| Subject: Insects and Fish |
Author:
Jeremy Morfey
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Date Posted: 20:38:50 07/15/02 Mon
Quite apart from finding Charlotte Uhlenbroek the sexiest woman on TV, I am intrigued by the exploration of communication between animals, and have attempted to reach out to creatures living at my own cottage in Worcestershire.
I once succesfully guided a bumblebee through a door by imitating their position dance - wiggling my bottom and then pushing both hands in the direction to fly. The bee looked astonished at first, had a think, and then flew straight out of the door. Wasps understand a casual and rather ineffectual handwave as a non-threatening request not to get too close. They seem to know me, and none of the wasps in the nest under the birch sapling outside my bedroom window have shown any aggression.
Fish seem to communicate too by body language, but instead of using limbs like insects, you use your whole body and it's the movement and direction. Moving gently alongside is a friendly gesture, and a face to face stare without moving, like with cattle, is also seen as friendly, even thought this is considered hostile with other animals. (I learned with cattle the standard friendly greeting is to breathe up their noses - did Charlotte Uhlenbroek teach me this??) It's sudden movement which upsets fish. Fish register their disapproval by removing themselves until you are gone away. I have one loach which jumped out of the tank and finned all the way under the skirting board. I had to use a fish-knife to get him out and pop him alive but sulking back into the tank. We have not spoken since. I have thus taken his point about the ethics of keeping tropical fish in England, but I haven't the heart to put them down now.
What other ways are there to interact with animals in an English home or garden?
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