Not Just Biologists

My friend Ruth (the one in the life jacket) proved that biologists are not the only ones who get all excited about animals. It seems that there is a natural feeling of connecion that only comes from touching a living-especially a wild-animal. Ruth is a society person. She enjoys going out into the wild, but she likes her stuff like most of the rest of us like out stuff. I myself have become rather connected to my internet and my dvd players.
I imagine that coming this close to a grey whale calf who is pushed by its mother closer to you IS a bit different from the thrill I feel as I watch the crayfish that scuttle around in the tank next to my bed. But, I can't help feeling happy everytime I come close enough to an animal to touch it. My friends and fellow biology students saw that in Thailand. During the two weeks we were there, I was almost constantly walking around with something living crawling on my hands. I didn't pick up the scorpion, though. A crab ruined that lovely feeling I get from being just another animal in an evironment when it pinched all the way through my thumb.
I've also been stung by bees, fire ants, and diving beetles; pinched by crabs, lobsters and mantis shrimp; bitten by snakes, dogs, cats, parrots, and-most exotic-a kinkajou. But, I keep on trying to make contact with that animal side of the environment.
I'm always glad when I see someone getting that same thrill that I get. But I'm also a little bit jealous. I want to go out and meet the whales in the Gulf of California! However, I also understand that I cannot do everything. I get to survey a section of deep ocean that has been hardly studied before by scientists. I got to see all kinds of stuff on the great trip to Thailand last summer. I've had quiet moments of observation in all sorts of ecosystems. So, though I can't do everything, I guess I do actually manage to accomplish a lot. I saw my first king eider this weekend. It was one duck in a flock of a thousand or more. It took a while, but ithin that eventually just about everyone in the ornithology class found it. Erna was particularly excited when she found it, I seem to remember. That was the toughest bit of animal spotting I've experienced since the sloths in Costa Rica.