Tuesday Smorgasbord

Zookeeper totally jealous ofconcerned about the psyche of Knut, the world-famous polar bear.  (Story here.)

“He is addicted to the whole show, the human adulation. It is not healthy…. He actually cries out or whimpers if he sees that there is not a spectator outside his enclosure ready to ooh and aah at him…. When the zoo had to shut because of black ice everywhere he howled until staff members stood before him and calmed him down.”

Ya know, it’s just not normal for mammals to be social.  Heaven only knows what this particular gent thinks about your standard Labrador retriever – you know, those dogs that think their human owners to be their pack members, whimper pathetically when said humans leave for work, and greet their humans with great enthusiasm and tail-wagging when the aforementioned humans return home.   

Hat tip: Tammi.

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Some belated Knut news: a few “animal-rights” (i.e. the ones lobbying for his death a few months back) groups claim that he is a “psychopath” and will never mate.  (Story here.) 

 Meanwhile, Knut faces an uncertain and lonely future. The German media like to think Flocke holds the key to his salvation and that she will eventually become his mate. But for most zoologists the idea is pure fantasy. “Knut won’t manage anything with a female bear, I guarantee that,” insisted Dr Arras.

As much as the pachyderm hates to even utter the words, she can’t help but think, “Where are the evolutionary biologists when you need them?”  Won’t the narcissistic psycho-bear be filled with a desire to bed as many comely polar bears as possible, so as to imbue the next generation of polar bears with as much of his genetic greatness as possible?

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“The Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Condition Awareness Act,” co-sponsored by Sen. Edward Kennedy and Sen. Sam Brownback. is aimed at educating the parents of disabled children, and, hopefully, helping them to choose life.  (Tieki’s blog post is here.)  Not much new or insightful to add, so the pachyderm will end with this quote from Tieki:

Though I tend to believe that everyone ought to be able to agree that killing any unborn child is wrong, the issue of specifically aborting children merely because they are different or might have a disability should turn the stomach of any human being — pro-life or otherwise.  We reject discrimination in all forms, why should the womb be any different?