Which reminds me of one of my seabird buddies. Back in my days as a seabird behavioural researcher, I spent my days observing a colony of Common Murres. Murres are in the auk family, a relative of the beter-known and more colourful Puffin. In the midst of our little group of study animals, there was one noticeable oddball: a lone Razorbill. Razorbills are another member of the auk family. Though they look similar at a glance (black and white, and about a foot tall), they are most definitely not Murres.
MURRES.
NOT A MURRE.When I first met this sole, confused Razorbill, he had been living among the Murres for at least 5 years, as long as my lab-mates had been studying these seabirds. They had named him Crazy Bill. How did we know Bill was a he? Well, during the breeding season, he had a funny habit of mounting one of his Murre neighbours. (In an interesting twist, when Crazy Bill left the colony to grab a bite to eat, his desired mate--or as I liked to call him, "Crazy Bill's Bitch"--proved his own manhood, and was often seen mounting a nearby female Murre.) Crazy Bill also seemed to enjoy preening his little buddy, and wow...I never thought animal body language could be so very clear to humans until I saw the obvious discomfort in Crazy Bill's Bitch demeanor as he was being groomed by Bill. The poor creature clearly wanted to be anywhere but on that rock having his feathers smoothed by the big, brutish Razorbill.
Crazy Bill and his Bitch (I can only assume he was the same Bitch year after year; unfortunately, we were never able to capture and band either member of this twosome) returned to the study site for the four summers I worked on Great Island. I can only assume that these two lads still spend the breeding season in the colony, and can't help but wonder if Crazy Bill's Bitch has ever summoned up the courage to leave his abusive-seeming relationship, or if he's still out there sneaking a little avian pussy on the side while Papa's out to lunch.
Wow. Much as I like spending summer here at home, with such perks as running water and electricity, there are times when I really miss those crazy seabird research summers on remote and amenity-deficient Great Island. Animal behaviour just fascinates the hell out of me. All in all, I think I'm content with just grabbing a shower and watching this foolish guppy try to get it on with the other fishies in the tank. In fact, that sounds like a plan right now....
4 comments:
*Snort*...That sounds way too much like what happens when I go out and some drunk dude who doesn't quite understand what "Please leave me the fuck alone". I really do need to come down and see this someday!
Maybe I should introduce Squishy to the rest of your fishies.
Heeeheehee, poor sexually confused sea birds. It shouldn't be funny to me that those two birds are involved in a Dom/Sub relationship of questionable consent, but it is.
i spent twenty five minutes watching a woodpecker do his/her thing today.
where were you stationed? i once saw a colony of 500,000 puffins off the coast of newfoundland. i cried (silently, to myself) and the really loud american on the boat that had been driving everyone crazy for an hour kept asking me what was wrong. i said, "fuck off. i'm happy".
so hard to have a moment these days.
Celery, I was stationed in the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve. Sixty percent of North America's puffins breed there. It-was-freakin'-COOL! When were you there? If it was in June or August of 2000 to 2003, then I was there (belated wave!). Although most of the boat tours were around Gull Island, and I worked on Great Island, a little further south.
Rusty, it is most definitely funny! I mean, Bill's Bitch could have moved on any time. There must have been something keeping him there with Bill....
Jeremy, I know--the parallels to human behaviour never ceased to amaze me! One of my lab-mates actually did her research on divorce in Common Murre pairs. That is the actual term that's used in the scientific literature.
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