Their Bandit Natures

It's not that raccoons (procyon lotor) are actually bent on banditry. Really, it's food. And girls. The boys all want to impress the adorable raccoon girls. Really. Have you seen their little noses? I sense that I'm digressing.

What I want to say is that at ASLE the default sense of talking about nature--even at ASLE--was the solo hiker out experiencing "wilderness." Some people were beginning to engage with the issues of race and gender that (should) immediately spring to mind, as well as discussions of access (if all you need to walk in the woods is feet, how is hiking an elite activity? Especially if you're rural poor. Owning an ATV or snowmobile, now that takes money. But if you're poor and in a city. . . Ah, a different questions altogether). But here in my fairly suburban city, I'm surrounded by animals that aren't cats or dogs. Last night, for example, a family of raccoons showed up to finish off the catfood D left out for the local strays (we're down to two, right now: Lil' Whiteface and Mackerel). While dodging fireworks, mom brought her three adolescents to enjoy the crunchy goodness of Meow Mix. Certainly, this little encounter ain't exactly a template for biodiversity, but I'm fascinated by 1) how even the specialists on this topic tend to glance over this without a comment, and 2) how some species adapt to our manipulations of the environment. The bleak flip side of the coin is how few species can do that.

Right. For a bit of uplift (perhaps): Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising is coming to theaters near you this fall. You may line up behind me. At some point, I'll explain how this series was a catalyst for the schism between me and and xian family.

Comments

[Kat]

I adored that book series! Particularly the ones that focused on Will, though Simon, Janem and Barney were also excellent characters.

[Crafty Green Poet]

Obviously we don't get raccoons in Edinburgh, but we get a lot of urban foxes. There's lots of green spaces too for squirrels and lots of birds. The animal that surprises me is the rabbit, - there are about thirty skinny little rabbits live in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle!