On Whimbrels and Monkeys (reposted)

(Note from the webmaster: Mr. Newhouse is on holiday, so here's an older post of his, originally published on August 27….)

Well, the news out of Puerto Rico is typically bad—at least eight murders over the weekend, cops getting thrown off the force for falsifying statistics, protests at the University of Puerto Rico in Río Piedras. 

Who needs it?

So I turned to a blog doña Taí recommended—repeatingislands.com. And discovered a bird I never knew existed—the whimbrel. Here it is.

OK, not too attractive—certainly no motmot—but boy, can it fly! Through hurricanes, in fact—two whimbrels went right through Irene last year. And apparently they use the back part of the storm as a sort of slingshot. Don’t know how that works, but that’s what the American Bird Conservancy says.

Shouldn’t they know?

The other thing is that they fly thousands of miles nonstop.

Well, that’s tremendous news—stuff we should all know about.

There is a little downside.

Several of the birds have made it through hurricanes only to be shot by hunters.

It seems that on some islands of the Caribbean, there are illegal shooting ranges. Just for fun. And there was the whimbrel and there was the guy with the gun, so…

…he shot it.

No, not as a trophy, not to protect his crop. Just for fun!

In fact, the article reports, it’s not unusual for the killers to leave the killed dead on the beach.

The point was just to kill.

This is a part of the male psyche that I don’t get. I can understand—just barely—the allure of hunting. Michael Pollan, of all people, fell prey to it, and likened it to the time-altering effects of marijuana. And it’s certainly in our collective genes.

But this isn’t hunting, it’s slaughter.

May be something more. There are people, I think, who have an indifference to beauty and to nature that verges on hate. They see something brown and white and moving and they kill it.

Why?

Just because….

Well, well—I was determined NOT to be delivering a downer this morning. What else is stirring in the Caribbean?

Monkeys in Santurce!

Well, I knew that they were running around in the mountains down south, but here? In a very much populated section of San Juan? Just look at ‘em!

It turns out that it’s not just iguanas that are overpowering our eco-system, it’s monkeys as well. (By the way, the iguana population in Puerto Rico is estimated at four million—meaning we have more iguanas than people….)

And these monkeys have an interesting pedigree. They were brought here not as pets but as lab animals in the 1970’s. Originally they were let loose on small islands off the southern coast of Puerto Rico. Just one problem…

Monkeys can swim!

Well, the researchers went away, but the monkeys stayed. And now they’re invading the metro area! It’s too much! 

May watch the Republican Convention after all….