Birth of a baby orangutan

I was going to post on an orangutan who has figured out how to whistle, but the video commentary was inane, and this video of an orangutan giving birth is really neat. I imagine some might find it kind of gross though. After all, she eats the placenta and sucks her baby's head to clean him.



I can't help but to wonder when during human evolution we stopped licking our newborn babies. I've heard some cultures still do this. This sort of grooming also reminds me of some really cool research on mice that found that this initial licking and grooming postpartum is essential for normal physiological development. It kick starts digestion and lays the foundation for how the baby's HPA-axis functions later in life.

The HPA-axis, or hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, refers to the nervous and endocrine system that regulates the physiological response to stress. Rodents that don't receive early grooming grow up to have abnormal reponses to stressors; namely they release too much cortisol under duress.

Chronically high levels of the hormone cortisol have been shown (including among humans) to be associated with a weakened immune system, depression, and brain atrophy. That's really putting into a nutshell what I learned in what may be the most freakishly awesome seminar I took during grad school: Psychoneuroimmunology, or PNI.

If you would like to learn more about how behavior, mood, hormones and the nervous system interact to affect your health I highly, HIGHLY recommend the book Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers by Robert Sapolsky. Although he is as mega-scientist who professes at Stanford, the book is as readable as it is fascinating and entertaining. I freaking loved this book! Of course, he's also a primatologist and he has a wicked sense of humor. His other books are fantastic too, by the way. You cannot go wrong.

I still remember the day back in grad school when I was in the mail room and a fellow (newbie) grad student (who came to study PNI specifically) saw the book sitting on the counter and made some snide remark about how he hated it when laypeople jumped on the stress/immune system bandwagon and didn't know what they were talking about. It was then that I decided that he was an arrogant, ignoramus little snot. He had no clue who Robert Sapolsky was. Maybe Mr. Sapolsky shoulda put his big PHD behind his name on the book cover. In any case, I got the last laugh that day. I don't even know why I even still remember that, honestly, but it evidently made an impression.

My Andy Warhol Orangutan

While playing around with the 'open apple m' command in Photoshop today, I ended up creating a really funky looking image of an orangutan pastel I made a while back.

It reminds me of one I remember seeing a long time ago - painted by Andy Warhol. It's not exactly like his, but I think it captures the spirit of his style.

This morning I started what will become my morning "coffee break" routine. If this morning is any indication, I will be able to spend a useful amount of time every morning working on a primate pastel while I eavesdrop on the conversation of a bunch of guys who remind me of my dad and his friends.

It should be fun seeing how long it takes the staff and other patrons at my new morning place to know me.

Presumably, my usual businesslike demeanor will prevent unnecessary interruptions... which can be good and bad.

Because I can't wear my artwork, creating it in public will be one way people will see it locally - at least until I have enough of a collection to approach galleries! I think my work is destined for galleries and a book.

I think it is interesting to watch artists at work. Heck, I just think it's interesting to watch people period. Okay, not just people - social animals in general. So, by creating my work in public, maybe some time someone will come bug me after observing me for a while. I just might get to blab about primates, hand out my new business cards, and who knows.

***

Want to learn about why orangutans have those huge cheeks? Read about them here.

Orangutan Pastel

Here's my second attempt at a pastel - an adult male 'cheek padder' orangutan. I worked from a photo of an individual I believe is named Adik. Adik lives in Borneo and as you can tell from his cheek phalanges, he is a dominant male.

In Borneo, only dominant males develop secondary sexual characteristics such as full cheek pads, deep voice, and a huge size. Subordinate males who live in the dominant male's territory do not develop these traits. No knows quite why the so-called 'Peter Pan' males fail to develop. It may be stress-induced dwarfism or hormonal suppression possibly caused by pheromones emited by the dominant male. If the dominant male leaves or dies, the most dominant of the subordinate males in the area mature and become the dominant male with all of the associated physical characteristics. Orangutans are the only primate known to display two different coexisting adult male morphs. Of course there's a scientific term for it. It's called bimaturism, but some also call it arrested development.

Besides being physically stunted, the Peter Pan rangs might also be considered socially stunted. Females prefer to mate with the dominant males, so in order for subordinate males produce progeny they often resort to alternative strategies: rape or what primatologists call forced copulation. Females have evolved strategies for dealing with the threat of forced copulations. Lone females will travel to be closer to a dominant male. If she can't find one she seeks out other females. When no dominant male is nearby but a subordinate Peter Pan male is, females tend to stick closer together.

This is significant because orangutans are a solitary species. Fruiting trees are sparsely scattered in their habitat and don't come into season all at once so the habitat cannot support group foraging. Instead, rangs forage individually to be sure to get enough to eat and also leave enough to ripen for later. For females this artifact of habitat opens the door to being harassed by subordinate males. Dominant males rarely force copulations.

Obviously, one can draw some very interesting and provactive comparisons between humans and orangutans.


*** This pastel took a lot longer than the previous pastel I did on account of the time it took to put the tiny hairs on his face. I really like this one. I like how his eyes, nose, and lips turned out. I think he has a very typical orang expression.

My next pastel will be of a monkey without hair on its face. Candidates are: douc langur, snub-nosed langur, and bald uakari. I am leaning toward the snub-nosed langur because it has a very strange face - it's blue! Plus it is an incredibly rare species; I could not locate a single decent source to link to. The one I found contained plagiarized material.

The Week in Review

Don't worry grandma! I haven't fallen off the face of the earth! You're probably the only one who still reads this blog now that I post so infrequently — for that I blame pregnancy and the horrible, horrible heartburn I still get. I wake up with it; I go to sleep with it; I pretty much feel like throwing up most of the day because of the acid reflux that goes with it. And now, I am huge enough that I walk funny and have to think about how I am going to get back up if I squat (there is no such thing as bending down anymore) to pick something up off the floor. Needless to say, I sort of wish I had more orangutan-like toes. I would put them to good use.

This week, I managed through 3 days of solo dog duty because Mr. Field Notes was away at a conference. They were sweethearts, mostly, and did remember to wake me up for work in the morning so that was good and all I really expected of them.

Mr. FN's nearly 100 year old grandpa died. He was a Lt. Colonel in the Army so he had a military service, complete with gun fire out at the army fort. We couldn't be there because I'm too far along for air travel. I'm glad I at least got to meet him when I did.

My belly button is starting to pop out, but still no stretch marks for now! Did I mention I feel like barfing? Ugh. I really wish that would stop.

Yuki has to go to bed now with her "Shreddy Bear" nearby. It's her ball made of rope. She has to have something to chew on every night before bed and the pieces of it come apart and scatter all over the floor. It makes a colossal mess, but she loves it and it helps her get to sleep, sort of like a teddy bear.

Two movies I watched were sursprisingly bad: The Day the Earth Stood Still and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I didn't have high hopes for the former one, given it's a Keanu Reaves movie and he never makes good movies. But it had Jennifer Connely in it and is a sci-fi doomsday flick so I couldn't not see it, but jeeeeeez - who the heck wrote the script? Aliens want to wipe out humans because we are killing the earth's other life forms due to our selfishness, but the alien meets a kindly (female) scientist who takes him to meet an evolutionary biologist who is working on "biological altruism." This is supposed to show him that not all humans are selfish and that we can evolve altruism. The alien still has to help him hammer out the exact formula for it though. And then later the alien has a change of heart about destroying humankind when the scientist's kid demonstrates grief. Good grief, I say! Just because one kid is capable of grieving the death of his father does not mean humans are capable of being altruistic to other life forms. Ugh. And, whatever. At least the special effects were decent and I didn't fall asleep. The Brad Pitt Button film was a royal snoozer. I fell asleep numerous times and had to watch it in two parts on different days. It was at least a good story. Based on an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story. Who knew?

So that's pretty much it. Oh yeah, and I am finally reading a book for fun. Granted, it's an academic one (the only kind I really ever read) but it's a snoozer too. I don't think I'll finish it.

Good stuff happening? Ummmmm, lemme think. The flowering trees are stunning and I've already got snapdragons in bloom. The weather has been warmer and I'm eating ice cream like no one else! It cures heartburn, wouldn't ya know! And, if you put bananas and peanutes in it, you can *almost* call it dinner. Least, that's my reasoning tonight!

Easter Weekend

My family has a tendency to ask me what I did on holiday weekends, especially religious ones, as if I am supposed to be doing something special. This time, I think I actually did something worthwhile, i.e. I didn't have my fingers glued to my laptop. While I do have slides to finish for my dissertation defense on Thurs, I chose to goof off instead of finishing my work. I went to church.

Ha ha ha. Just kidding. Not in a million years. It's not that I'm not a spiritual person, I just don't need organized religion to remind me to be a kind and decent human being.

I have ALL DAY to kill tomorrow just trying to get from Walla Walla to Portsmouth; I think I will have plenty of time to make last minute improvements to my slides. I call this justifiable procrastination. I emailed myself my slides - three or four different accounts - just in case. You never know when something might go wrong.

I have had 3 defense anxiety dreams - all over equipment not working! The first was my old Audi - it struggled to get up an imaginary hill on the way from the airport to the university. Then it was some other thing that broke - a different car maybe. The latest was Katy chewing up my laptop.

Here's what happened over the weekend when she had to be penned in the kitchen again so we could leave. She is standing on top of Max's kennel, who is inside trying in vain to scratch his way out.

Goofing off on a holiday weekend for me means gardening (two blisters worth of digging), starting a new pastel for my primate series (a "cheek padder" adult male orangutan), pigging out on high-end junk food (Vietnamese fried calamari, creme brulee, and $8 martinis from Whitehouse-Crawford, the swankiest place in town), and then burning off the calories on a couple of marathon dog walks.

The two raised planter beds Sleyed made will look pretty once the plants grow in. I wanted them to rest smack in the middle of the backyard where all of the best grass was growing so he dug up the grass and I layed down our makeshift sod in the brown patches in our yard. That was how I earned my blisters. One poped, so needless to say, washing the dirt out of my hands was unpleasant.

I started the beds with seedlings that I grew indoors along with an Spanish lavendar plant I found at the Home Despot. 7 seedlings cluster near the lavendar - they are also English lavendar. I collected the seeds from a parent plant down the street.

The rest of that bed has about 30 seedlings that were growing in a tiny yogurt container on my window sill. I forget what the seeds are, but they grew well and I have a lot of them. It was fun to transplant seedlings because of the incredibly delicate work needed to untangled the tiny root systems.

I also put down seeds in all of my containers (foxglove, trumpet vine, snapdragon), smooshed some seeds for trees in the ground (Catalpa and Koelreuteria), and put some seeds into the ground that I gathered from my gladiolus.

I can't remember the last time I had so much dirt under my nails.

When I had finished I walked back inside, kicked my sandals off at the door, and grabbed a 40 oz beer from the fridge. It wasn't Old English -that would be too redneck - but it was certifiably crappy beer - the cheapest I could find.

Good drinking for the slugs.

I filled several yogurt lids with the beer and then went back inside to clean up. What did I find? Miss Roughenhausen with a face full of TV remote control. Yep, she chewed the brand new one, but I discovered her naughtiness in time to save the remote. It has visible teeth marks, but it still works. She whined and cried to go out so we headed out. She must have remembered the lids full of beer from last spring, though I had clearly forgotten her fondness for beer because she headed straight for them and before I knew exactly what she was doing, Katy slurped up most of it. That huge tongue can make beer disappear in two licks. She's soooo country.

And now - the wind is blowing all of my seeds to who knows where - 30 miles per hour with gusts to 40 mph the news says. Fantastic - the expensive new manure dirt - will be gone too.

Worrying about the condition of my garden is WAAAAAY better than worrying about my upcoming dissertation defense.

Sapporo Snow Festival

For a week in February, the northernmost island in Japan hosts a fantastic snow festival. The sculptures made of snow are a highlight. Some are enormous — even larger than this one. I haven't been to the festival yet myself, but Mr. Field Notes' dad has been a number of times. He shared this photo and I thought it was so neat I had to share it too. The detail in the leopard's spots and the orangutan's cheek pouches is awesome. It's estimated that 2 million people visit the festival. Here's a little insight into how the massive sculptures are constructed: how to make
a giant snow statue.

In Japan, as here too, it won't be much longer before festivities culminate around a different occasion — the appearance of the spring blossoms — something that is an even bigger event in Japan than this snow festival. I haven't been to Japan yet for the plum and cherry blossoms, but I think this year, Mr. Field Notes and I might have to break out the sake boxes and furoshiki we got in Japan and make our own mini party under our plum tree.

In anticipation of the spring, I've started farting around with a new spring line up for my etsy store. There are a lot more plantable paper offerers on etsy and the competition has had an effect on my sales. It's mostly fine, because I would rather hang out with my gorgeous daughter, but I do need to keep creating or I won't be able to keep buying nifty things on etsy! To that end, I recently received some new paper punches, an ume (plum) flower shape and a sakura (cherry) flower shape. This is what I've decided to do with them (the first one is an old hydrangea shape):



I need better photos and a prettier assortment of colors, but it's a start. I'm not sure, but I think I will offer them as a DIY wedding package, one that is very affordable (under $25). What do you think? I'd love some feedback...!

The Crib Decision

Aside from our baby's name, the bed she'll be sleeping is probably one of the biggest decisions we'll have to make.

I know people agonize over lots of stuff, like whether to breast feed and how long and what kind of birth plan to have, but those decisions were easy for me because I am so dead set on what I want already. But the name? We're still working on that and the crib, too. But I am really close to finally pulling the trigger and buying one. It's exciting. It means I'll soon have something to measure to make the baby bedding and the room will take shape. I want to have it done in time for my parents to see when they come to visit. I don't know if that's possible but it's my hope.

One of the easiest things about the crib to decide was getting a convertible crib that will grow and expand with our child's age and needs. Convertible cribs start out as cribs then become toddler beds and finally full size adult beds. Ideally, this is something she'll be able to take off to college.

I looked at a lot of cribs in the $200-300 range at places like Overstock.com, Walmart and Amazon and after reading the reviews have decided I'm going to go for a higher end crib in the neighborhood of $800.

The ones I found in the lower price range invariably received complaints that the wood dented, chipped, scratched and showed tooth marks easily. Apparently they are all made of pine, a soft wood. What's the sense of buying a convertible crib if by the time she's old enough to use the bed it looks like crap?

So I decided to look for convertible cribs that are made entirely of hardwood and I even found a company that makes cribs out of discarded rubber trees that are no longer useful for their sap. Now, rubber plantations are a bad, bad thing for places like Indonesia where plantations are being put up in orangutan habitat so it would not be my first choice of hardwoods from an environmental standpoint. It's hard to make the argument that the business doesn't in some way support the economy of rubber plantations.

I would definitely prefer some other kind of wood like oak or maple but I haven't been able to find any convertible cribs made out of domestic hardwood. I am still looking. If you know of any, let me know.

I just refuse to get one of the pine ones if there's a chance it will just end up at the goodwill then the garbage and leave us buying another bed later and result in spending just as much money if not more in the long run. However, if you think that's more environmentally sustainable, I'm all ears. Seriously.

Love it! Hate it :-(

Now that my dissertation is officially done I have been on R&R, doing other projects - mostly gardening and art. It is surprisingly easy to go from one day to the next without paying much attention to what the date is, or as I found out this morning, what day of the week it is! To Sleyed from bed early this morning:
You're going to work?!
At the UB?!
Why?!
It's Saturday!!!!
I said with conviction. Uh ooops.

Last night I finally opened the box that contained my doctoral robe. I tried it on and as anyone who knows me well might have guessed, my eyes watered. Yep, I hope the novelty wears off by the time I am actually hooded on stage in front of two former U.S. Presidents so I don't cry. I don't know why I get so emotional about stuff like this, but I have always and I probably always will. Being the first in my family to go to college, it's an extra-special achievement that I went on to get a PhD too. Why colleges and universities do not consider First Generation College a quality that adds to the "diversity" of the place I don't understand. It may be "hidden" but so is sexual orientation and that qualifies. Maybe I just am frustrated with the prospects of finding a position in academia - for so many reasons. I have applications out so we'll see. I may be pouring coffee for minimum wage just to pay off student loans for my BA... Hate that.

My manuscript got rejected for publication again. Hate that. How many times does your article have to be rejected before you are justified in scrapping it?

My new hair cut is fabulous. I absolutely adore it. The chick who cut my hair really did a great job. I wish she had nailed the color too. She put highlights in, but they came out way too streaky. She's going to fix them next week. Not being someone who has done this a lot before - the last time I really got my hair cut was about 10 years ago! - I don't know whether I should expect to have to pay for the color re-do or not. I don't think I should because The costumer is always right, right? I was pleasantly surprised that it only cost $95 for the cut, color, and style. Tipping is another thing I don't get - how much are you expected to tip for this sort of service?

Although I don't have much money left over from savings, I still treated my family to a few little "home improvements." The best new addition is the red habatoi silk comforter I got from Pottery Barn. Love it!!! Also, I got a great Hiroshige print (the one I have been admiring) from my FIL. I found a suitable frame for it yesterday and picked out the ideal spot. It'll be hung later today. Love it too!

In a few weeks I will be able to hang up the next project - a series of hands of fatima that FIL is scroll sawing for me. I plan to paint them black, hang them above the bed, and put tea lights behind them. I can't wait to see how they turn out and what interesting shadows they will cast. When I told Sleyed where they would go I refered to them as hand of fatimas not hands of fatima. He doesn't leave work - ever. Mr. Grammarian immediately exclaimed: So cool! I thought he was approving the project! But no - he wanted to discuss something that he read in Words & Rules or some other text. I didn't mind really; it was actually pretty interesting that in spoken lanaguage we have very clear rules about pluralizing words but in writing the rules aren't always the same. The hand of fatima thing was a perfect example.

The next project will be hanging the new shelves that will eventually display my primate pastel series. I'm doing a cheek-padder orangutan.

A fed bear is a dead bear.

This morning I awoke to NPR's Morning Edition discussing orangutan problems in Indonesia - Sumatra to be exact. You can listen to it on the NPR website and read a synopsis. They mentioned the problems some places are having with ecotourists feeding the orangutans. Orangutans gravitate to the garbage left by people.

A fed bear is a dead bear.

'N 'Uf said.

Ecotourism can work to help endangered species and the habitat they occupy, BUT it has to be done right.

Don't touch or feed the animals. Pack out what you pack in.
That means ALL of your shit, including your shit.
Leave no trace. Take only memories.

I like this lesson from Le Petit Prince:
Once you tame something you are responsible for its well-being.

"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.”

The french version is four times as long:
..."Qu'est-ce que signifie <>?
- C'est une chose trop oubliée, dit le renard. Ça signifie <>
- Créer des liens?
- Bien sûr, dit le renard. Tu n'es encore pour moi qu'un petit garçon tout semblable à cent mille petits garçons. Et je n'ai ps besoin de toi. Et tu n'as pas besoin de moli non plus. Je ne suis pout toi qu'un renard semblable à cent mille renards. Mais, si tu m'apprivoises, nous aurons besoin l'un de l'autre. Tu seras pour moi unique au monde. Je serai pour toi unique au monde..."
~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The Fox begs for the Little Prince to tame him, but the Little Prince says he doesn't have enough time. That's a good lesson for everyone for relationships of all kinds. If you don't have the time to care for something, don't even start.

The Fox also delivers one of the most quoted of all of St. X's lines:
"Adieu, dit le renard. Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le coeur. L'essential est invisible pour les yeux."

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret; it is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.”