Last week was an amazing week, the highlight being an
evening with Sir David Attenborough. He
has some amazing stories to tell, one of the most special being his encounter
with Dian Fossey’s wild Gorillas in Rwanda. He was in absolute awe of how these
huge, powerful creatures were so gentle when interacting with him. It reminded me of my own life-changing
experience . . .
I was very fortunate to do my high school work experience at
SeaWorld. It was a wonderful time, but also not exactly the type of ride you
might think. Yes, there was the
glamorous side of the job: observing training sessions with dolphins, conducting
health checks and feeding penguins. There was also a large proportion of the day spent doing less than
desirable tasks such as scrubbing algae off pond fixtures, “breaking out” the
boxes of frozen fish for the next day’s feeds and scrubbing down the stainless
steel food preparation areas. Just to be clear, I am in no way complaining,
just pointing out that this job which so many people desire is not all fun and
cuddling dolphins.
On the very first day, the keepers taught us that dolphins
aren’t exactly the sweet, gentle animals they’re made out to be. They can be very cheeky and like to give a
little nip here and there with those exceptionally sharp teeth that are
designed to hold on to slippery fish and squid.
We were warned not to be tempted to touch the dolphins if they
approached us while we were working near the pools on our own.
Another day, I was sent to scrub the algae off the side of
the stage in the show arena. This pool
was open to the animals to access even if there wasn’t a show taking place. They watched with curiosity while I worked
and even tried to “offer” behaviours in case I had a fish handy to throw them
as a reward.
Then along came Mia.
Mia was the only false killer whale at Seaworld and she was absolutely
beautiful. I fell in love with her from
the very first day. One of Mia’s favourite things was to rest her chin on the
side of the stage with her mouth wide open and the keepers would stroke her on
her very large tongue. And this is
exactly what she wanted me to do.
I stared into her huge mouth and couldn’t help but notice
her many, sharp teeth. There was
absolutely no way I was going to put my hand in there! I imagined what might happen . . . Mia closing
her mouth over my hand, pulling me to the bottom of the pool and holding me
there until I drowned. With no keepers around and that very stern “no patting”
warning in the forefront of my mind I looked at her and said “no way Mia”.
But she wouldn’t give up. I noticed there was a gap between her front
teeth about the width of two fingers. Against my better judgement, I decided to
place my forefinger and middle finger in the gap, as a sort of compromise,
hoping not to get caught out by the keepers.
What happened next I will remember forever. Mia ever so gently closed her huge mouth around
my two fingers in the gap between her teeth and just held them there for what
seemed like an eternity. It was as if
she had recognised my fear and took what I was able to offer her.
. . . Animals possess much greater insight and intelligence than
we give them credit for. It is for this,
and many other reasons, that each species we lose from our planet is an
absolute tragedy. It is also every
person’s responsibility to do what we can to conserve them all, even the ugly,
small, annoying or little-known ones. So please go about your week remembering
who you share the earth with, and do what you can to lighten your impact.
Thank you!
Photo Elephant
© Renee Chamberlin 2013.
Images
are available as prints, canvases, cards and calendars.
For purchase
enquiries click here
Comments & feedback are most
welcome, select "Anonymous" or "Name/URL" if you don't want
to log into a google account when posting.
No comments:
Post a Comment