Can you clarify here is Roger a rat? Is he endangered is he canned?do
Laotians want to eat him ?P
Patrat
-----Original Message-----
From: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to poetry and
poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jill Jones
Sent: 16 May 2005 13:13
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Rats
Is this for real? The kha-nyou rat? The stone-dwelling enigmatic mouse?
I checked my calendar and it's *not April 1st but just wondering.
Doubting Thomasina of Ruby Street
On Monday, May 16, 2005, at 08:31 PM, Roger Collett wrote:
> Food for thought?
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> from the NY Times
>
> May 16, 2005
> The Name of the Rat
> It is a touchy use of the word "discovered" when a rodent that
> Laotians routinely eat is
> purchased at a market and then declared to be a new species. Just
> think of the debate over
> saying America was discovered by a European who stumbled over it
> 12,000 years after humans first
> settled there. But until field researchers found the animal on sale in
> Thakhet, and lab analysts
> identified it as a separate species, the foot-long critter that
> Laotians call kha-nyou, or rock
> rat, didn't have a scientific name.
>
> Now, newly inducted into the noble order of Rodentia as Laonastes
> aenigmamus ("stone-dwelling
> enigmatic mouse"), kha-nyou finally has an official slot in the
> ancient kingdom of Animalia. Dr.
> Robert Timmins of the Wildlife Conservation Society, who was involved
> in the identification of
> the new species, is worried that his discovery might not be around
> much longer to enjoy its new
> status. In fact, scientists have yet to see a living kha-nyou. And
> there can't be too many
> around, given the fact that it took so long for scientists to spot
> one, that they live only
> among limestone boulders in Laos, and that the locals find them tasty.
> Two other species
> identified in this century, the bumblebee bat and the Chinese river
> dolphin, already rank among
> the dozen most endangered species in the world.
>
> It is extraordinary, as Dr. Timmins noted, that an animal that took
> off on its own evolutionary
> course millions of years ago could remain unknown to science for so
> long, and it is troubling
> that it might have vanished before we even got acquainted. We wish the
> kha-nyou a long and happy
> existence - preferably in Thakhet. There are enough rodents elsewhere,
> thank you.
>
>
_______________________________________________________
Jill Jones
Latest books:
Broken/Open. Available from Salt Publishing
http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smp/1844710416.htm
Where the Sea Burns. Wagtail Series. Picaro Press
PO Box 853, Warners Bay, NSW, 2282. [log in to unmask]
Struggle and radiance: ten commentaries (Wild Honey Press)
http://www.wildhoneypress.com
web site: http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~jpjones
blog1: Ruby Street http://rubystreet.blogspot.com/
blog2: Latitudes http://itudes.blogspot.com/
|