Join Thor and me as we enjoy these charming introductions to some fascinating creatures.
Naturalist and host of famous nature documentaries, David Attenborough is adorable and adored as a champion of protecting our fragile natural world. His warmth and delight in the animals he presents make him feel like everybody’s favorite storytelling uncle. Happy almost-100th birthday, David!
Thor and I have watched several of his longer documentaries that feature amazing photography and animals on land and under the sea. We recently discovered this series of half-hour introductions to the “curiosities” that fascinate him – two animals per episode. The paired animals might be wildly different, but share particular characteristics, like the chameleon and giraffe that both possess very stretchy aspects – a very long, elastic tongue for the chameleon, and the long neck for the giraffe.
I particularly enjoyed an episode featuring a cheetah’s amazing speed. And how fun to watch a tame, friendly cheetah rub and lick David Attenborough, to the host’s surprise and laughter. He seems to have a natural way with animals, as he pets and chats with them.
Paired with the speedy cheetah was a look at the humble flea. Apparently during the 1800s, amateur naturalists were quite obsessed with collecting and examining various types of fleas and trying to explain their impressive jumping ability. Attenborough even filmed an antique flea circus with a flea pulling a tiny chariot.
One of the weirder animals featured was the duck-billed platypus, the only mammal that lays eggs. When a specimen arrived in England in 1799, it was pronounced a hoax because it was so bizarre. Likewise with the midwife toad.
Thor and I just watched an episode that featured camels and anacondas – both with the ability to stretch their skins and organs to an astonishing extent. Camels can go over a week without food or water, and their flexible humps store fat to keep them going. The humps stretch when full and then slump when depleted. As for the anaconda stretching its loose-jointed jaws to swallow what looked like a large, antelope-type catch — don’t watch this one if you have a fear of snakes!
(photos credit: Wikimedia)
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You will find The Rambling Writer’s blog posts here every Saturday. Sara’s latest novel from Book View Café is Pause, a First Place winner of the Chanticleer Somerset Award and an International Pulpwood Queens Book Club selection. “A must-read novel about friendship, love, and killer hot flashes.” (Mindy Klasky). It’s also a love letter to the stunning beauty of her native Pacific Northwest wild places. Sign up for her quarterly email newsletter at www.sarastamey.com
