Herkie the Dog's World Musings
The Truly Ugly Side of Nature
I can't take credit for what follows here. It actually belongs to a person I once worked with back in my Ford days. I don't know whatever happened to him. It's been almost 10 years since I last saw him and to be perfectly honest, I'd be surprised if I ever did again. He wasn't much more than an acquaintance; just a guy I once sort of knew. But he was a very memorable person and, as it turns out, very pivotal to my life as I know it. The chain of events that he started is actually responsible for getting me on the career path that I am on today.
Today at work, we had a discussion about how Animal Planet, even though it's perceived as a harmless channel with cute puppys and kittens, can turn very ugly in the blink of an eye. That discussion made me remember the story that I include here. It is his account of a nature show that he found himself drawn to one night.
I have kept this story for many years, and through the power of the internet, I can now share it with you. Some of you may wish I'd have kept it to myself....
The Needle Fish and the Sea Cucumber
A few weeks ago I found myself channel-surfing through the plethora of cable stations late in the evening. Something on the Discovery channel caught my attention. A documentary on marine life was showing. A very serene and slightly dull narrator -- you know how documentaries tend to be -- was droning on about the sea cucumber. The sea cucumber is a large but rather primitively developed organism that just exists. It is a completely amorphous being -- a furry blob that spends its entire life just sitting on the ocean floor. The sea cucumber has no eyes to see with, no fins or legs to move with, no sonar to detect the presence of predators. It just sits there hour after hour sucking in plankton on one end and excreting waste on the other end.
As the narrator is noting how the sea cucumber leads a rather innocuous existence and remains generally aloof from the other more gregarious ocean dwellers, another character enters this aquatic drama. The needle fish is a small agile fish about the size of a cigarette, and gently tapered at each end. On the screen, we witness the needle fish poking around for food in the vicinity of the sea cucumber. Suddenly, a much larger fish who preys on the needle fish approaches. The narrator explains, "Now let us witness a curious phenomenon." The narrator continues to describe the needle fish behavior as the fish sniffs out the anus of the sea cucumber. The needle fish then proceeds to swim backward toward the sea cucumber until his tapered tail is against the anus of the sea cucumber. I watched in horror as penetration began. The needle fish skillfully maneuvered his torso into the rectum of the sea cucumber, while the larger predator fish continued to approach. The needle fish continued to shimmy and squirm his way -- inch by inch -- into the rectum of the sea cucumber. (This all happened in seconds, which to me -- in my horror -- seemed like days.) Eventually, nothing was left except the head of the needle fish. He peered out at his still approaching predator one last time, and then completely disappeared inside the rectum of the sea cucumber.
The narrator commenced to recite an elaborate discourse on the wonders of nature, and how different organisms protect themselves from predators in rather singular and creative ways. Then the narrator turned his attention to the poor sea cucumber, and in that dorky, narrator-type voice proclaimed, "It is not known what benefit, if any, exists for the sea cucumber."
Today at work, we had a discussion about how Animal Planet, even though it's perceived as a harmless channel with cute puppys and kittens, can turn very ugly in the blink of an eye. That discussion made me remember the story that I include here. It is his account of a nature show that he found himself drawn to one night.
I have kept this story for many years, and through the power of the internet, I can now share it with you. Some of you may wish I'd have kept it to myself....
The Needle Fish and the Sea Cucumber
A few weeks ago I found myself channel-surfing through the plethora of cable stations late in the evening. Something on the Discovery channel caught my attention. A documentary on marine life was showing. A very serene and slightly dull narrator -- you know how documentaries tend to be -- was droning on about the sea cucumber. The sea cucumber is a large but rather primitively developed organism that just exists. It is a completely amorphous being -- a furry blob that spends its entire life just sitting on the ocean floor. The sea cucumber has no eyes to see with, no fins or legs to move with, no sonar to detect the presence of predators. It just sits there hour after hour sucking in plankton on one end and excreting waste on the other end.
As the narrator is noting how the sea cucumber leads a rather innocuous existence and remains generally aloof from the other more gregarious ocean dwellers, another character enters this aquatic drama. The needle fish is a small agile fish about the size of a cigarette, and gently tapered at each end. On the screen, we witness the needle fish poking around for food in the vicinity of the sea cucumber. Suddenly, a much larger fish who preys on the needle fish approaches. The narrator explains, "Now let us witness a curious phenomenon." The narrator continues to describe the needle fish behavior as the fish sniffs out the anus of the sea cucumber. The needle fish then proceeds to swim backward toward the sea cucumber until his tapered tail is against the anus of the sea cucumber. I watched in horror as penetration began. The needle fish skillfully maneuvered his torso into the rectum of the sea cucumber, while the larger predator fish continued to approach. The needle fish continued to shimmy and squirm his way -- inch by inch -- into the rectum of the sea cucumber. (This all happened in seconds, which to me -- in my horror -- seemed like days.) Eventually, nothing was left except the head of the needle fish. He peered out at his still approaching predator one last time, and then completely disappeared inside the rectum of the sea cucumber.
The narrator commenced to recite an elaborate discourse on the wonders of nature, and how different organisms protect themselves from predators in rather singular and creative ways. Then the narrator turned his attention to the poor sea cucumber, and in that dorky, narrator-type voice proclaimed, "It is not known what benefit, if any, exists for the sea cucumber."
posted by Jon at
8:36 PM
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