Category: Environment

The legendary Washoe died this week:

Washoe, a female chimpanzee believed to be the first non-human to acquire human language, has died of natural causes at the research institute where she was kept.

I met Washoe when I was studying at Central Washington University and was lucky enough to take a linguistics course with Dr. Roger Fouts.

Frankly, Washoe intimidated the hell out of me. She was queen of the domain, and we students knew it. We were warned not to stare when we met the chimps, as it’s considered a threatening gesture. We crowded into the room, desperately trying not to seem like we’re staring, as Washoe proceeded to stare intently, and fixedly, at us during the entire visit. However, when you looked in her eyes, you didn’t see hostility. You did see what I can only describe as a wicked sense of humor. She was wonderful.

Rest in peace, old girl.

Via Retropectacle. I also recommend reading the Friends of Washoe Timeline, even if Dr. Fouts does refer to CWU as a ‘backwater’ university. Which it was, thank goodness.

Perfect celebration for cat friday. Via Metafilter–be sure to check out comments.

Even better: squid with human teeth for squid friday.

Cephalopodcast has found a couple of terrific old films on the ‘fish from hell’ from the Prelinger Archives. As the Cephalopodcast mentions, it’s not the footage so much as it is the accompanying voiceover. It’s also an interesting study in our earlier ‘science’ investigations, and the fact that in these old ‘science’ films, the scientists tend to kill everything they meet.

We actually have come a long way when it comes to scientific investigation, but not when it comes to mixing science and entertainment. Last week, Cephalopodcast also posted about the letter to Discovery about Shark Week, and the fact that this series has degenerated into nothing more than a “Jaws 101” rather than an exploration of more unknown but perhaps less dramatic shark species.

Then there’s the Japanese ‘scientific study’ of whales, where many of the whales killed are pregnant. Of course, the whaling industry says this is a good thing. Whalers are about the only hunters I know of who would claim that killing pregnant females is a ‘good thing’. Perhaps the whaling industry would like to expand into killing baby fur seals, too?

But then, perhaps I’m just being overly emotive. (via Cobbers)

I couldn’t be a cephalopod fan without being excited about the discovery of the octosquid off of Hawaii. This seeming half octopus, half squid will lead to much interesting speculation. And it’s a beautiful creature, too.

I could wish, though, that we could discover these creatures in circumstances other than them being accidental catches, recovered only to die. What if killing this one was enough to endanger the entire species?

Ah well. A bittersweet moment.