Discussion
"One story, she said, dictates that it's our job to watch the universe, even when the watching changes things or brings harm. Put a collar on a wolf and people's philosophical perceptions of the animal shift"
really good read!
https://www.engadget.com/2018-05-21-inside-the-animal-internet.html
@inquiline what a fascinating, deeply thoughtful read. What the author is talking about has only intensified since this was published... Thanks so much for sharing!
@inquiline v good, but a fav quote "Some years ago, Eisenberg did a direct comparison between two million dollars' worth of state-of-the-art radio collars and a traditional, noninvasive method for tracking elk in Alberta, Canada and Montana. The latter involved pulling a tape across the ground and counting elk feces on both sides, moving the tape the way an animal travels through the landscape. Conducting these so-called transects costs about $15,000, Eisenberg estimated."
i really liked that part too. the choice to do invasive research is a choice
@inquiline especially when 10% of elk die in the collaring, I would have never guessed that, that detail shocked me
i learned that from Etienne Benson's first book (he's also quoted in the article); and i too was shocked by it
@inquiline Thanks for sharing this--great read, takes its time to look around, so to speak.
i really thought so too--was thinking about the process for the author and editor--really deeply researched
(i dug this up to be an asshole to my sister who was suggesting i get some kind of camera-enabled squirrel nesting box and let her watch the stream)
(why am i like this)
There is even facial recognition for wildlife now 🙈
https://www.fastcompany.com/91470657/bears-facial-recognition-tool
#STS #AnimalStudies #surveillance #nature #conservation #animals
@inquiline i suspect it may not work (i suspect you are familiar)
might rephrase as, "works" in a different register (i suspect you are familiar)
(Thinking outside normativity is a heavy burden.)
to her credit she took it very well. she thought that i could think of it as "having a pet" (not allowed the traditional kinds per landlord) and exchange squirrel voyeurism for squirrel shelter (which, as mutual domestications go, i don't think is the worst, tho i'm also not into this idea)
Only what was suggested was not for you to have a pet, but for her to have access to a critter in your circle.
For comparison, myself have discussed with a friend the notion of mutual pet cams, where floor-level virtual mirrors might allow, say, indoor cats in two households to check in on one another.
Imagine how off-putting that would be if those portals were erected in each such felines' respective hide-away spots.
We generally recognize and allow for domestic partners, human or otherwise, to have space for themselves. That the animal in question isn't actually cohabitating with a human seems all the more reason to leave them to their own privacy.
As for thinking this in terms of exchange, the question of consent, on the part of the squirrel, immediately arises.
she is now divorced but for her wedding present, friends and i made a bat box, which AFAIK is still on the land at her now ex-husband's family's cabin. i.e. history of putting up shelter w no expectation of voyeurism in return
@inquiline @beadsland hmm good discussion. Founding principles really matter. I think of my parents who xeriscaped their backyard with native plants for the purpose of using less water (read living in better relationship with the land). It's now a lush and thriving habitat. The fact that they get to look at all manner of wildlife in the middle of the concrete suburbs is just a secondary benefit of the relationship.
i actually love looking at critters! i just feel like putting cameras inside their nests is not a choice i want to make. (that said i even sometimes do enjoy various animal cams, but ambivalently)
your parents' yard sounds awesome. i get really, really overwhelmed here by how much the plantings are not "from here"; something i can't tune out. if i had a yard of my own i'd want to do native plants and hope for birds and insects to find them
The difference with a typical animal cam is that animals understand seclusion. They create spaces for themselves that are defensibly their own.
That comprehension, on the part of the animal, does not require that they further comprehend that remote viewing is a thing, let alone a thing that they might be subject to. It is enough that we recognize in them their intent to be separate and apart from the rest of their world.
Sure, set up a wildlife cam to see how critters interact with the trampoline in the back yard. Any species that has evolved over generations to navigate around human habitations is aware enough to know the rules change when they go near our constructs. That's relationship, fraught as it is, nonetheless is one they have adapted to.
But a camera in a nest isn't about what they've adapted to. It's about what we deem acceptable trespass. That's not human territory. To claim it as our right is about us.
You need to log in to see that page.
Install bonfire.cafe
Get the full app experience
@inquiline Wow, the end:
"...Loading animals with more sensors will yield discoveries at ever finer & more precise scales. Yet the end of the day, we already know the big problems. We know we are carving the world into ever-smaller fragments, destroying the connectivity life needs to thrive. We know we are gobbling up the world's resources and injecting pollutants into the air & water at unsustainable rates. We know we are greedy.
"We know more than enough...to know what we need to do."