Our city employee newsletter announced the pregnancy of one of the zoo’s giraffes, saying that the “Zoo Announces Pregnancy Just in Time for Valentine’s Day.” It struck me because, well, giraffes are not known for a particular fondness for romantic holidays, pregnancy or no. But the area is celebrating the second pregnancy of Autumn, a 7 y/o Masai giraffe, with Walter, her 8 y/o mate. Autumn delivered Kiko, her first offspring, in October of 2012. None of them are destined to remain here. Autumn and Walter are on ‘breeding’ loan from two different zoos. Kiko will go to Autumn’s home zoo, this latest offspring to Walter’s, and only the third will stay here. At the Zoo it is an exciting time!
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Kiko’s birth was broadcast live over the Internet to approximately one million interested parties, and this next one will be featured similarly. Last October the Zoo made a big deal of celebrating Kiko’s birthday, and that is sure to happen with subsequent offspring, as well. A cursory search of the Goog reveals that zoos often celebrate birthdays of some of their more popular animals as public events, also for fundraising.
Below is a short video the Zoo published showing Kiko and Autumn. Very cool!
If the animals care little for Valentine’s Day, what do they think of birthdays? Whether resident in zoos or elsewhere, there is no reason I know of to believe that animals care anything at all about birthdays. Here in my house there are several animals who arrived here as ‘rescues.’ I have no idea what day they were born on, so their ‘birthdays’ are not celebrated. They seem fine with that. If I did celebrate their birthdays, however, they might appreciate ‘treats’ or gifts of sorts, but it is most unlikely that they’d associate it with a parallel event 365 days hence as constituting a consistent, identifiable and predictable ‘trend.’ Possibly one to be anticipated in future years. If the possibility existed to talk to them about the concept of ‘day,’ ‘week,’ ‘month,’ ‘year,’ there is no reason to believe they would consider those measures of time interesting or worthwhile, as they are for our species.
They were born, and they ‘live,’ but do they care about birthday or Valentine’s Day? I think not.
They LIVE. That is something they do appreciate, I suspect, on an instinctive level. Do they know they were ‘born?’ Perhaps. But I think they only care THAT they were born. Birth, I think (for all species except ours, sometimes), is the ticket to the show of life.
Interesting hypothesis those brilliant animals have. ::wink::
On to tonight’s comments! Formatted and collated by TC’s Grand Empress, brillig!
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From Benintn:
This one from JesseCW highlights the fact that working class white men feel generally overlooked, and don't bother to vote.
From Dave in Northridge:
Eileen B got off this wonderful zinger (especially for those of us who are over 50) in weatherdude's announcement of his new weather site at Gawker (guess what it's called).
From peregrine kate (and also Dave in Northridge):
As usual, Dallasdoc gets to the heart of it. My response to him singled out this passage he wrote:
"Politics is about who lives and who dies. Who eats and who starves. Who sleeps warm in a bed and who shivers on a grate. And about children having a future or not. In a planet that is inhabitable or not."
He is absolutely right, the stakes are life and death. I appreciate his reminders to that effect.
From BeninSC:
Flagged by YucatanMan, this comment by cybrestrike gives some insight into Florida happenings and ... non-happenings!
I asked aoeu last night if Vanna had ever been in private contact, offering to 'sell a vowel.' The reply, elaborated upon in aoeu's profile, provided the answer to the unasked question. I really liked it. Still do, tonight!
Flagged by GDbot and flumptytail, this comment by LamontCranston is offered to help people end their smoking dependence. Very generous and thoughtful posting!
Top Mojo for yesterday, March 2nd, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary FAQing Top Mojo.
1) Just how racist is Angela Corey? by earicicle — 199
2) Thinking Fella is a hero by Dallasdoc — 178
3) To be fair by BoiseBlue — 153
4) never be too embarrassed to got the ER... by triv33 — 137
5) NO exam by BoiseBlue — 114
6) Her persecution of Ms. Alexander is completely... by kurious — 112
7) I tell my patients all the time by Dallasdoc — 109
8) Yes, 'sickened' would be the word for me, Skyye. by Leslie Salzillo — 105
9) ER's see a lot of drug seekers by Dallasdoc — 102
10) Holy cow. by raptavio — 102
11) Looking forward to this by SteelerGrrl — 100
12) Is this a 'call out diary'? by Thinking Fella — 90
13) Have you seen her speak at press conferences? by samanthab — 88
14) They try to control all our behaviors. by Smoh — 83
15) You think YOU yelled NOOO?!! by Thinking Fella — 80
16) next time someone wants to insult a person here by AaronInSanDiego — 80
17) She's a disgrace, who should be fired. n/t by kurious — 77
18) My uncle's last words, in the car, on the way by UntimelyRippd — 73
19) #sekritarmy has had just a bit too much of Winter. by jwinIL14 — 70
20) Toot Toot ! by indycam — 70
21) Of course Ukraine doesn't deserve to be invaded, by freelunch — 70
22) Now I see by Skyye — 69
23) While teh $&$^# Health Care System Needs by Gooserock — 69
24) I think you understand that this is not an by David Harris Gershon — 69
25) Feral kitten scare! by Green Mountain Flatlander — 66
26) Thank you for the diary! by Old Sailor — 66
27) No worries about a breach of security by kerflooey — 66
28) Not being rational is the problem by Dallasdoc — 66
29) Sekritarmy sekrit rulez?!? by arizonablue — 66
30) The left needs to do what it always needs to do. by Dr Erich Bloodaxe RN — 66
Top Pictures for yesterday, March 2nd. Click any image to be taken to the full comment. Thank you jotter for the image magic!