Museum of Natural History

I started reading a book last night about Teddy Roosevelt's adventure trip down the Amazon; an ornithologist from the Museum would receive $150.00 a month salary for stalking specimens--3 times the average American wage at that time. I am reminded of this through Dan's blog--the pic he posted of a statue reminded me of the Yanomami tribe from South America that I'd written about in college--but on closer observation, I think his pic was a Somai gal (blurry text). Anyway, I left the book at work and was looking forward to reading about the pack animals slowly starving to death on their grueling trek! When the museum caught wind of Teddy's route change down a dangerous, virtually unexplored river...they disapproved.

I particularly liked the quote about people going off the beaten path to explore new territories rather than living life like a tourist(--the aggravating part of our Guatemala trip was having to stay with the group for safety reasons).
Back in the day, a job with the Museum would be a thrill--who wouldn't want to take part in an adventure into the unknown--be the first to see new land and life?

Sunday, I ventured down this road by Mudfeet Farmer's land. I thought I might find a snake sunning itself in the dust on a somewhat cool/warm weird afternoon, but I turned around 100 yds later after the grass was rustling and a distinctive odor of skunk arose.

Instead I climbed the north fence into an excellent fishing pasture with 3 ponds and scads of dung beetles clearing off the paths. Bailey and I first noticed this phenomenon when insect hunting/fishing on a hot afternoon. When the fish aren't biting and your mind wanders, you notice all the small things in life that you've walked past before.
Busy little creatures working with life partners, rolling dark marbles up and down the cow trails--pretty amazing to see the teamwork involved as they moved their creation around a rock or weed stem. Such intricately hard work! I read that these beetles save humanity (and cattle) from disease by annihilating cow patties, hiding their well-wrapped egg/larvae under the soil, thus ridding the world of germs and fertilizing the soil at a faster rate.

Sunday was different. I was rather puzzled--virtually no action whatsoever--just cow patties with little beetle feet and buns sticking out like stiff pokers no matter where I looked. For some reason, Jim Jones and David Koresh filled my mind...because I finally touched some of their little feet--and eventually received some slight motion--but one lil critter really appeared dead even when yanked from it's sticky prison.

Geez--was this some type of beetle mass-suicide? Dive headfirst into a shit pile and drown? And the mastermind behind this??--no GrapeAid--just gooey poo. "I command thee...step over into another plane...death is your friend." I don't think that "dying with dignity" would be an appropriate phrase here though, if your head was buried in a pile of crap! What would cause so many of them to stop work upside down and just 'freeze'? The only thing I could think of was temp...when the sun vanished under a cloud, the breeze was chilly. How sad. Too cool to move your joints, so you choke in ochre ooze!

No, I did NOT stick them headfirst into a cow pattie just to take a pic.