In college, I lived in a rented house with four other guys. There was no room or time for a conventional pet, but one day I brought home a mason jar of water from a nearby pond to use as fun for my one roommate’s stereoscope. We quickly released we had caught a young leech whom we promptly named ‘Dave’ in honour of my roommate’s dad (though considering how much money he kept calling his dad for, it seemed a bit oxymoronish).
Dave actually did very well, and we kept him happy by throwing in the odd scrap of meat from the kitchen – some liver, or a piece of raw hamburger. Stagnant water didn’t seem to matter. They’re very easy pets. And they really are graceful and beautiful swimmers. All was well and we were proud of our new friend.
So proud in fact that he was featured in the poster promoting an end of term house party we held one weekend. We even had t-shirts with a little drawing of Dave with a thought balloon saying, ‘Life sucks.’
And then… one roommate. Whom shall remain nameless (and I suspect clueless), took it on themselves during the party to empty a half empty beer into Dave’s mason jar before we all finally went to bed. And that alcohol… was the end of Dave.
We were heartbroken, and very angry. We held a little service for Dave and sent him back to the pond shortly after. (We wish we could have done the same for the offending roommate.)
I’m not sure all what I learned from the experience, but I do remember realising that beauty comes in many forms. (As does stupidity, at least in roommates)
I have since seen many beautiful photos and vids of glorious textured, shaped and coloured tropical leeches. But there’ll always be a piece of my heart for our common-leech pal.
And I’m sure if he was still around, he’d enjoy eating it.
Indeed, it turned out to be a Mutinus elegans, an American species, at that: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/117004078
Looks like it was imported into the area where I found it by earth-moving machinery last year.
I hadn’t noticed any bad smell when I took the pictures, so I went back there on purpose to smell for myself what it would be like. Either my sense of smell leaves a lot to be desired, or this particular mushroom had already passed its smelly phase. It smelled earthy, woody to me. Nothing like the putrid smell of the Amorphophallus plant I used to have, or my friend’s Stapelia.
Looks like a fungus I had growing in my yard (a diseased elm tree had been removed). I never smelled the stink either. It truly gave me a start as it looked like red fingers emerging from the soil.
Was it Xylaria polymorpha? That one’s on my hope list. Very few observations in my area.
You said reddish? I think there’s another fungi that also goes by ‘deadman’s fingers’ too, and it’s redder. (Can’t remember the species). I think it’s smaller.
This was over 20 years ago, but I remember it vividly. Bright red stipe, pointy cap, with a white patch on the tip (that looked like fingernails to my startled senses). This was not something normally seen in my area either (AFAIK). They were like this one: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/84610905
I have an aversion towards wormy creatures (especially parasites).
I also have a deep seated fear of jellyfish, which is hilarious considering me being in marine sciences, and a avid underwater photographer who has both photographed, been stung by and handled jellies many a time during studies. Yet i always feel a tingle along my spine when i spot jellies during dives.
One of the big plusses (for me at least) about getting into this naturalist stuff is that you quickly develop new respects for stuff that USED TO make you cringe until you learned to see it through the lens of species diversity/appreciation.
Oddly enough, it can go the other way. Stuff you thought you once loved can start sliding away, once you realize it’s actually a non-indigenous invasive responsible for pushing out lots of great native.
‘Cringe-worthiness’ is like cute vs ugly, beauty vs repulsive in that it reveals the weakness and biases of our human experience. For example, fear.
Fear of injury or death (poisonous snakes, tick-born sicknesses, grizzly attack etc) – that’s at least built on a deeply-rooted, practical survival strategy that we probably inherited genetically.
And it makes sense to be careful, and avoid tempting fate, so to speak. But we have to contain that fear within practical boundaries as well. And that can be a lot easier said than done when you hear a certain sound on the trail in the wilderness. But hey, maybe the last thing you learn is that bears are very, very quick in the short pursuit.
But if cringe is visual repulsion–I’m convinced we all need to work on that. Some of the most vital life partnerships with humanity do not pass even close to the ‘cuddly/cute’ zone. Doesn’t mean we should not respect them for their roles.
[Exit, pursued by a bear. Dang, always wanted to say that.]
I have a hard time ignoring the reality that most livestock cultivation is both highly unethical and cruel, oftentimes involving the borderline torture for these creatures, especially pigs, cows and sheep.
What is a horrible life for farm animals, is parallel to the impoverished existence of many agricultural producers, many often perpetually indebted to banks and creditors for loans on equipment, fertilizer, or labor.
Those who are seasonal labor, or local field hands are often living in incomprehensible levels of poverty, discrimination, and violent abuse.
So it’s not the animals themselves, it’s really the self-centered noxious behaviour of that highly invasive species Homo sapiens that makes you cringe. From that viewpoint I am with you 100%!
Farm animals actually live pretty good life, commercial stock have it harder, but it also varies from place to place, there’re many channels about people who have big herds of sheep or cows, and to be honest those animals live better life than many humans. Any responsible farmer understands that taking care of stock means more money. There’re for sure bad people who get into farming too, and then there’re factories, but hoofed animals now even there are ok, unlike e.g. chickens, just because you will get more meat and more milk if animal lives comfortably.
I’ve seen it mentioned in this book by the anarchist author that a capitalist society seems to treat people who are most essential to it’s survival most poorly! In California at least, people who harvest crops in the central valley often make sub-minimum wage because of how the laws are crafted.
I was also disturbed and stopped eating chicken when I learned how freakishly large and young they are when slaughtered (see: here) than I thought. Can see how it’s cringy.
Broiler chickens are really like regular chicken, just grow faster and bigger, they behave not different and having more meat shouldn’t be cringey, it means less birds get killed to get the same amount of meat while demand only grows with more and more people. I saw broilers irl and they’re fine, definitely saw uglier chicken breeds.