| by Barbara Spring |
| FLAGRANT DISPLAYS Visiting the Galapagos Islands in the first part of March may not appeal to some for it is the rainy season. But for, Norm and myself, it was a great time to be there. We didn't mind a few gentle tropical showers. The endemic species were at their best wearing their courting regalia, showing off, dancing. The mature male of the Blue Footed Booby attracts a mate with his cerulean blue legs and feet. As if this were not enough, he offers her a stick in his large bill, holding it high in the air while dancing on his gorgeous blue legs. Hard to resist this! The male of the frigate bird usually is not into courtship this early, but when we visited, they were courting to make up for El Nino last year that caused their nesting to be unsuccessful in some cases. The handsome black frigate bird has a brilliant red pouch on his neck he inflates to attract a mate. Once she chooses one, he covers her eyes with his wings. He doesn't want her to see any gaudy competitors in the vicinity. And there were many riding the air currents on their scimitar shaped wings and perching in the trees. On these volcanic islands walking is sometimes difficult: The jagged lava underfoot is harsh and one must be careful not to step on iguanas or bird nests. Tourists must stay on marked paths. But the trusting inhabitants of the Galapagos do not move out of the way of humans even on marked paths. The males of the marine iguanas on Santa Cruz Island were at their best wearing beautiful red and green mottled lizard skin outfits solely to attract the opposite sex. We were surprised to see that the marine iguanas on other islands wore basic black to blend in with the black lava where they sunned themselves en masse. Why the Santa Cruz marine iguanas evolved in a different way is a question Charles Darwin pondered. It still fascinates. On other islands, the green sea turtles were converging to mate in the water and lay their eggs on land. The sea was full of the huge green sea turtles. At night the females made landings on the sandy beaches to lay eggs. We saw their tracks in the sand and were careful not to encroach on the places where their eggs lay buried under the equatorial sun. The female of the Galapagos Hawk is fierce and devious. The mating is done high in the air and afterwards she drives the male away. She may then mate with four or five other males. Since they all think they are the father, they all provide food for the new hatchlings. These fledglings come in to the world well provided for. We loved frolicking in the water with the California Sea Lions. They may look awkward on land but as we peered at them through our snorkel masks, they peered back at us then whizzed by gracefully doing acrobatic moves through the sea. Our naturalist/guide told us not to touch them though--they might bite since they don't understand this game. On land the female and juvenile sea lions go where they wish. The male stakes out territory on a beach and defends it against other males. We saw some males with deep wounds on their necks and backs--beach front property is won at a high cost. The property owner mates with what ever female wants to come to his beach. In spite of the wounds a male might suffer, the sea lions seem to live a rather joyful life, playing and leaping in the water, then lazily sunning themselves. We also saw the smaller Galapagos seals and surprisingly, penguins who made their way to the Galapagos Islands on a cold sea current and established colonies there. The penguins whizzed through the water like small torpedoes while the marine iguanas used their long tails to zig zag through the waves to feed upon algae. Underwater, colorful tropical fishes were going through their mating and bonding rituals: many species of fish are only found in the Galapagos Islands. We saw them stream past our snorkeling masks along with a few sharks, but these fish were too numerous for us to sort out. They stand out in my memory as a colorful kaleidoscope. The Galapagos Islands are famous for their several species of huge land tortoises. We saw them at the Charles Darwin Research Station where some are being bred in captivity and we saw them migrating in the wild on their large elephant like legs. In the past centuries, whaling ships and pirates wiped out some species of the gentle giants by gathering them for food for long sea journeys. The government of Ecuador has set these remote islands aside as a nature preserve and truly their unique species can teach us a lot about the natural world. We were fortunate to visit them during the time of year when their unusual species were showing off in fantastic courtship displays. |
| SUGGESTED READING |
| EXIT! no. 4 - published by J. Anxiety-Stewart, 2-558 Upper Gage Ave., Suite #205, Hamilton, Ont. L8V 4J6 Canada - send stamps, $1 or ?? To get a copy of this 12-page "‘zine for the literary scene"... I like the idea! This issue tells all about Canzine ‘98 (we missed that one) and has, appropriately, a picture of what looks like The Titanic going down on the cover. Appropriately, because people are exiting in lifeboats - presumably the wealthy passengers. But inside (the ‘zine, not the ship) there's a "what if" scenario about a ship called "The Gigantic" - (Which makes me think of the pre-Titanic story ‘Titan". There's also poetry in this issue, a letter-story and of course, THE WEBSTER PAGE (100% manual typewritten views" - which makes some interesting comments about the future of paper periodicals vs. electronic ones. (In our downtown T.O. community computer club, we keep an ancient Remington on a desk as a reminder that while computers may be the desired way of communicating these daze, when the power goes out, the old clickety-clacker still gets the job done!) There are a couple of pages of cartoons here, too - SCHOOL DAYZ, The adventures of Jason Soup. I have to say "this is quite well drawn" because it would take me forever and three weeks of Wednesdays to drawn anything even remotely recognizable as ‘art'; but not being an art connoisseur by any means, I have no idea whether or not you'll appreciate it, too! At any rate, check EXIT! out - I have an idea there will be plenty more of these! OPUNTIA, published by Dale Speirs, Box 6830, Calgary, Alberta T2P 2E7 Canada. Available for $3 cash (sample copy), trade for ‘zine or letter-of-comment... FREETHOUGHT PERSPECTIVE, from Leland W. Ruble, 833 Orchard St., Toledo, Ohio 43609-3359 USA. Free, but postage stamps always help... |
| Portion of a Letter from Lloyd Penney |
| THANKS MUCHLY for issue 12 of Bibliofantasiac, plus all the other goodies that came with it. I should get you some stamps to go with this letter, but with e-mail, trips to the post office are rare indeed. In the meantime... The story about Jimmy Pearson blowing his brains out was timely, for it reminded me of the tragedies in Littleton and Taber. We have to find better ways to manage such anger, and make the guns much harder to get. What shocks me most about these tragedies is that the children who perform these deeds seem to be completely amoral, and once brought to court, completely unemotional. I see in today's children a moral and emotional sterility...have we raised such a generation of literal little monsters? His Father's Son...I can see that day coming where the United States, in some desperate move, will disregard our sovereignty. Who will stop them? We certainly can't. Some American zine writers already see their country as an outlaw state, doing what it pleases, especially in Kosovo and Serbia, bypassing the United Nations. The sad thing is that not all of them see outlaw status as a bad thing. A testosterone overdose on a national scale. J's brain could be Lloyd's brain. I was told that when I grew up, I'd marry, have kids and buy a house, just like everyone else. Then, peer pressure stepped to say that it was uncool to be like everyone else, and then made you an outcast if you didn't wear what everyone else did. Fortunately, I figured out how cool it was to be uncool, so not being able to afford a house and a family has been a minor, and not a major, disappointment. |
| M U M B L E - part of a review by Fido Dogstoevski |
| story by Kevin W. Nickerson When people first become interested in publishing ventures, one of the things they're hoping to discover is an author whose writing is on a par with if not better than the norm, and whose thoughts and ideas are not only fresh, but come across to the average reader with both clarity and style. It isn't often, though, that they actually find this sort of writer. Or, one comes along and they may fail to recognize the person's talent. This may be due to large "slushpiles" - backlogs of manuscripts to read; or simply a lack of proper funding (i.e. they don't have full-time editors or, in Canada, a government grant). And so, since none of the above is able to remove the author's desire to have others read what he or she has written, it becomes obvious that something must be done. Hence, the term "self-publishing" - and we are not talking "vanity press" publishing (something many publishers today do, in fact, but they call it by another name: "subsidy publishing"). Little is it realized that many authors write for the love of what they are doing and saying, and while it might be nice if they were paid once in awhile... money really isn't the issue. Take, for example, the 9" x 12" black book I have in front of me - its binding - is that binding? - looks like it might contain a science or math term paper, certainly not a fine piece of writing about life in modern times. The home-made book contains one story: "Mumble" is handwritten in red ink on a white and green wine label... you think for a moment, staring at it, and realize: yes, you've seen this kind of thing before... You know that old saying, "never judge a book by its cover"? This is a prime example of why we have that saying. Mumble is a marvellous piece of work, a story set in a little greasy spoon in a Toronto neighbourhood... Send $3 to: Kevin Nickerson, Box 1191, Osoyoos, B.C. V0H 1V0 Canada |
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