HoundsGood: Chronicles of a Virtual Volunteer

Hummingbirds have been spotted in various parts of the state, and have been spotted in the south even earlier.   The Ruby Throated Hummingbird can be seen in the Eastern United States, while the Rufous Hummingbird prefers the West and Southwest.    They first start returning form their winter homes in Mexico and Panama around the middle of March, where they can be seen in the warmer states, and they appear sometime between mid April and June further north, and in New England.

Last year, I thought for sure I saw one. I spotted the telltale beating of tiny wings in the garden, to only be disappointed to find a hummingbird moth instead. They are moths whose wing rhythm closely mimics the speed of the little jeweled birds. This year, I am going to stack my deck a bit, as I know that if you supply a hummingbird feeder, they are more likely to visit your yard. Having the right flowers helps, but of course, the flowers won’t be in bloom exactly when you can predict them.

There is more and more creativity in commercially available hummingbird feeders.  They are deviating from the idea of mimicking traditional seed feeders and heading towards the more artistic.   Hummingbirds require nectar, rather than seeds, so the receptacle needs to be different anyhow.

Traditionally, I have been told to leave sugar water in the feeders.  The little birds will drink it, but I have found it very unsuccessful.   In the feeders, like the “Garden Ballet” feeder, which looks a lot like a mobile, a nectar solution is used.  You can actually buy a nectar solution that comes from hibiscus flowers.   This seems to me the most natural food other than having the flowers available themselves, making them more likely to be attracted to them.   Once they find the nectar, they are sure to tell all of their friends about the spot in your garden.

The nectar is very economical, being that it is under ten dollars for a 2 liter bottle.  This is quite pricey compared to a bottle of soda, but considering that a hummingbird has a tiny belly and a much smaller appetite, the pretty red fluid will last quite awhile. If you are like me, it will last quite a long time, as the birds just won’t show up. Exercise a little patience. The first year that you supply a feeder, it may take a little while for the word to spread. Also, try to put the feeder out year after year, so the little birds will have something they can depend on.

Recently, a pet chimpanzee brutally attacked a woman, Sandra Herold.   She was a friend of the owner, Charla Nash, and a frequent visitor to the home.  Even though the Chimp knew the woman, he ran out and attacked her severely, ripping into her face and hands.

Eugene Cussons, who is the subject of the show Escape to Chimp Eden spoke out:

“My deepest sympathies go to Charla Nash and Sandra Herold, particularly to Ms. Nash. They are actually living the nightmare that haunts all of us who work with chimpanzees. It is impossible to imagine the physical and mental anguish they must be suffering. It is also terribly sad to know that Travis the chimpanzee lost his life. This is a tragedy, for all involved.

“The question now is: can we take something positive from something so awful? Unfortunately, it often takes this kind of tragic event to raise awareness. My work has taught me that chimpanzees were never meant to be pets or entertainment attractions. They were never meant to be trained or to act like human beings. In saying this, I am not criticizing any specific individual. I am criticizing our entire culture, which tends to see chimps as cute, comical mini-humans.

“It is my sincere hope the media will take this opportunity to spell out clearly, once and for all, a critically important fact: chimps are their own unique beings. They are not born to follow our rules. They are supremely wild animals. The only place for them, in the long term, is in the wild.

“Perhaps, the most surprising aspect of this story is that Travis never attacked anyone before. Nature builds male chimps to be big and aggressive — to dominate rivals and sometimes kill them. At around 15 years old and 200 pounds, Travis was a huge chimpanzee entering the prime of his life. If you look at an adult male chimp’s canine teeth, they are as sharp and strong as a leopard’s.

“In our experience at Escape to Chimp Eden, even a small irritation, like the sight of a vehicle in the distance, can set off a massive display of aggression from the male chimps. This aggression is entirely natural. It’s how chimps are wired, almost from birth, to help them survive in the wild. What’s unnatural is a wild animal living in a human home, with no access to other members of its own species and with no opportunity to live as nature intended. Only through education and increased awareness can tragedies like the one in Connecticut be avoided in the future.”

One may site the relationship of the chimps to Cussons and even to Jane Goodall as proof that humans and primates can live harmoniously. However, what they fail to observe is that chimp and human coexist peacefully, but in no way does the human impose their living habits on the chimps. They do not coddle, diaper, and housetrain them as if they were a domestic animal or a human child. Rather, the chimps live as they naturally would. In the case of Cussons, sometimes these chimps need extra help and some can never be returned to a truly wild state due to injury or other factors, but even so, they are allowed to behave and live as naturally as possible.