bear Island. Our final destination is Spitsbergen, a spectacular group of ice-covered islands just 625 miles from the North Pole. Join us as we search for polar bear, walrus, seal, reindeer, Arctic fox, orca, sperm whale and numerous species of birds beyond the North Cape. smnercan f Centrai Park West at 79th Street eee MUSeCUM OF = New York, NY 10024-5192 Natural wR History Toll-free (800) 462-8687 or Discovery Cruises in NYS (212) 769-5700 Rediscover Your World Crusaders of the Lost Park by Joseph L. Sax The story is true, but it reads more like a scenario for an Indiana Jones movie than like an account of a scientific expedition. The tale goes something like this: Mark and Delia Owens are ousted from Bot- swana because they had publicized the toll commercial ranching was taking on the desert’s wildlife, so the Owenses seek a new place in which to continue their re- search on the social life of lions. They de- cide on North Luangwa National Park in Zambia, a roadless, uninhabited area the size of Delaware and home to zebras, hip- pos, buffaloes, crocodiles, lions, and— ominously, as it turns out—thousands of elephants. The Owenses settle in to begin their work. Their basic equipment is a Toyota Land Cruiser and a Cessna 180K, which Mark uses to track the wildlife they have collared. But the park is not the untram- meled wilderness it appears to be. It is a vast elephant killing field. Day after day the same scene is repeated. A cloud of vul- tures appears, and smoke is seen rising from a fire. The remains of slaughtered elephants litter the ground. Often the ele- phant hunters can be seen from the air, sit- ting near a fire roasting huge pieces of THE EYE OF THE ELEPHANT: AN Epic Ap- VENTURE IN THE AFRICAN WILDERNESS, by Delia and Mark Owens. Houghton Mifflin Co., $22.95; 305 pp., illus. meat they will sell. Ivory is waiting nearby to be carted away. Everything is blatantly illegal, but the poachers operate openly in the remote savanna. The Owenses see an opportunity to use their presence and equipment to bring an end to the wanton killing. There are game guard stations on the park boundaries, and Mark and Delia anticipate spotting poach- ers from the air, notifying the park author- ities by plane and radio, and directing them to the scene. But it is not quite so simple, as the following passage (a typical one) reveals. Delia relates how, when QM, WNlanmrmpat DWreranx 2/029 Mark discovers elephants being slaugh- tered, they rush to the nearest station: A few scouts stand around, leaning against the truck. Tapa...yawns. Nelson Mumba...walks away.... “We have no ammunition,” Zulu tells us. “What happened to it?” Mark asks. Mosi Salma, the warden in Mpika, swore to us that each man had been given his monthly allotment of five rounds. The scouts look at each other, speaking in Chibemba. As be- fore, all agree that they have not received their allotment.... Mark senses a faint willingness in Phiri [one of the guards]. “Mr. Phiri, I will pay every man who comes with us two hundred kwachas for each poacher he catches.” “But we have no food for patrol,” says Phiri. “We will give you food,” I interject. Eventually six of them agree to come, but they will need two hours to get packed. We urge them to hurry, so that we can catch the poachers before daybreak, but Phiri tells us, “We cannot patrol at night....” The reader catches on pretty quickly, but the Owenses apparently take a good deal longer. For many months they try to mobilize the park guardians into action. They provide the game guards with food and ammunition, transportation, cash bounties, clothing, and even an educa- tional program. Nothing works. Delia laments, “with each discovery we plead with the game guards to go on patrol, but there is always some reason why they can- not. They have not mounted a single patrol on their own since we arrived last year.” Of course it is not just that the game guards won’t catch poachers. They are poachers themselves, and are employed by other poachers as well. So is the chief war- den, and the district governor, and others, all the way up to the minister. Instead of receiving help from the government, Mark was charged with operating an airstrip without a license, and with unauthorized use of radios. The Owenses were discovering that— to paraphrase an old-time Chicago alder- man upon being confronted with evidence of flagrant corruption—“Zambia ain’t ready for reform.” Mark and Delia are o viously not easily discouraged. Del began an imaginative program, focus largely on children, to teach conservatio even importing copies of the childrer magazine Ranger Rick. They al: preached the benefits of tourism, pointit out that elephants could be worth mo alive than dead. And they instituted the own little AID program, trying to impla sustainable cottage industries to wean Vi lagers off the poaching economy. Meanwhile the poaching continue and Mark, frustrated by his inability to g the game guards to act, strapped on h pistol, got into his plane, and constitute himself a one-man army. The poache struck back at anyone who helped tt Owenses. At one point, Mark reports: Gunshots shatter the darkness outside. ..bu lets punch through the walls, kicking o1 puffs of dust and dry clods of dirt.... [TI poachers] have poisoned...two of our oth men. Clearly, they are upping the ante. they can do it, so can I. But I will have to ¢ it alone. I’ve had it with scouts. What makes the book seem like a Ho lywood concoction are the events that fo low. Mark harasses the poachers by plan buzzing their camps, flying at treeto level, scattering them and making ther abandon their take. He single-handedl flies game guards to remote airstrips packs them off toward poachers’ camp: and drops supplies to them. The guard don’t do much of anything once they g¢ there, but their presence is disruptive When that doesn’t work, Mark attacks th poachers with firecrackers, droppin, cherry bombs (no kidding!) from th plane. For a while it works. Until they fig ure out that the firecrackers are harmless poachers stay clear of the park. On another occasion Mark hears tha the park warden is about to release a noto rious poacher who has finally been ar rested. i “Oh no he’s not!” Mark shouts over th mike. “Don’t let anything happen! I’ll be it Mpika in thirty minutes.” Mark jumps int sae Oe IREVIEWS plane and flies to Mpika.... No doubt a be has changed hands, but this time it n't work.... Mark roars up to Mpondo’s adside Bar and jams on the brakes, a ud of dust swirling behind him. He rches inside the ramshackle building and ks around the dimly lit room. ark sees that handcuffs are slapped on - malefactor and personally leads him ay to be interrogated. Needless to say, all this makes for fasci- ‘ing reading and even a happy ending. lia and Mark survive to write the book. lia reports that when they arrived in 86 the elephants of North Luangwa Na- nal Park were being poached at the rate a thousand each year. By the end of 91 that number had been reduced to elve. Events outside Zambia con- outed significantly to that outcome. In 89 the United States, the European mmunity, Canada, Switzerland, and the uted Arab Emirates imposed a ban on > importation of ivory. The U. N. Con- ntion for International Trade in Endan- red Species voted to list the African ele- ant as an endangered species. The sale oo Te 7 oon awl hen poaching was suppressed in Zambia’s North Luangwa National Park, ephants again began to drink at the rivers by day. rk Owens ae of all elephant parts was prohibited for two years beginning in 1990. A number of African nations (including Zambia, on and off) agreed to support an international ban on the ivory trade. In 1991 a new govern- ment came into office in Zambia, replac- ing the previously corrupt regime. The new president, Frederick Chiluba, made a commitment to conserve Zambia’s natural resources, including its wildlife. For all the sometimes-comical heroics, The Eye of the Elephant is a serious book about a grave problem, and the Owenses—already well known for their 1984 work, Cry of the Kalahari—are courageous figures in the effort to protect the diminishing wildlife of Africa. The book makes clear their appreciation of the difficulty of making a sustainable, ecolog- ically compatible economy a reality in places like central Africa. It also reveals how narrow the window of opportunity can be. Great effort notwithstanding, there may be nothing left to save by the time governments and the international com- munity get organized to act. Zambia alone lost 80 percent of its elephants in one dec- ade. With statistics like these, the frustra- tion that led to Mark Owens’s exploits is understandable. The Eye of the Elephant is a provoca- tive, disturbing, and eminently readable work. One cannot put the book down with- out reflecting on the bizarre global econ- omy that produced the circumstances the Owenses describe. Somewhere far away, and despite the ghastly history of the ivory trade, people wanted ivory badly enough to bid the price up to nearly $150 per pound. An African elephant’s tusks may weigh several hundred pounds. Yet the people of the Luangwa Valley received only $10 to kill an elephant, and even then, with the poaching economy at its height, they continued to live a simple, even mar- ginal, existence. The benefits went to the big-time poachers and to corrupt officials who were running the country. Its wildlife is one of Zambia’s most precious assets, yet its government was unable to mobilize itself to protect the natural heritage. Two Americans literally dropped out of the sky and appointed themselves the guardians of the country’s wildlife. Ad- mirable and decent as they are, it is impos- sible to read the Owenses’ description of their work in Zambia—exchanging trin- kets and sewing machines for promises not to poach—without thinking of the missionaries of another time and how little they really understood the people to whom they preached. The Owenses’ gospel is the gospel of tourism. Perhaps they are right. Perhaps they are prescribing good eco- nomics. But I wonder what the people of the Luangwa Valley really think. And I wonder if there is not something more to be said in favor of the existence of the largest living land mammal. Joseph L. Sax is James H. House and Hiram H. 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FULL MONEY BACK GUARANTEE SEND $12.95 PLUS $2.50 SHIPPING AND HANDLING TO: "AMERICAN VIDEO SAFARI" "MY FATHER'S WORLD" VIDEO 43 LIMA ROAD GENESEO, NEW YORE 14454 N.Y. RESIDENTS ADD 7% STATE SALES TAX PLEASE ALLOW TWO TO SIX WEEKS FOR DELIVERY AT THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY CHARLES WAGLEY’S AMAZON PORTRAIT American anthropologist Charles Wa- gley’s pioneering fieldwork among Am- azonian peoples will be the subject of an exhibition in Akeley Gallery. Indios e Caboclos: Charles Wagley’s Amazon Portrait opens Friday, March 12, and features his photographs as well as works from his collection of central Amazonian ethnographic art and Brazil- ian folk art. THE HUMAN BRAIN Left- and right-brain maps, the evolu- tion of language, and brain adaptations to environmental factors will be among the topics discussed in talks by Michael Gazzaniga, of the University of Califor- nia at Davis’s Center for Neurobiology; Steven Pinker, of MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences; and Ira B. Black, chairman of the Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. The series, marking the “Decade of the Brain” and the opening in May of the Museum’s Hall of Human Biology and Evolution, will be held in the Kaufmann Theater on Tuesdays, March 2, 9, and 16, at 7:00 P.M. Tickets for all three lec- tures are $30 ($27 for members). Call (212) 769-5310 for information. GIANTS OF POLAR EXPLORATION Heroic journeys and feats of individ- ual endurance have characterized explo- ration of the north and south polar re- gions. Kenneth A. Chambers, a retired Museum lecturer in zoology and explo- ration, will talk about the expeditions of Fridtjof Nansen, Sir Ernest Shackleton, Roald Amundsen, and Sir Douglas Mawson on four consecutive Thursday evenings starting March 18 at 7:00 pM. in the Kaufmann Theater. Tickets for the series are $35. Call (212) 769-5310 for information. TIWANAKU, AN ANCIENT CIVILIZATION New research in Peru, Chile, and Bo- livia has documented the statecraft, reli- gion, art, science, and culture of Ti- wanakii \ an excavated city-state high up In the 3¢i.‘hern Andes at 12,000 feet. American Museum archeologist Paul Goldstein will talk about the domination of Tiwanaku in ancient times, almost 1,000 years before the arrival of the Inca. The slide-illustrated lectures will be on two Mondays, March | and 8, at 7:00 P.M. in the Kaufmann Theater. A ticket for both talks is $25. Call (212) 769- 5310 for information. THE SOVIET SPACE PROGRAM Russian cosmonaut Georgi M. Grechko, of the Laboratory for Atmos- pheric Research in Moscow, will recount his career in the once top-secret Soviet space program. The slide-illustrated talk will be held in the Planetarium’s Sky Theater on Wednesday, March 3, at 7:30 P.M. Tickets are $8 ($6 for members). JUMBO AND HIS RELATIONS Jumbo’s capture in 1861 in Africa, and his subsequent fame in England and in the United States, aroused widespread public curiosity about the hitherto un- known African elephant. Richard Van Gelder, former curator of the Museum’s Department of Mammalogy, will talk about the African elephant’s natural his- tory on Saturday, March 13, at 2:00 P.M. in the Linder Theater. Call (212) 769- 5310 for information. QUINCENTENNIAL PERSPECTIVES The Museum’s education department continues to present free programs on the Columbus Quincentenary, this month focusing on cultures and tradi- tions of women after European contact. On Sunday, March 7, the Sullivan Street Players explore issues of women coming of age in today’s world. High- lighting the African pantheon of female divinities in Cuba, Haiti, and Brazil, Ju- dith Samuel-Rock and Children of Da- homey will present a dance program en- titled “Sisters” on Wednesday, Match 10, at 7:30 P.M. in the Main Auditorium. North and South American native cul- tures will be celebrated in the Museum halls of Ocean Life and Invertebrates on Sunday, March 14. Three New Mexican women’s personal narratives—known as mitote, or “woman talk’’—will be per- formed as a one-act drama on Sunday, March 28. Programs will also take place each weekend in the Leonhardt People Cen- ter. Highlights include the traditional and contemporary music of Native Ameri- cans by Pure Fe and Soni; music and dance by Marilyn Worrell and Phyllis Bethel depicting a woman slave’s pas- sage; and Carmelita Tropicano’s per- spective on being a Latina. For a full schedule of events, call (212) 769-5315. ECHO OF THE ELEPHANTS Cynthia Moss, senior associate with the African Wildlife Foundation, will speak about her latest work in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park with the four- teen-member elephant family presided over by the matriarch Echo. In eighteen months of following Echo and her kin, Moss was able to observe closely the group’s day-to-day behavior. The talk will be on Thursday, March 4, at 7:30 P.M. in the Main Auditorium. Tickets are $12 ($8 for members). MAKING SILENT STONES SPEAK Using evidence from the savannas of East Africa, the plains of northern China, and the mountains of New Guinea, ar- cheologist Nicholas Toth will discuss Stone Age tool use. The program, on Tuesday, March 9, at 7:00 PM. in the Kaufmann Theater, is presented in con- Junction with the opening of the Mu- seum’s Hall of Human Biology and Evo- lution. Tickets are $7 (members free). FROM NEFERTITI TO CLEOPATRA Priestesses played key roles alongside the Pharaohs in ancient Egypt. Robert Steven Bianchi, J. Clawson Mills Fellow at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, will talk about male-female relationships in ancient Egypt on Friday, March 19, at 7:00 P.M. in the Kaufmann Theater, Tick- ets are $10 ($6 for members). These events take place at the American Museum of Natural History, located on Central Park West at 79th Street in New York City. The Leonhardt People Center and the Kaufmann and Linder theaters are in the Charles A. Dana Education Wing. The Museum has a pay-what- you-wish admission policy. Call (212) 769-5100 for Museum information. of A OM The Art Game Catalog offers me of the finest animal and ma- 1€ prints available. Tropical fish, koi, gs, Owls, Penguins, etc. Prints are vailable framed or unframed. nolesale orders accepted. 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MATTER OF JAST The Tetf Also Rises Did the first naturally fermenting sourdough bread originate in Ethiopia? by Raymond Sokolov At the height of the cruel Mengistu regime in Ethiopia in 1985, I made a mod- est proposal in this magazine for exerting indirect pressure on that government to persuade it to treat its starving people with greater compassion. My plan did not involve an expedi- tionary force of American soldiers such as recently went to Somalia to guard convoys of food. In fact, all I wanted was to divert some of the immense capacity of U. S. agriculture to the cultivation of Ethiopia’s staple grain Eragrostis abyssinica, called teff in the classical language of Ethiopia, Amharic. The grain yields a tiny seed, about one hundred-fiftieth the size of a wheat grain, but that smallest of all culti- vated grains is the basis of Ethiopian tradi- tional cookery. Teff flour is the main in- gredient of the spongy, pleasantly sour pancakelike bread known as injera, which literally underlies every Ethiopian meal. To set an Ethiopian table, one lays down a circular injera on top of which the other food is arrayed, directly, without the inter- mediary of any plate. Other injeras are served on the side and torn into pieces to be used as grabbers for the food on the “tablecloth” injera. Eventually, after the meal is finished, you eat the tablecloth, a delicious repository of the juices from the food that has been resting on it. This method of eating is certainly worlds away from my own traditions, but it has had an immediate appeal for me and 2 sine was in dire trouble. During the cat strophic famine years under Mengistu, t production had declined abruptly, a1 people were reportedly consuming t seed stock. Upon hearing this, my first a sumption was that enlightened efforts food relief could bring teff from the o1 side into Ethiopia. But teff did not real exist as a crop anywhere else. So it beg: to look as if traditional Ethiopian cuisi: were doomed. Of course, the Ethiopians could survit on other grains. They could even mal perfectly traditional types of injera fro everyone I know who has tried it. And a, “sorghum, wheat, millet, rice, corn, ar large part of that appeal has been the op- portunity to share in the refinement and wholeness of a very old and independent culture’s foodways, right down to the table manners. But on its home ground in Ethiopia, this idyllic injera-centered cui- barley. And that is precisely what the were doing in the restaurants they esta lished in exile in New York, Washingto and other American cities. Nevertheless, seemed tragic that teff should drop fro view and, with it, one of the most definir features of an ancient way of life. Fortunately, there was a way of savir teff, nonviolently, through a strategy « agronomic bootstrapping that might eve save Ethiopia. It turned out that there w: a modest seed stock for teff in the Unite States. My friend, the gardening writ Patti Hagan, located a supplier in Nevac selling teff seed to American gardenei who wanted to plant it as an ornament: grass (the company’s delightful name an address—Garden Magic of Zephyr Covi Nevada—matched teff’s vernacular Ens lish name, “love grass,” a direct translatio of its Greek-derived genus). My idea was for the Department ¢ Agriculture to use the Nevada seeds t jump-start a commercial crop of teff. I short order, I argued, there would be large enough supply of the grain to black hy ; peek: : Fi, mail Mengistu into concessions on huma aa isla ax rights. He could have our teff if he cleane A woman cleans teff in ‘he Gondar region of Ethiopia. up his act. Haroldo and Flavia de Faria Castro: FPG Advertisement VATURAL TIS TORY wrembers marker LS a, OE Ee © SE Ee CE OST BOE Sey An et Ee ee ee ee Ee Se PURAL HISTORY Magazine offers Members a free service. Certain advertisers indicated they will send you additional information. To obtain this, oly fill out the postage-paid card and dropit in any U.S. mailbox. Circle the numbers on the card corresponding to the numbers beside the advertisers thom you are interested. Please allow up to six weeks for replies. Although each advertiser has assured us that they will respond to each request, magazine is not responsible for any failure to do so. Furthermore, the listing of an advertiser does not constitute any affiliation with, or endorsement she American Museum of Natural History or NATURAL HISTORY Magazine. ir Niugini. Experience a touch of luxury he beaten track at unique lodges. Sail the sterious Sepik River, known for primitive and isolated villages, or choose an expedi- . of trekking or diving. Atlantic Canada. Come experience a que vacation in any of our four beautiful vinces. 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Wildland Adventures, Inc., offering authentic worldwide nature and culture ex- plorations. Group or individual trips and cus- tom itineraries. Free catalog and adventure travel newsletter. 1-800-345-4453. a Ronald Reagan’s Department of Agni- culture paid no attention to me. Eventu- ally, it didn’t matter. Mengistu fell anyway. And at least one American grower went ahead and raised teff in serious quantity as a cash crop: Wayne Carlson of Caldwell, Idaho. You can find his teff for sale today in many health food stores. Nutrition-minded Americans have turned to teff as a source of calcium, fiber, and protein. [t is also an alternative grain for people allergic to the gluten in wheat. It has an appealing, sweet, molasseslike flavor. And it boils up into a gelatinous porridge. So, no doubt unwittingly, Mr. Carlson has made my dream come true in a small way. His teff crop makes it possible for ex- iled Ethiopians to make injera in this country. Indeed, the largest Ethiopian community in America, in the Washington metropolitan area, has its own injera bak- ery as well as Ethiopian groceries that sell authentic teff injera in plastic packages. This is an obvious boon for Ethiopian immigrants, who have also found ways of providing themselves with other crucial elements of their unique cuisine, from honey beer to false banana (Ensete edule). But for non-Ethiopian cooks, one of the unforeseen advantages of a ready supply of teff is that it offers an alternative route for the investigation of one of the myster- ies of the kitchen, sourdough baking. Injera is, among other things, a first cousin of the sourdough breads that have made specialty bakers in San Francisco, Paris, and lately New York famous and even revered. In the food press, much ink has been spilled over the essential mystery of sourdough—how to start it, how to feed it, how to keep it from getting too sour or from losing its fermentational oomph. Part of the attraction of this subject is that no one really understands it. No one can say for sure what the sources of the souring are that make the dough—and the bread baked from it—so delicious. Afi- cionados do, however, agree on one thing: They don’t use commercial yeast. For peo- ple like John Thorne, publisher of the quarterly food letter “Simple Cooking” and author of the gastronomic essay col- lection Outlaw Cook (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1992), and Jeffrey Steingarten, food columnist for Vogue, superior sour- dough bread rises because of the symbi- otic action of “wild” yeasts and naturally occurring lactobacilli. This is an exceedingly complicated sub- ject, to which I intend to return. But the basic idea is thai the best bread is made by OQ AS cer ie a. an iat gtd pane one tera we OP SRE duplicating the conditions of the first yeast-risen bread. Clearly, the first bakers of prehistory could not buy packaged yeast. They in- vented leavened bread by baking moist- ened flour that had begun fermenting spontaneously. The carbon dioxide pro- duced as a byproduct of the normal activ- ity of a yeast culture present in the air or in the wheat itself bubbled inside the moist- ened flour (dough) and made it double in bulk. Wheat flour, which contains elastic gluten, rose especially well and, if treated properly in an oven, would retain the ex- panded cell structure produced by the gas even after the gas escaped during the bak- ing process. Voila!—leavened bread, hall- mark of civilization at least as far back as the exodus of the Jews from Egypt. You will recall that they fled so quickly they didn’t have time to wait for their bread to rise. So they ate flat bread, or matzo, re- membered now at Passover meals as the bread of affliction. So the Bible tells us two things about normal bread in ancient days: it was yeast- Injera_ : % cup teff, ground fine (this may be done either in a flour mill or in a blender after es in = cups water) Salt” Sunflower or other vegetable oil 1. Mix ground teff with 3% cups water and let stand in a bowl covered witha dish towel, at room temperature, until it bubbles and has turned sour. This may take as long as 3 days. The fer- menting mixture should be the con- sistency of pancake batter (which is exactly what it is). 2. Stir in salt, a little at a time, until you can barely detect the taste. 3. Lightly oil an 8- or 9-inch skillet (or a larger one if you like). Heat over medium heat. Then proceed as you — would with a normal pancake or crépe. Pour in enough batter to cover the bottom of the skillet. If you use a teacup as a dipper, a little more than half its capacity of batter (about % cup) will make a thin pancake cover- ing the surface of an 8-inch skillet if you spread the batter around immedi- ately after pouring it in, by turning and rotating the skillet in the air. This is the classic French method for very thin crépes. Injera is not supposed to be paper thin so you should use a bit more batter than you would for crépes but less than you would for a _ 4. Cook briefly, unfil holes (ie wh & risen and the rising was time-consumi It also seems likely that bakers back t operated the way aficionados do toc saving some of their active dough a starter or “chef” for future dough batcl In this way they would have preserve successful yeast/bacteria symbiosis t was functional, produced a pleasant-té ing loaf, and resisted infiltration fr other, noxious microorganisms. The custom of saving a piece of dot is still a symbolic part of the Jewish rit of baking Sabbath bread. Originally, olive-sized piece of moistened dough y separated from the rest, before baking, ¢ given away, presumably as a sacrifice something valuable, to the priests. Pic Jewish women today burn the dough a sign that it is not theirs any longer. Jewish ritual also recognizes the o nipresence of wild yeast. In an effort give a precise definition to the idea of 1 leavened bread, rabbinical law goes | yond merely proscribing the addition yeast to moistened flour. Bakers of pro] matzo must put the dough in the ov within eighteen minutes of moistening t tie injera and the edges lift from the ‘ Remove and let cool. Yield: 10 to 12 i injeras. - Yesutf Fitfit Sunflower water mixed wn in. (Adapted from Exoric Ethio Cooking, by Daniel J. Mesfin, Ethiopian Cookbook Enterprise, 1987) cups sunflower seeds cups green (raw) jalapefio” chilies, seeded and chopped teaspoon onion, chopped oe : teaspoon ginger, chopped teaspoon garlic, en Salt 4 to 6 slices injera 1. Boil sunflower seeds in 6 cups water for 15 minutes. Remove from heat, and drain off liquid. . Grind seeds in a blender to a paste. : . Combine paste in a bowl, and ae < cups water. . Mix and then strain liquid into a bowl. Discard paste. . Stir in jalapefios, onion, ginger, and 4 salt to the strained liquid. : . Break injera into small pieces and combine with liquid mixture. Re- frigérate, and serve cold in a bowl. — One Yield: 4 to 6 servings £ ars Bi ees hd | f, to prevent leavening through the t of the fermentation of naturally oc- ing yeasts. In order to insure that no roper or premature moistening takes e, the orthodox begin supervising z0 flour when it is threshed. This spe- y “watched” matzo, called shmura Z0, 1s always handmade. It is the polar osite of the handmade loaves of the Talmudic sourdough aficionados. Vhen I originally heard about the Jew- strictures on grain moistening at over, I dismissed them as, well, phari- al, but that was before I had read John me on the subject of wild yeasts and loom sourdough starters handed down zenerations because of their estimable ities. Thorne and the other aficionados almost as obsessional about other as- ts of breadbaking—rising baskets, ydburning ovens, bread cloches. But notion of spontaneously fermenting rdough is at the center of their preoccu- ons (their quasi-scientific experimen- ms recall Pasteur’s revolutionary in- igation of the misconception known in day as spontaneous generation, which him to unlock the mystery of the mistry of fermentation in an experi- it that inaugurated the science of bacte- ogy). horne and company, all eloquent pros- izers for wild yeast sourdoughs, seem ave overlooked a large group of poten- co-conspirators among injera bakers in jopia and the world over. Perhaps this cause most published recipes for in- _ obscure its historic identity as a true f-fermenting sourdough. Modern ipes written in this country usually cify the addition of yeast or the use of -rising flour (which contains commer- yeast). But even these adaptations to in exile in America call for a classic rdough waiting period of two to three s while the dough for teff injera fer- nts and sours. am in no position to make sophisti- 2d aesthetic distinctions between natu- y fermented teff batters and those made h commercial American yeasts, but it s seem obvious that the no-yeast recipe lected by Steve Raichlen and published the Washington Post, which I have pted here, must reflect traditional prac- - in the ancient kingdom of the Queen Sheba before her descendants learned v tricks in our midst. ymond Sokolov is a writer whose spe- l interests are the history and prepara- 1 of food. American Museum of Natural History CLASSIC ISLANDS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN Bareclona SP AION Stepping Stones of Culture June 29 - July 13, 1993 The islands of the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas, among the loveliest in the world, are steeped in myth, legend and history. This summer, a team of American Museum and guest lecturers invite you to join them for a special voyage among these islands aboard the luxurious Aurora I. Cushioned between visits to the great cities of Athens and Barcelona, we will enjoy the dramatic landscapes, archeological sites, historic towns and charming villages of Santorini, Crete, Malta, Sicily, the Aeolian Islands, Ponza, Corsica and Sardinia. Join us for an unforgettable Mediterranean adventure. American smn) ~Museum of ee Cry #Natural ~w ER History Discovery Cruises Central Park West at 79th Street New York, NY 10024-5192 Toll-free (800) 462-8687 or in NYS (212) 769-5700 Rediscover Your World ~ Look Maw, o Teeth! Maneuvering through a school of fish near Little Cayman Island, a manta ray with its mouth agape scoops up a nighttime snack. According to one ichthyologist, the small fish may be sufficiently panicked by the approaching ray to dart into its cavernous mouth seeking shelter. Just in case this doesn’t happen, the manta ray uses the “cephalic” fins on each side of its head to funnel prey into its maw. When the animal is not feeding, these fins, which are distinctive to manta rays, are kept coiled in two hornlike corkscrews in front of its eyes, giving rise to the manta ray’s other common name, the devil fish. This manta ray measures about eight feet from wing tip to wing tip, but other individuals of the species Manta birostris often exceed twenty feet in width. To trap enough food as they move through the water, manta rays have evolved gills that double as strainers, the same equipment employed by their distant relatives, the enormous whale shark and basking shark. The gill rakers, which are visible on the bottom of the manta ray’s mouth, collect small organisms, such as plankton, fish, or crustaceans, from the water just before it flows through openings on the animal’s underside. This adaptation is so effective that the manta ray has all but lost the need for its tiny vestigial teeth—k. A. Photograph by Franklin J. Viola William A. Shear’s (page 46) interest in soil animals stems from his undergradu- ate days when he learned the Berlese tech- nique, a way of sieving a community of hundreds of minute creatures from a small amount of soil and leaf litter. “Getting a Berlese sample,” says Shear, “‘is like get- ting a Christmas present.” He went on to earn a doctorate in evolutionary biology from Harvard and, over time, he has car- ried over his enthusiasm for living arthro- pods into paleontological studies of some of the earliest terrestrial animals. Shear and colleagues have identified mites, spi- ders, centipedes, and pseudoscorpions— and some creatures with no modern analogs—from fossil deposits in New 102 NATURAL History 3/93 York, Scotland, and Wales. The abun- Since 1982, Karen B. Strier (page 34) has been investigating the life and times of muriquis, the largest New World monkeys. Her observations of the species’ behavior and biology will, she hopes, help in the ef- fort to conserve both the animals and their dwindling Atlantic forest habitat in Brazil. An associate professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Strier considers herself lucky to do field research and teach about the value of na- ture. She has written Faces in the Forest: The Endangered Muriqui Monkeys of Brazil (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992), and for further reading she recommends Ecology and Be- havior of Neotropical Primates, edited by R. A. Mittermeier et al. (Washington, D.C.: World Wildlife Fund, 1988). dance and diversity of these fossil animals and their probable ways of interacting with one another suggest that life on land was full blown even 400 million years ago. A professor of biology at Hampden-Syd- ney College in Virginia, Shear continues to study modern and fossil arthropods and plans to research the biogeography of liv- ing soil animals in the Pacific region. For more information, he refers readers to Colin Little’s The Terrestrial Invasion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990) and “The ecology of Paleozoic ter- restrial arthropods: The fossil evidence,” by Shear and J. Kukalova-Peck (Canadian Journal of Zoology, vol. 68, p. 1807). ee - AUTHOE oe EE aaa The one-hundredth column in Rob Mohlenbrock’s “This Land” series ; pears this month (page 30). The assi; ment to cover the U. S. National Fore and similar natural areas has enabled hi he says, “to discover many hidden tn sures and to meet many kindred spirits North America.” Since his retirement 1990 from the department of plant biolo at Southern Illinois University, Mohlet brock and his wife, Beverly, have travele extensively and have formed Biotic Cot sultants, a biological consulting firm Mohlenbrock teaches wetland plant ider tification workshops all over the countr and has just completed a Field Guide 1 Western Wetland Plants, his fortieth boo and the third in a series being prepared fe the Soil Conservation Service. Mohlen brock is also finishing up the fourteent volume of his Illustrated Flora of Illinoi and is at work on the third edition of hi Guide to the Vascular Flora of Illinois. Hi serves as chairman of the North America Plant Specialists Group of the Interna tional Union for the Conservation of Na ture and is preparing the Red Data Book: for endangered and threatened Nortl American plants. l = SS \# -rRocrh™ MERIC AN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ‘rom the renowned collections of the \merican Museum of Natural History, he most beautiful and authoritative ook ever published m gemstones... , 1m menue UL il I Cok Y oe \ AS y a “AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO THE GD ae ae OPE: LORE, AND ERTIES OF THE GEMS : AND MINERALS OF ONE OF THE i UAC eo) Cee REO E Te TIONS Fi > TRACE the story of gems from their use by the peoples of ancient civilizations and revel in the history, legends, and lore provided for each gemstone DISCOVER the distinctive properties of gemstones, the factors that determine quality, and where they have been found DELIGHT in the sumptuous photographs of over one hundred and fifty gems, crystals, and objects of art and adornment Written by ANNA S. SOFIANIDES, an Associate in the Department of Mineral Sciences at the American O ORDER send check or money order for $40.50 including Museum of Natural History and GEORGE B. HARLOW, 1ipping and handling to Members’ Book Program, American luseum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, Chairman of the Department of puneral a lences ew York, NY 10024 or call toll-ree 1-800-437-0033 for creait. and Curator of Gems and Minerals at the ard orders. American Museum. 9 x 12, 208pp Author of the “Worlds in Contact” col- umn, Natural History contributing editor Samuel M. Wilson (page 54) has been ex- amining Caribbean prehistory and con- tact-period history for the past ten years. He delights especially in rediscovering the stories of past individuals, the immediacy of which is sometimes obscured in acade- mic writings. He remembers the thrill of excavating an ancient storage pit in IIli- nois, leaning against a clay wall and find- ing his fingers resting in a handprint left by the person who had dug the pit 2,000 years earlier. An assistant professor of anthro- pology at the University of Texas, Austin, Wilson is the author of Hispaniola: Carib- bean Chiefdoms in the Age of Columbus (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1990) and co-editor, with J. Daniel Rogers, of Ethnohistory and Archeology: Approaches to Postcontact Change in the Americas (New York, Plenum Press, 1993). For further information on the Jew- ish cemetery on Nevis or the synagogue, contact the Hamilton Museum, Charlestown, Nevis, West Indies. Franklin Jay Viola (page 100) holds his underwater camera in a photograph taken by his wife, Kathy. During a night dive near Little Cayman Island in the Car- ibbean, Viola photographed the manta ray in this month’s “Natural Moment.” The ray was performing barrel rolls while swimming through a school of small fish that had been attracted by bright lights shining down from the dive boat. A native of Houston, Texas, Viola received a degree in marine science and another in marine transportation at the Texas Maritime Academy at Texas A & Vi University at 104. Naturar History 3/02 A native New Zealander, Ken R. Grange (page 60) has been diving in the fiords of South Island for more than ten years. He first learned of the fiords’ unique marine communities in 1979 from col- leagues who had chanced to explore the dark waters after they were forced to sail their research vessel into a fiord to seek shelter from a storm. Currently, Grange is a marine ecologist at the New Zealand Oceanographic Institute in Auckland and president of the New Zealand Marine Sci- ences Society. In addition to his studies of the biology of black corals and other ani- mals in the fiords, Grange conducts sur- veys of the marine ecosystems along the New Zealand coast, identifying those areas where protection and conservation are needed. Published accounts of the fiords’ marine life are largely restricted to scientific papers, but for an overview of the Fiordland area, Grange recommends the park’s own publication, Mountains of Water: the Story of Fiordland National Park (New Zealand Department of Lands and Survey, 1986). Walter M. Goldberg is pictured hi sitting in front of a scanning electron 1 croscope, which he uses to probe the int structure of corals, the focus of his search. Goldberg teamed up with K Grange to study the biology of bla corals of New Zealand’s fiords, after tk met at a scientific conference in 19% Goldberg, originally from Massachuset worked his way down the eastern seabos while in college, ending up at the Univ. sity of Miami, where he earned a Ph.D. marine biology in 1973. Currently, Go. berg is chairman of the department of b logical sciences at Florida Internatior University in Miami. His research of co: reef ecology has taken him all over t Caribbean and to various islands in t South Pacific. He is now studying the « fects of beach restoration on coral ree To save eroding beaches north of Mian large volumes of sand are moved by bar or piped in from offshore sites, generatii large plumes of turbid water. Goldberg tracking the health of corals exposed various levels of turbidity to see wh damage is being done. ISOS Galveston. He served as an officer in th U.S. Merchant Marine for six years, say ing enough money to pursue his passio for underwater photography. During hi spare time in the merchant marine, Viol visited many of the world’s prime divin spots. He and Kathy, who now live nea Atlanta, Georgia, often return to many 0 those locations, where they organize sem inars on marine biology and underwate photography. To photograph the mant: ray, Viola used a Nikon F3 with a super wide, 16mm fisheye lens and double Ike lite 150 strobes. FOAGCISOORREES. M § LOR a9" = I NOV9I3"N MARYGROVE 8425 W MCN . DETROIT M li Veal ssdaaali liadtivilh treme GIR Hig an eee tn ral Seed | Bele Borellcmcobuel mares ce 3 _ with concept, roominess, dynamics | and execution at the tip-top.” -Car and Driver ~ “Thereal magicisin | ee a the details.” aM ON eT Buckle up for safety. Warygrove College Litrary Detroit, Micmigan 42221 PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE 14 24 28 30 38 42 Sy, NATURAL HISTORY Vol. 102, No. 4, April 1993 COVER: Slowed down by the morning cold, this fly may prove a potent pollinator of flowers after it has warmed up. Story on page 30. Photograph by Robert McCaw. LETTERS THE HUMAN STRATEGY Elizabeth Warnock Fernea Cuisine of Survival THIS VIEW OF LIFE Stephen Jay Gould The First Unmasking of Nature THIS LAND Robert H. Mohlenbrock Simpson Township Barrens, Illinois SCIENCE LITE Roger L. Welsch Der Ring des Bubbalungen PISTIL-PACKING FLIES Carol A. Kearns and David W. Inouye Many beautiful flowers of alpine meadows owe their existence to some drab flies. BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE LAKE Josh Van Buskirk and David C. Smith On the rocky shores of Lake Superior, tiny frogs lay their eggs on the edge of disaster. TEAMWORK TACTICS Lysa Leland and Thomas T. Struhsaker In a Uganda reserve, colobus monkeys cooperate to escape from African crowned eagles, which cooperate to catch them. How Dip Humans GET THAT WAY? Jan Tattersall In conjunction with the opening of a new Hall of Human Biology and Evolution , ~ at the American Museum, Natural History presents the first of two special . sections about steps in our long, punctuated path to becoming humans. 58 Ecypt’s SIMIAN SPRING Elwyn Simons > 60 FROST AND FOUND Torstein Sjgvold 64 NEPTUNE’S ICE AGE GALLERY Jean Clottes and Jean Courtin aleolithic hand image, 72 THE LIVING MUSEUM: FAUX LASCAUX Jean-Francois Tournepiche an Meets aietcre REVIEWS John Alcock Of Pandas and Politics CELESTIAL EVENTS Gail S. Cleere What’s Your Sign? AT-THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY A MATTER OF TASTE Raymond Sokolov The Bread Baker’s Holy Grail THE NATURAL MOMENT Photograph by Frans Lanting Synchronized Sipping AUTHORS ‘Itstime fora eres to the wines of Ernest and Julio Gallo. Bn a © E. & J. Gallo Winery, Modesto, CA __ Mary Brin CULLEN Editorial Asst. __ INGE Potak, URsULA Wepster - Tuomas J. NoLAN Research and Marketing 4 Les Ling, SAMUEL M, WiLson _ CaroL BARNETTE Text Processor. _ JonNAHUNTER San Francisco: Globe Media Ine. (415) 362-8330 ALAN P. TERNES. Editor ELLEN GoLDENSOHN Managing Editor THOMAS PAGE Designer Board of Editors Ropert B. ANDERSON, FLORENCE G. EDELSTEIN, REBECCA B. FINNELL, JENNY LAWRENCE, ae Virrorto MAESTRO, RicHARD MILNER, JUDY RICE, Kay ZAKARIASEN (PICTURES) aes a Contributing Editors Lisa STILLMAN Copy Editor oe PeGcy CONVERSANO Asst. Designer Davin Ortiz. Picture Asst. SAMANTHA Loomis Travel Manager Account Managers icngo: Jerry Greco & Assoc. (312) 263-4100 Detroit: Globe Media Inc, (313) 642-1773 Los Angeles: Globe Media Inc. (213) 850-8339 Toronto: American Publishers Reps. (416) 363-1388 ~ Witiram f, Gorpen ; __ Chairman, Board of Trustees GrorGE D. LANGDON, IR. President and Chief Executive ae Natural History SSN 028-0712; is published monthly by the American Museum of Natara! History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY. 10024. Subscriptions: $28 00a year. In Canada and all other countries: $37.00 a year, Sec- ond-class postage paid at New York, N.Y. and at additional mailing 0 ere © 1993 by American Museumof All rights reserved. No part of this periodi- Natural History, / cal may be reproduced without written consent of Natural History, Send subscription orders and undeliverable copies ta the address below, Membership and subscription information: Write to address below or call (RU) 234.525? if urgent. Post- _ Mhaster: Send address changes to Nairal History, Post, Office Box 5000, Harlan TA 51537-5000, 2 : NATURAL History 4/93 UNSUNG SPECIES SAVIORS Edwin Philip Pister wonderfully de- scribes carrying all the world’s Owens pupfish in two buckets (“Species in a Bucket,” January 1992). It’s a moving story that makes this reader eager to learn the names of the other people who saved the species: the “researchers” who, in 1964, found the remnant population in Fish Slough, and especially the alert assis- tant who, five years later, came into Pis- ter’s office and announced, “Phil, if we don’t get out to Fish Slough immediately, we're going to lose the species.” ANNIE DILLARD Middletown, Connecticut EDWIN PHILIP PISTER REPLIES: Key players on that eventful afternoon of August 18, 1969, were the “alert assis- tant,” UCLA graduate student Robert E. Brown, Jr., of Castle Rock, Washington, and John M. Deinstadt, then my assistant and now supervisor of the California De- partment of Fish and Game’s wild trout program. The researchers who found the remnant population were the late Carl L. Hubbs, of Scripps Institution, and Robert Rush Miller, his son-in-law and former graduate student. Miller had described the Owens pupfish as part of his dissertation in 1948 and feared it was approaching extinction. A combination of science and sentiment brought them to the Owens Valley in July 1964 to check on the possibility of relocat- ing the pupfish population. Now professor emeritus at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Miller remains one of the na- tion’s preeminent ichthyologists. When Miller invited me to tag along on their reconnaissance trip, I assured my su- pervisor in Los Angeles that I would give them no more than a day of my time, be- Cause “it is not uncommon for eminent in- dividuals to expect one to ‘drop every- thing’ during a visit of this type” (my exact words). That trip was my road to Damas- cus. Not only did I “drop everything,” but I have never since bothered to pick it back up. If I had failed to accompany them, the Owens pupfish would probably now extinct. THE RIGHT CATFISH In “Family Planning, Amazon Styl (December 1992) there is a photograph a Shipibo man skinning a catfish. The ca tion identifies the fish as an armored cz fish. It is, however, a member of one of f naked-skin catfish families, and becau of the coloration of the dorsal and caud fins (and including perhaps the adipo fin), I can with fair certainty identify it. Phractocephalus hemioliopterus. Thi species indeed grows to a length of 1. meters and a weight of about 80 kilos, bi most specimens caught in recent years ar well below that maximum. WARREN E. BURGES Neptune, New Jerse ERRATUM: The editorial department re grets that it was in error by a factor of te’ in converting the weight of kinglets an chickadees from grams to ounces ii “Kinglets’ Realm of Cold” (Februar: 1993). As noted by several astute readers kinglets weigh, not 2 ounces, but about «7 ounces; chickadees about .4 ounces. WHY YOU SHOULD TAKE A TRAIN THROUGH EUROPE INSTEAD OF W CAR. When you need to cover long distances quickly, trains beat cars every time. Fortunately, our Rail ‘N Drive passes give you the flexibility and advantages of both kinds of travel. They also give you the most for your money. For as little as $119 you can take the train, pick up a rental car at the station, drop it off at another station, and take the train again. To find out more, contact your travel agent or call us toll-free at 1-800-4 EURAIL. Wak aa “UYYNT b-O09-1 12 994f-//01 SA |[02 10 uaBO janny INOA J90JU09 Jsnf “SAA S| JaMsuD ayy ‘SUID SNS1AN SID) S| UOK|SaNb ayj {1 1aqUaulal OS “ANjOA 18448q D PUL J,U0I AOA ‘yJ0g 1oJ 6 {I$ 40 BuyoJs seboy20d YjiM pul ‘a2ualuanuo? pun A,sIgiX6]{ 10] $109 /ojual ‘peads 40) SUID “yJog Jo 4saq ay) AUIGUOI Sassod aAlIQ Ny, [/4 1n0 asnnyag 5,4) ‘BuiddojJ-dijJ 21, am ayl/ Spunos 4! J) “SUID of 8jqoiafeid SADM/O a10 S109 “BulJ0/AXa 10J eu) 406 8h, NOA UBY WIGHL HAD CHULSN] 2d 00M] HOMDGHY YO) BANG) OTMOHS MOA An Cuisine of Survival In spite of food shortages and political turmoil, creative Iraqi cooks have been making delicious meals for centuries by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea Maqluba means “upside down” in Ara- bic. During and since the Persian Gulf war, Iraq has become figuratively maq- luba: its homes and factories destroyed by bombing, its people torn by factional strife, its food and water supplies dis- rupted. The world watches as the Iraqis suffer from the expansionist foreign policy of their president, Saddam Hussein, and from the aggressive Allied responses that have followed. But magqluba is also the name of a par- ticularly mouthwatering Iraqi dish, one served to family and guests on special oc- casions. The week in 1958 that my hus- band, Bob, and I left Iraq after two years of social anthropological research in a south- ern village, Sitt Samira, the mother of a close Baghdadi friend, made magqluba for us. Turned upside down (or right side up) on the festal table, the delicately browned maqluba looked like an exotic cake with- out icing. But when Sitt Samira ceremoni- ously cut into it, releasing a mist of appe- tizing steam, we realized that this was no cake but rather something we had never encountered in this form before—meat, vegetables, and rice, combined with un- known, aromatic spices. “You didn’t find this in the village where you lived,” Sitt Samira asserted, with the self-satisfied air of a recognized master chef. “After all,” she added, ‘“4t’s not so long since those people were Bed- ouin, right? And what did they eat? Dates and bread and camels’ milk.” “Meat too, when they could,” put in Bob mildly. “Boiled meat!” Sitt Samira sniffed, re- flecting the disdain of the urban, cos- mopolitan Baghdadi (who has been at- tending to the requirements of haute 6 NatTurat History 4/02 cuisine for more than a thousand years) for the simple cooking techniques of the rural dweller and the nomad. But whether urban, rural, or nomadic, Iraqi cooking is distinguished by its antiquity. The rituals surrounding the offering and accepting of food are fixed and time-hon- ored. To neglect to serve something to eat or drink to guests, expected or unexpected, is a serious breach of polite behavior. To refuse food or drink, once offered, is just as serious. Before eating, one washes one’s hands and offers thanks to God. In more traditional settings, conversing while eating is not considered appropriate; idle chatter would belittle the meal itself. Originally part of Mesopotamia— roughly the area between the Zagros Mountains and the edge of the Arabian plateau—Iraq has been a nation only since 1919, when the British and French carved up the Middle East at the Paris Peace Con- ference following World War I. The area, like the rest of the Middle East, had a long colonial past, and, with the exception of the British, each of its occupiers—Turks, Persians, and Arabs—left something of its own ways with food. The only British legacy seems to have been cornstarch pud- ding, but even this is a variation on an old Egyptian favorite, muhalabiyah, or milk pudding. The combination of ingredients in maqluba—lamb, eggplant, rice, onions, and tomato sauce—suggests a Turkish in- fluence, from the time when the Ottoman Empire loosely ruled most of the Middle East and Eastern Europe (ca. 1500 to 1918). But Bob and I never ate magluba in the southern Iraqi village of Daghara, where we spent two years as guests of Sheik Mujid Atiyah Al-Shaalan almost thirty- THE HUMAN STRATEG" * five years ago. These villagers were Shii Muslims and had resisted domination the Turks, who were Sunni Muslim gravitating instead toward predominant Shiite Iran. We did have the good fortun however, to eat faisanjun, that classic | Persian cuisine found in recipe books ¢ over the world. Selma, the sheik youngest wife—and by virtue of h beauty, youth, and strength the natur mistress of the sheik’s household—pr pared the dish to celebrate the end of tv weeks of rain. We had no idea what to expect when y dutifully separated along the muddy patl Bob to dine with the men in the mudhiif, « guest house, and I to join the women in th sheik’s private house. From the women enthusiasm, I gathered that the comin meal would be unique. ; I was right. There was something spe cial about the dish brought in by Selm But when she removed the cover of th tray, my heart sank. The food was blac! Dismay must have shown on my face fc Selma laughed. “Just taste it,” she said. , dish of sophisticated subtlety from Persi (now Iran), the faisanjun defied Si Samira’s assertion that nothing is cooke in villages but dates and boiled meat. Cor sisting of chicken, walnuts, onions, .an pomegranate juice (which turned the foo black), faisanjun lacked the one thing ey pected in all Middle Eastern dishe today—the tomato—and thus dates fror before Columbus and the introduction ¢ this New World fruit into the cookery c Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The women in Daghara cooked ever day. But since women did not usually ap pear in public, each morning a son or husband was dispatched to the market t WET Elsie ae HOWDOYOUFINDHIGH _ INVESTMENT INCOMEWITHA _ PROVEN TRAGK RECORD? | DIRECTION. ent When you’re saving for - High current income retirement or a college - Safety of principal education, you need an - Outstanding total return over time investment you can rely on to reach your goal. Ask your investment representative for an The Van Kampen Merritt U.S. Government investor’s brochure and a prospectus containing more Fund is a proven performer. It invests primarily in information, including charges and expenses; please securities considered to be the safest available— read them carefully before you invest or send money. those backed by the U.S. Government. 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Past performance is no guarantee of future results, ® denotes a registered trademark of Van Kampen Merritt Inc. bring home a piece of meat, together with a selection of seasonal vegetables. The women supplemented these daily pur- chases with spices bought in bulk at the market and with ingredients from the pri- vate household stores “‘put up” at the time of harvest—rice, flour, garlic, clarified butter, or ghee, dried pomegranate, and tomato paste. On special occasions, a few raisins, pine nuts, or almonds from or- chards in the mountains of northern Iraq might be folded into a rice dish or a stew. The serving and eating of the food un- derscored hierarchal and familial relation- ships and Islamic injunctions to care for the less fortunate. The men ate first, older women next, children and wives after that. The leftovers went to servants, then to the poor, and finally—if any remained—to the animals. What the family ate at home was private food. Public food was something else. In Daghara, food was a statement of political power. Two decades before we arrived, the British had suppressed the last uprising of the Diwaniyah tribes, and the area was controlled by the central government of Iraq under King Faisal II and President Nuri Said. But the tribes were still consid- ered important politically, and the govern- ment, recognizing our host, Sheik Mujid, as a tribal leader, had made him a member of the Iraqi National Parliament. The mudhiif was the sheik’s office and reception room, where he saw clients and petitioners daily. In this impressive arched structure built entirely of reeds (reminis- cent of ancient Sumerian buildings), the sheik served lunch every day to travelers, tribal members, and those in need—all men. When we lived there in 1958, rural Iraq boasted no public hotels, and the mudhiif served a crucial function as an inn. One could sleep in the mudhiif as well as eat there. Each day the sheik’s wives, sisters, and daughters cooked that free meal for twenty to sixty people. They worked hard, for the quality and quantity of the repast demonstrated the sheik’s generosity and hospitality—and by implication his eco- nomic and political power. But the women did not publicly share the feast they had cooked; they ate by themselves. Selma su- pervised the loading of the trays with the food that had been prepared by all the women in the house. The boys and young men of the sheik’s family bore the trays the hundred yards between the house and the mudhiif and served the meal. THE REAL EASTER I[SLAND 8 NATURAL History 4/93 The menu was simple, as Sitt Sam would have expected: rice, bread, ma (stew), Sne or two extra dishes, and p haps“a roast chicken for the sheik hims and his honored guests of the day. TI might include a government official, ; other tribal sheik, a religious authority, any person of high status who had bu ness to conduct. Bob, as resident m guest, was usually included in the gro Wives of the sheik’s guests were w comed in the private house to eat with | women after the men had finished. Sitt Samira might have been surpris by some of the flourishes Selma manag: even with the limitations of the local m ket. Plain rice, piled high on a tray, v embellished with crispy bits of butte crust. Bits of meat were crumbled w onions and used as garnish, together w home-grown parsley. f The bread was hot and fresh, bak each day in the tanour, the mud-brick oy that stood in every family courtyard. Fl circular loaves, set to rise in the eat morning, were clapped upright onto t insides of the tanour by the women each household, who were careful to vy their arms to the elbows before braving t intense heat generated from the bank fire below. The trick was not in baking t bread (for the dough stuck to the sides ez ily enough) but in retrieving it at t proper moment—just before it peeled ¢ and was lost in the blaze. Selma was fo: of varying the kinds of bread—most Xubuz, simple wheat bread, but often x buz bi laham, not-so-simple wheat bre: baked with bits of meat, onions, and pat ley. “A good way to use leftovers and | praised for it,” Selma said, half-jokingly The best bread was made of wheat flot but because of overirrigation, the loc farmland was salting up and hardier bark flour was mainly being grown in th whitening, salty soil. “Rougher, but e ible,” Selma explained to me. “But I a ways save some wheat flour to make bett bread for the feasts.” The feasts of lid al Fitr (marking th end of Ramadan, the month of fasting) ar lid al Adha (commemorating Abraham sacrifice) called forth all of the women organizational and culinary talents. Du ing the three-day holiday, four or five hur dred tribesmen (and some women) woul come to pay their respects to the sheik an assure him of their loyalty. They tethere scores of horses near the mudhiif, partoo of the great communal repast, and gat ered afterward for sessions of poetry an chanting. 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Ship: 69-cabin Yorktown Clipper VOYAGE TO ANTIQUITY Greece and Turkey Sept. 20 - October 5, 1993 Aboard the legendary Sea Cloud, a voyage to Mediterranean islands, cities‘and ancient sites, including Ankara, the ruins at Troy, Pergamon, Delos, Lindos, Bodrum, Ephesus and Istanbul. Ship: 35-cabin Sea Cloud NOE MTA eI PI SH ul Monday - Friday, 9-5'ES.T,~ How to have a battle inyour mailbox. You'll get a bang out of the free South Carolina travel guide. It’s 120 pages of excitement, including where to relive Revolutionary and Civil War battles from Kings Mountain to Charleston harbor. For your free travel guide write or call 1-800-346-3634. And plan a trip that will go down in history. South Carolina Juilay fftef Leif plates P.O. Box 78, Columbia, SC 29202-0078 The J. Peterman Shirt. (99% Thos. Jefferson, 1% Peterman.) Jefferson disliked stuffy peopie, stuffy houses, stuffy societies. So he changed a few things. Law. Gardening. Government. Architecture. 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Delicacies like liver and sheep’s eyes were proffered by the sheik to special guests, sometimes to Bob. Women were not given sheep’s eyes, and I was grateful in this case for my lowly status. (Bob told me the eyes were just like lumps of fat and went down easily!) Everyday meals that Selma served were less dramatic and usually involved marag, a stew with vegetables that some have termed the national dish of Iraq. Marag, eaten by people in the countryside and city, by poor people and rich people, was eminently expandable or contractible, de- pending on the season and the family bud- get. Basic ingredients were meat, onions, garlic, spices, vegetables, and usually tomato paste. For the poor, a sliver of meat attached to a cracked bone or two provided flavor for a large broth of vegetables (spinach, egg- plant, okra, zucchini, green beans, peas, potatoes, and whatever else was in sea- son). A richer marag featured meat as the main ingredient, flavored by vegetables. Lentils, lima beans, and fava beans were used if no fresh vegetables were available. Variations on marag for those with limited budgets included lentils cooked with rice and tomato paste or rice cooked with sharia, a kind of angel hair pasta. With kubba, Selma could increase or decrease the amounts of expensive ingre- dients in a dish. The base of kubba was a mix of meat and wheat, pounded to a paste in a heavy mortar. This paste was layered in a pan, with more meat between layers in good times or more onions and spices in bad times, and then baked. The festal kubba that Bob and I sampled included pine nuts and raisins between the layers. Kubba could also be fashioned into smaller units, easier for children to eat. The paste was formed into a casing that could be stuffed with a mix of nuts, raisins, spices, and meat (good times) or merely with onions and spices (bad times). If Selma had no meat or, alas, no wheat, she could still make kubba out of leftover rice pounded to a paste and then stuffed. The kubba morsels were deep-fried (like Scotch egg) and guaranteed to keep stom- achs full for many hours. The more time we spent in Daghara, the more we realized that the local cuisine was | the result of a creative human process that had been going on for a very long time deed. We were in the heart of the Tigi Euphratés valley, the legendary site of Gardén of Eden and also where sett agriculture (as well as writing) began | fore 3000 B.c. Iraqis had lived for thousands of ye in a relatively fixed and comparativ limited agricultural environment of set arid land and limited water. (Iraq was j beginning to prosper from oil riches wk we were there in 1958.) Beside these : cient culinary traditions, our own Ame can national dishes—hamburgers a steak, for example—seemed extravag: and even wasteful, since they depenc for their succulence and flavor on the pr ence of seemingly unlimited natural sources—water, land, trees, and fatter cattle. When I once tried to explain | American hamburger to Selma, she smi patronizingly. “Half a pound of meat one person? Ridiculous. It’s not good | you.” “Look at kufta or kebab,” I said. “The a lot of meat for one person, and it’s grill like hamburgers, too.” “Yes, but that’s when we’ve got lots meat and don’t want it to spoil. I can fe at least twenty-five people with hall pound of meat,” she said triumphant “with dolma.” She was right. For dolma, or stufi grape leaves, one pound of meat and | cups of rice—mixed with onions, ton toes, and spices—fills a couple of hundi grape leaves or a reasonable number tomatoes, onions, peppers, zucchini, eggplant (anything that can be stuffed). Selma steamed her dolma in hindi jui obtained by soaking dried tamarind water. The village of Daghara was close the Euphrates, which ran through the Sh al-Arab to the sea and the city of Basra port of call for sailing ships long bef Sinbad the Sailor was born. Tamarhii reached the village from India, as « spices—cumin, cardamom, allspice, bla pepper, cloves, cayenne, coriander, n meg, and cinnamon—and the techniq for making curries and for preserving b ter by clarifying it until it hardened i1 ghee. Thus, remote villages, disdained Sitt Samira, had their culinary ties not o1 to other Arab countries, Turkey, and Per but also the Far East. Patscha, consisting of the feet, he: bones, scraped stomach, and intestines sheep, was another dish that demonstrat forcefuily to us the use of every possil bit of edible food. These leftovers throwaways in our society—were si! red with onions and spices in a broth t Selma served with hot flat bread. Many Iraqi dishes we sampled in those ) years represented centuries-old efforts ease pain and reduce the effects of dis- se. Shaneena was a good example, a nk Selma offered me on an intensely t summer day when I was ill. It con- ted of equal parts of yogurt and water, is salt—a perfect bromide for the in- sely hot Iraqi summer, which can bring dehydration first and then often disease len water supplies turn doubtful. People lieved that the salt was good for dehy- ition and that the yogurt culture could mewhat alleviate the deleterious effect ditch water. Selma knew how to make caraway tea ‘the stomach and cinnamon tea for a od taste. She also knew how to make y hamudh, or lemon tea, which every- e in the village seemed to drink in the nter for colds and bronchitis. Lemon tea is made from numi basra, the beloved rd-shelled, dark brown dried lemon that jay is carried far from its origins—the uthern city of Basra—to London and ich, Chicago and San Francisco, by gis as gifts to other Iraqis in exile. We do not know what has happened to > Iraqi village where we lived almost ty-five years ago. We have heard noth- g since the war except indirectly, rough friends of friends, that life is hard d food and medical supplies scanty. As the effects of the war begin to re- de, however, Iraqis must be doing what dinary people have always done when e clash of swords is stilled. After bury- g their dead, they have to try to keep ing. People must eat. The women must » making marag and patscha out of hat’s left, hoping for better days, when oking delicacies like magluba and isanjun will once more be possible. Based on what’s left and how many ople must be fed, Iraqi cuisine is one of eative survival; its adaptability to a con- qually changing and disaster-prone orld is worthy of our admiration. izabeth Warnock Fernea, a professor of nglish and Middle Eastern Studies at the niversity of Texas, Austin, has lived in e Middle East off and on for many years ith her anthropologist husband, Robert ernea. They recently collaborated on he Arab World: Personal Encounters inchor Press /Doubleday). She is also e author of Guests of the Sheik: An thnography of an Iraqi Village (Anchor ress /Doubleday). Open upa whole new Noyes i “iy a EN BUCK KNIVES, INC. MANUFACTURED BY WENGER | Two great names in cutlery have combined their skills to bring you 13 new knives with an array of blade/tool combinations, from vest- pocket size to ones like this TaskMate II. 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I N ] A a THis View OF LIF 2 The First Unmasking of Nature Darwin’s revolution could proceed only after Linnaeus had revealed life's hidden order by Stephen Jay Gould I can’t imagine two people in more inti- mate contact—just the tiniest sliver of a millimeter’s separation—than the figures on the front and back of a bank note. We all know, of course, that the fall of any flower’s petal reverberates throughout the universe to disturb the most distant gal- axy; therefore, these closer juxtapositions cannot be without deep meaning. During a recent visit to Sweden, I was 1989 9031078835 1A = WNJatmrwatr DUWromov 4/02 delighted to encounter the common Eur pean practice of picturing scientists, rath than an uninterrupted parade of statesme on bank notes—for Linnaeus graces ti Swedish bills, just as Italy featur Galileo, and the old British pound nc had Newton backing up the Quee (America similarly honors both Jeffers and Franklin but not, I think, primarily f paleontology and electricity.) I was, ho ever, puzzled by a juxtaposition on t fifty kronor note: why do Linnaeus a King Gustav III stand in such mini proximity (they even look directly at ea other if you hold the bill up to the light a scan both figures at once)? On one immediate level, the uni poses no problem: both men were emine and contemporary Swedes; Linnae lived from 1707 to 1778, and Gustav I born in 1746, reigned from 1771 to 17S Their personal ties were not close, but th certainly appreciated each other. The old scientist flourished in the atmosphere the Swedish Enlightenment, so strong promoted by this artistically inclined ku (who collaborated on an opera when n overly engaged in affairs of state); whi the young king basked in the prestige a1 honors won by Sweden’s most famo' naturalist and scholar. In 1774, after Linnaeus had suffered stroke and lost his legendary zeal for wot Gustav sent him a collection of plar from Surinam packed “in hogsheads | spirit.” Linnaeus, according to legend, Ie his bed and went back to work, describit the 200 species sent by His Majesty. Wh« Linnaeus died four years later, Gustav e logized him before the Swedish legis] ture: “I have lost a man who did honor his fatherland as a worthy citizen, bei celebrated all over the world.” Ve . . ‘ Or i ce ma aa RRS | J American Museum of Natural History ae . ABC/Kane Productions International, Inc. eye | This Video i Now Available At A abc), ORDER TODAY CALL TOLL FREE Yet the principle of petals and galaxies tells us that a far deeper connection, some- thing lovely and downright hermeneutical, must also link the two men—and I have found it! We must begin by asking, Where do the majority of decently educated folks (like me and thee) encounter Gustav III, when our knowledge of things Scandinavian tends to be largely (and lamentably) blank between Thor and Ingrid Bergman? The answer, of course, is Giuseppe Verdi—for Gustav III is the subject of Un ballo in maschera (A Masked Ball). On March 16, 1792, King Gustav III was shot and mor- tally wounded while attending a midnight masquerade at the Stockholm Opera House. (His assailant, Jakob Johan Anck- arstrom, representing an aristocratic con- spiracy opposed to Gustav’s reforms, was arrested, tried, convicted, flogged, and then beheaded after the offending hand that held the pistol had been hacked off.) This wonderful opera is now usually performed in its proper Swedish time and setting. But not at its debut in 1859. An at- tempt had just been made on the life of Napoleon III, and the ever-watchful cen- sors of Naples decreed that Verdi must change the locale and demote the king to some lesser station, lest any potential as- sassin be inspired by a night at the opera. Verdi was no stranger to such official in- trusions. Seven years earlier, in Venice, a similar edict went forth from the censors for his opera about a jester named Tri- boulet in the court of Francis I of France. (We now know the opera for the renamed jester Rigoletto, while the French king was demoted to the Italian duke who sings “La donna é mobile.”) This time Verdi did an even better job of masking, for he switched the locale to, of all places, my present home of Boston. Gustav III was transmogrified, teleported, and demoted to the fictitious Riccardo, “Governor of Boston” at some unspecified colonial time. (Boston had no governor, al- though Massachusetts did; while the thought of a glittering masked ball at the opera house of this puritanical city contin- ues to provoke endless amusement.) The conspirators were recast as a pair of mis- creants named Samuele and Tommaso (Sam and Tom) traditionally played, we must note with sadness, either as Indians or blacks. We therefore usually meet Gustav III in double masquerade: first, literally at the ball (where Anckarstrém needs half an act to find him); second, by Verdi in transfer- ring him a hemisphere away and demoting him to governor. And now I know the deep connection to Linnaeus—for Nature was “Tell your mother to get off my back!” 14 WNlatmrmar Urempv A/O02 doubly masked when Linnaeus met h and although he succeeded only in reme ing the first disguise (we needed Darw for tte second), uncovering an enti world must rank as a greater challen than discovering a king in a crowd of re elers. Linnaeus is certainly acknowledg and honored among biologists. In t broadest realm, he developed the syste of binomial nomenclature still used (wi no substantial change since his formul tion) to designate and classify all orga isms. In the most parochial region, he ga us our own name: Homo sapiens. Yet 1b lieve that we systematically underestimé Linnaeus by measuring him against a fal view of how scientific knowledge grov We see him as a great organizer of knov edge but, in an important sense, as a coc fier of error—for he believed that he h classified God’s created order, not (as v now know) the products of a genealogic¢ system built by evolutionary chang Some commentators have even viewed f role as retrogressive, as Linnaeus’s cr ationist convictions canceled an older fa tradition of mutability, sometimes mi taken as a natural antecedent to evolutio if only the Linnaeans had not intervene (This older folk tradition spoke more | occasional monstrosities and weird h brids between distantly related speci than of ordered systems changing by né ural laws. Fables about mutating beas and travelers’ tales about fabulous cre tures in distant lands, do not qualify prototypical evolutionary theories.) In this oversimplified view of scientif progress, we advance along a pathway | accumulating knowledge, guided by timeless method of accurate observatic and relentless logic. The classic expre sion of this view can be found in the pre ace of a book that must be on everyone short list of contenders for the greate work of popular science ever writte T. H. Huxley’s The Crayfish (his ma velous monograph on how to teach th most abstruse principles of science by d veloping the details of a single example, this case the anatomy and physiology of common animal). . Huxley begins by telling us that “sc ence is simply common sense at its bes that is, rigidly accurate in observatio and merciless to fallacy in logic.” He the argues that the study of organisms has pr gressed through the same three stages fo lowed by all sciences in their develoy ment: an initial phase of gatherin information without theoretical guidanc Ries calls this first step Natural His- y, defined as “accurate, but necessarily omplete and unmethodized knowl- re”); a second stage of systematizing 1 organization, although still without ding theory (called Natural Philoso- )); and finally the third rung and syn- tic climax of Physical Science, “this al stage of knowledge, [where] the phe- nena of nature are regarded as one con- 10us series of causes and effects.” In this system of three steps from unor- 1ized description to causal interpreta- n, Linnaeus occupies the middle rung. : are better off in Linnaeus’s world be- Ise Our previously unmethodized know- ge has been ordered into a coherent leme, but we are not yet there because have no decent theory for the causes of ler. Huxley, in fact, argued that the third ge only began in his own century, fol- ving the death of Linnaeus and his ap- yach: “The conscious attempt to con- uct a complete science of Biology ‘dly dates further back than...the begin- ig of this century, while it has received strongest impulse, in our own day, from rwin.” I would agree with most modern histo- ns of science in branding this view as th misleading and unfair to our prede- ssors. I do not deny that science pro- ssses in the crucial sense of achieving re accurate and comprehensive expla- tions of empirical reality, but two as- cts of the older positivist view (so well emplified by Huxley) are quite wrong: > notion of a timeless scientific method sed on rigorously objective observation d logic and the idea that earlier systems re either theory-free or theory-poor be- use explanation can only follow accu- e description. Theory-free science makes about as ich sense as value-free politics. Both ms are oxymoronic. All thinking about > natural world must be informed by the- y, whether or not we articulate our pre- red structure of explanation to our- Ives. The old fabulists of Huxley’s first ase had a theory—if only the folk idea at starlight or serious fright could influ- ce the form of a fetus in the womb. The