Of mice and lemurs

Yesterday I had to mow the lawn. I really don't like the concept of lawns in general, and the idea that I have to waste two hours of my day killing plants, insects, and other things that live in the lawn, not to mention wasting gas, makes me pretty angry. That being said, it's important to help out around the house and if mowing the lawn is my contribution then it must be done.

When I pulled the lawn mower out of the shed and started it, smoke came out, as did a pile of fluff: there was a mouse nest in the mower. No mice were killed, but their nest had jammed up the engine, so apart the mower came! My father had the idea to get the leaf blower to force the fluff out as it was too thick to vacuum. Leaf blower in hand, I reach down to start it and what happens? A big Momma mouse falls to the ground from the blower with 4 babies attached to her mammary glands! She hit the ground and for one moment looked up at me, possibly more dumbstruck than I, and then started running across the lawn, babies in tow. One more baby had dropped from the leaf blower, and two had detached from her as she ran. I made an effort to re-assemble the family but to no avail.

This got me thinking, that momma mouse made a tough choice fast. Sacrifice three pups (are baby mice called pups? I think so...) to save herself and the others, or try to run with 6 pups in tow and risk them all getting eaten. Where as I sympathize with the babies who probably didn't make it through the night, I have to give props to the momma, I think she made a good choice. Not only that, but are any of us tough enough to attach more than our body weight to our nipples and run for miles? Probably not. What does this have to do with lemurs? Here's a fun story about lemur reproduction and social structure.

This is Newport. She is the oldest lemur at my site, coming in at 16 years of age. Newport has had over ten babies, and in her life time has spent years carrying them around on her back and breast feeding them. As a result she has pretty severe arthritis in both of her hips. But that doesn't stop her from having more babies or running around with the rest of the troop.

Ringtailed lemurs are female dominant, so when they come across food, or when they change locations, the females are always first or leading. Even when it comes time to mate, the females will present to the males. If they males try to do anything without submission to the dominant female he's cruisin' for a bruisin' as they say. Below is a screen capture taken from a video of mating from last season. Below we see Newport (bottom) and Ronnie (top). The males, after copulating, do this funky thing called a Post Ejaculatory Clasp. This means that they stay clasped to the female for hours after mating to ensure no other males come mate with her. And by clasp, I mean that he pretty much piggy-back-rides her until he gets bored. So below, poor Newport with her arthritic hips, is carrying around a male.



As if it can get worse than that, when he lets go she is still looking to mate. While she presents to him, he just sort of sits there licking his... parts.



Why am I telling you this? Seeing this happen to Newport (and pretty much all other females) and seeing that momma mouse yesterday made me realize how strong females are. We have to gestate, birth, sacrifice, wait, and put up with a lot of crap for the survival of our species. This is not to say that males are totally useless, but we definitely take first for the amount of physical and psychological junk we have to deal with. Newport carries a male on her back with two bad hips, a mother mouse desperately drags her infants from her glands, at some point in my life I will probably have to push a human through my body. I guess my point is that I never realized how amazing females are until I saw how brave and enduring they are in the wild.

Here are the babies that I tried to help. I gave them some formula and cozied them into some socks and a piece of their nest. I left them in a sunny spot by the shed.



This is a picture of me with a gopher tortoise last season, note my broken nose and double black eyes.


So what happened to my face? I didn't actually get attacked by a bear as I hinted toward last week. On our way through the airport I tripped over a piece of metal and had a bad landing. I was carrying about 50 pounds of electronic equipment which came down on my head, resulting in my broken face. I skinned two knuckles, and had some severe bruising on my knees. I also split my bottom lip in half and shifted two of my teeth. With blood literally squirting everywhere, bruises already forming around my eyes, and skin hanging from my hand, I got up and said "Hurry up! We're going to miss our flight!" and boarded the plane. As I walked down the path to my seat people turned their faces in horror and someone asked "Wow miss, were you attacked by a bear?" I said yes. My injuries were pretty severe, but I boarded the plane regardless, I guess I am a female after all!


(This picture was taken after I cleaned the blood off and took several anti-inflammatories, my nose didn't stop bleeding for three days and I glued my lip shut)