EAL! they're everywhere
So I'm greeting this morning by a pic of a LIZARD in the Science Times!
October 19, 2004
SIDE EFFECTS
We Could All Root for Lizards
By JAMES GORMAN
o Lizards!
No, they're not a baseball team, although they could be. In fact they ought to be. Why Major League Baseball has so few teams named after reptiles is a question that needs answering. Enough with teams named after hosiery and birds.
What brings this to mind is the publication of 'Varanoid Lizards of the World,' from Indiana University Press. When I saw it, I remembered that a while ago I had interviewed Dr. Eric R. Pianka, an ecologist and lizard expert of the first order at the University of Texas at Austin, about another lizard book he had written.
Dr. Pianka sang the praises of varanids, or monitor lizards (one group of the varanoids), and it was from him that I first heard about Nile monitors, which can reach up to five feet in length, colonizing South Florida.
As it turned out, a lot of people in Florida already knew about the monitors and most were not happy. Also, they have named their baseball teams after fish, which I approve of, so I wouldn't want to try to foist a reptile on them.
Not for a baseball team, anyway. But I do like the idea of monitors establishing themselves in Florida.
They are just one of many invasive species in the state. That's what we call them, even though most of them get there as pets. There are snakes, parrots, fish and plants from around the world, some of them in the Everglades, some in the suburbs. They have joined uncountable numbers of discarded cats.
There may well be people who would love to see the state taken over by real lizards and not the ones who frequent lounges and develop wetlands, but I don't think anyone is going to put dishes of lizard food on their back porch. The lizards are on their own, unless someone decides to recruit them to watch the polls. Then, I suppose, they could be election monitors.
I don't want to give the impression that monitors are the only lizards of note. The gecko, thanks to the pet trade and the automobile insurance business, has found a place in public consciousness. Pet iguanas are common. Anoles are everywhere in South Florida.
And as Dr. Pianka wrote in 'Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity,' an earlier book written with Dr. Laurie J. Vitt, another lizard expert at the University of Oklahoma, for a more general audience, 'Snakes are merely one group of very specialized lizards.' There are lots of snakes in Florida.
But monitors are quite remarkable. You might say they give lizards a good name. Ralph E. Molnar writes, in 'Varanoids.' 'Monitors are the most impressive of lizards.' They don't flee when they see you, he said, but 'have a deliberate, unafraid demeanor.'
Monitors are not only quick, but they can keep running longer than other lizards because they are more efficient at getting oxygen to their muscles. They are smart enough that they recognize different people. In fact, some research has suggested that they are able to count.
In an experiment conducted with snails at the San Diego Zoo by Dr. John Phillips, one kind of monitor, V. albigularis, was conditioned to move through several chambers eating snails. Each room always had four snails in it.
I think that a reptile that can count deserves a baseball team. The gecko has its own company, after all. And Major League Baseball has, or has had, teams named after birds, certain kinds of people, (mariners, pirates, indians), hosiery, socks and fish, as mentioned before, predatory mammals, mountains, supernatural beings and a world's fair.
Why not lizards? As it happens there is a team looking for a name. The Expos are moving to Washington from Montreal. I don't think there are any wild varanids inside the Beltway but there certainly are lizards - in terrariums, for example. If you want to be tacky, you could even say the capital is filled with reptiles. Washington once had a baseball team named the Senators, but that was in a more innocent time. It's hard to imagine a baseball team named for politicians these days.
But lizards are another matter. They can be strong, fast and smart. They can also hide under rocks. They have a lot of power, but some people find them creepy. There even are lizards that change color to fit in with what's going on. But Washington Chameleons would be mean.
I think that calling the capital's new team the Washington Lizards could give the capital a much needed boost of enthusiasm. I know I would cheer for them.
Go Lizards!
October 19, 2004
SIDE EFFECTS
We Could All Root for Lizards
By JAMES GORMAN
o Lizards!
No, they're not a baseball team, although they could be. In fact they ought to be. Why Major League Baseball has so few teams named after reptiles is a question that needs answering. Enough with teams named after hosiery and birds.
What brings this to mind is the publication of 'Varanoid Lizards of the World,' from Indiana University Press. When I saw it, I remembered that a while ago I had interviewed Dr. Eric R. Pianka, an ecologist and lizard expert of the first order at the University of Texas at Austin, about another lizard book he had written.
Dr. Pianka sang the praises of varanids, or monitor lizards (one group of the varanoids), and it was from him that I first heard about Nile monitors, which can reach up to five feet in length, colonizing South Florida.
As it turned out, a lot of people in Florida already knew about the monitors and most were not happy. Also, they have named their baseball teams after fish, which I approve of, so I wouldn't want to try to foist a reptile on them.
Not for a baseball team, anyway. But I do like the idea of monitors establishing themselves in Florida.
They are just one of many invasive species in the state. That's what we call them, even though most of them get there as pets. There are snakes, parrots, fish and plants from around the world, some of them in the Everglades, some in the suburbs. They have joined uncountable numbers of discarded cats.
There may well be people who would love to see the state taken over by real lizards and not the ones who frequent lounges and develop wetlands, but I don't think anyone is going to put dishes of lizard food on their back porch. The lizards are on their own, unless someone decides to recruit them to watch the polls. Then, I suppose, they could be election monitors.
I don't want to give the impression that monitors are the only lizards of note. The gecko, thanks to the pet trade and the automobile insurance business, has found a place in public consciousness. Pet iguanas are common. Anoles are everywhere in South Florida.
And as Dr. Pianka wrote in 'Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity,' an earlier book written with Dr. Laurie J. Vitt, another lizard expert at the University of Oklahoma, for a more general audience, 'Snakes are merely one group of very specialized lizards.' There are lots of snakes in Florida.
But monitors are quite remarkable. You might say they give lizards a good name. Ralph E. Molnar writes, in 'Varanoids.' 'Monitors are the most impressive of lizards.' They don't flee when they see you, he said, but 'have a deliberate, unafraid demeanor.'
Monitors are not only quick, but they can keep running longer than other lizards because they are more efficient at getting oxygen to their muscles. They are smart enough that they recognize different people. In fact, some research has suggested that they are able to count.
In an experiment conducted with snails at the San Diego Zoo by Dr. John Phillips, one kind of monitor, V. albigularis, was conditioned to move through several chambers eating snails. Each room always had four snails in it.
I think that a reptile that can count deserves a baseball team. The gecko has its own company, after all. And Major League Baseball has, or has had, teams named after birds, certain kinds of people, (mariners, pirates, indians), hosiery, socks and fish, as mentioned before, predatory mammals, mountains, supernatural beings and a world's fair.
Why not lizards? As it happens there is a team looking for a name. The Expos are moving to Washington from Montreal. I don't think there are any wild varanids inside the Beltway but there certainly are lizards - in terrariums, for example. If you want to be tacky, you could even say the capital is filled with reptiles. Washington once had a baseball team named the Senators, but that was in a more innocent time. It's hard to imagine a baseball team named for politicians these days.
But lizards are another matter. They can be strong, fast and smart. They can also hide under rocks. They have a lot of power, but some people find them creepy. There even are lizards that change color to fit in with what's going on. But Washington Chameleons would be mean.
I think that calling the capital's new team the Washington Lizards could give the capital a much needed boost of enthusiasm. I know I would cheer for them.
Go Lizards!
