As featured Sept. 1, 2012, at www.cnjonline.com
Sometimes things are just plain misleading.
Take, for instance, a BBC video titled "Giant panda does handstand."
Oh
sure, it's a film following a giant panda around the woods, and yes, he
does a handstand, but there's a little more to the film than a cute
bear doing acrobatics.
To be more precise, the film consists of
four action-packed minutes of panda bathroom rituals, which do include
the panda doing a handstand — with the sole purpose of positioning
himself to "go" higher up on the trunk of a tree.
Thankfully, an
accompanying story described the scientific knowledge gained from
observing the potty patterns of Sir Panda, namely the fact that not only
do pandas stand on their front legs to direct their stream higher,
they're also surprisingly selective about the trees they choose to tag,
choosing trees with rougher, "deep tread" bark, presumably so the scent
markings have more longevity.
And the handstand?
Well, by
positioning the scent marking higher on the tree, researchers believe it
is likely to reach out further through the forest. Since pandas, whose
populations are incidentally dwindling, use their scent markings to
communicate personal information to one another, such as age and gender,
they want those messages to get out far and wide.
Pandas, as we
all know, aren't the only ones to use their naturally given "spray
paint" to write each other notes or advertise within their communities.
In one way or another, most animals recycle their byproducts as a
messaging system, whether it's to warn an enemy away, post city limits
signs, or put out a singles ad.
Of course it doesn't really impact
humans (except for the ones that unknowingly click on the video) if a
panda does a handstand to raise the spray, but just because an animal is
"domesticated" doesn't mean they stop "communicating" and they can do
it in some pretty creative ways.
Learning about the inventive rituals of the panda instantly brought some other creative critters to mind.
While
the rest of the herd would traipse to the far corner where they had a
designated "in box," there was the horse that would lick his food bucket
clean, then return the dish full.
It didn't seem to matter where
the bucket was placed, on the ground or hooked to the fence, he went to
great lengths, and at some points surely had to have stretched and aimed
with great effort, to make sure it was never empty.
A cat who
learned open suitcases meant lonely days ahead, always made sure his
opinion was known and at the same time, found devious ways to be sure he
packed a surprise of his own.
Frustrated that the big white
machines cleaned all the scents away, one cat made it her mission to
seek out laundry baskets and another cat found a dark corner under a bed
to write messages in private.
While the manners of civilized
humans adhere to the latter method, to most critters, sending messages
in private is just plain old illogical.
Naturally, when it comes
to the house sharing communicators, there must be compromise in order to
reconcile the disparity in styles and thus we have devised clever boxes
filled with perfumed rocks for them to mail their letters and sometimes
we even run around behind them with baggies, presumably collecting the
messages to send later.
But when compromise collapses and there's an unexpected communication, it could be we're not getting the point.
Sure,
it could be as simple as, "I couldn't wait," but it's also possible the
paper towel swipes are eradicating the greatest love letters of all
time or an exceptionally polite thank you note that reads, "Hey, thanks
for all the grub. I don't have much, but please accept this token of my
appreciation."
Don't be too hard on the messenger.
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