I dislike anthropomorphism, especially when it “cutesifies” animals that are not cute.
I wish we humans would learn to appreciate other animals in their own right, as themselves, rather than wilfully misreading their behaviours and facial expressions.
For instance, quokkas’ characteristic facial shapes/expressions do not in fact signify happiness.
That said, I am sometimes hugely amused by a particular animal’s fortuitous resemblance to a particular, famous/infamous human…or human-made humanoid.
One crisp Namibian morning I saw and heard a very loud local bird; its common name refers to its alarm call.
Why would a “Go-away bird” remind me of England’s self styled “Queen of Romance Fiction”?
Dame Barbara Cartland (1901-2001) authored more than 700 books.
One non-admirer of her oeuvre summarised it as “50 shades of shite”.
Like the go-away bird, Cartland was uncommonly loud.
In all other respects her uncanny resemblance to “a bold and common bird of the Afrotropics” was a purely-visual fluke.
Click here to learn more about the bird; I urge you to listen to the audio of its “go-away” call.
Click this for Cartland’s obituary in The Guardian.
Its “coda” is a very droll recollection of a biographer’s encounter with her; whether you already know a lot – or nothing at all – about one of the biggest-selling writers of the 20th century, I can almost guarantee you a deal of surprise and amusement.
Having accidentally found the ideal avian avatar for the queen of romance fiction, my thoughts turned to to our planet’s most currently-ubiquitous humanoid.
You know who I mean; she’s never been “bigger” than right now.
I recently realised that a few years ago – in a polluted Indian urban wetland – we had indeed seen her avian avatar.
This bird had just the right colour, legs long-enough and spindly-enough, and a big-enough “front”….
