Yesterday we had the pleasure of attending the aquarium on Bermuda. Besides seeing the amazing sea life you’d expect at an aquarium, we also met ring tailed lemurs from Madagascar. Ring tailed lemurs are lovely creatures, distant relatives of our species, whose mannerisms remind me more than a little of our own. They sit back on their butts, lift their arms up in a funny, stiff way and narrow their eyelids in a look of full comfort and ease, or even boredom at our presence. Their fur looks unbelievably soft but we were told not to touch them. We learned that the males battle their enemies by coating the tips of their disproportionately long tails with stinky secretions and waving them in their opponents’ faces. I was surprised that lemurs roll in packs of about 30 with a female as the leader. What an elevated species.
After touring the zoo we heard a sobering presentation about the effects of pollution on Bermuda’s wildlife. The scientist presenting used amphibians as the canary to judge the overall cleanliness of the ecosystem here. Because they live and breed in pools of runoff from roads and lawns, frogs take the full brunt of the pollution and develop bizarre mutations from it all too often. We viewed images of Simpsons-esque frogs with three arms and eyes on their backs. All this was very sad but we did meet two real live cane toads with mutated limbs who, living under the dotage of the presenter (she helped peel one’s shedding skin off right before our eyes), had already lived to ripe ages of ten and twelve. She remarked that although they face much adversity from birth, they are strong creatures who can adapt to their circumstances.
Much of this evil comes from a certain coal tar used to seal tarmac surfaces. This substance could be carcinogenic to people too, and the presenter implored us to help discontinue its use at Colby and elsewhere. We’re on it. Other pollutants include chemicals used to beautify gold courses and run of the mill car exhaust, of which I’m afraid our scooters emit plenty due to their motor oil burning design. Scooters are extremely popular on Bermuda, but thankfully we see many pedal bikes too.
Today was our day off so last night we let loose a little and went down to the station bar, The Passing Wind. It was a great place, tucked away in a corner of the campus I wasn’t even aware of. I had a number of Boston Lagers while playing bar games like darts and Foosball and listening to music from the Beta Band, Grimes and New Order with the international melange of scientists from the station and one or two people whom I’m pretty sure just come down for the scene. We’ll go back next time they are open, which is Wednesday night.
