Maybe an Animal Could Help: A Blog by Warren Bull

 Image from Kennedy News/ Kimberly Gaines

Maybe an Animal Could Help: A Blog by Warren Bull

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/bride-has-slowest-walk-down-the-aisle-in-history-tom-tortoise/ 

Perhaps we underestimate how helpful animals can be in particular situations. When veterinarians Ericka and Jay Johnson wed, they knew exactly who they wanted as a ring bearer. 

After all, they first met twenty years earlier while doing a wild tortoise survey.  And they wanted to include their beloved pet, a Sulcata tortoise, named Tom Shelleck in the ceremony.  The twenty-year-old reptile trudged, steadily, if not rapidly, for three minutes down the path at Tohono Chul Botanical Gardens in Arizona where the two married. While the humans were motivated by love, Tom had the additional motivation of strawberries dotting the path.  

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62809420 

Music lovers might enjoy hearing chimpanzees in the Ugandan rainforest who have been observed drumming out messages to each other by using their hands and feet to beat on huge tree roots. 

Dr. Catherine Hobaiter from the University of St Andrews told BBC Radio 4's Inside Science programme, "If you hit the roots really hard, it resonates and makes this big deep, booming sound that travels through the forest. "We could often recognize who was drumming when we heard them; it was a fantastic way to find the different chimpanzees we were looking for. So, if we could do it, we were sure they could too."

Apparently, each male chimp has a distinctive pattern of vocalizations, called pant-hoots that they combine with unique drumming patterns as a sort of personal signature when they travel. It has long been known that chimps greet each other when they meet. This is another form of communication.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28023630 

Dr. Hobaiter earlier discovered that chimps can share 19 specific messages by using a lexicon of 66 gestures. In one video clip, a mother presents her foot to her whimpering offspring, signaling: "Climb on me." The youngster immediately jumps on to its mother's back and they travel off together.

"The big message [from this study] is that there is another species out there that is meaningful in its communication, so that's not unique to humans. I don't think we're quite as set apart as we would perhaps like to think we are. But then chimps are more closely related to us than they are to the rest of the great apes, so it makes sense that we are incredibly similar to them in many ways."

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/watch-elephant-give-back-childs-shoe-that-fell-in-zoo-enclosure/ 

    

In Weihal, China, when a toddler dropped her shoe into the elephant enclosure, a 25-year-old elephant returned it to her. 

https://6abc.com/emotional-support-alligator-wallygator-philadelphia-gator-tiktok/12173247/ 

If you ever have to undergo radiation for prostate cancer, you might want to emulate Joie Henney in Philadelphia. He has an emotional support animal – an alligator named WallyGator who is a TikTok star.

“He's a big supporter of people needing smiles," Henney said. "He works with a lot of special needs adults and children. He puts thousands of smiles on people's faces almost every day. He comforts people when they're sad."

Henney doesn't know why but the 7-year-old gator has never attacked or shown aggression towards anything.

He walks on a leash. His favorite treat is cheese puffs.

If you need a swim buddy who will lie next to you after a dip, you might get in touch with the sea lion in this video.  Unfortunately, I don’t think he has an email address.

https://twitter.com/Gabriele_Corno/status/1571405828313456640?utm_campaign=wp_todays_worldview&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_todayworld&s=20&t=uL-Di4rxq3_oVUnTEbmBpA 

I admit I have not yet figured out how to use any of the above animals in crime fiction, but what if Tarzan had been raised by chimpanzees rather than great apes known as Mangani? Could he send messages by drumming on trees to ask his friends to track the nefarious villains who kidnapped Jane? Do you think a clever chimp could grab the keys and unlock handcuffs?  And then… I gotta’ go and write this down.