Fun with Goats & at the Tidepools
By Mona Luo (05/04/14 17:22:20)
Related animals: Kelp Flie, Octopus

I think it is fair to say that the trip to see the goats was a wonderful idea. They were so friendly and cute. It was very refreshing. At first I thought that I had made some sort of special connection when all the kids came rushing over to me. But apparently that was not the case. I think I am a sensitive person and get easily over attached to things because when they lost interest in nibbling on my clothes and went to go nibble on someone else I felt personally offended. It was still great to be able to spend time with such energetic and amiable animals though. Animals bring comfort in a way that human interactions just can’t seem to do. I was interesting to see animals behaving in such a friendly manner that were not our traditional ideas of domesticated pets.
On the beach I did two impromptu collaborations: one where I followed the tracks of some shore birds in the sand and another where I herd kelp flies. As I walked down the beach I saw the many indents of tiny bird feet in the sand (unfortunately I don’t know what bird they belonged to). The sand was dry high up on the beach, so rather than showing the toes of the birds the footprints were just small rounded indentations. I followed one of these tracks zigzagging back and forth until they stopped (presumably the bird flew away) and then began following a new set. There was no shortage of tracks, and many intersected, making it difficult to know which path to follow. When I was walking back in the direction of the tidepools I walked towards a clump of washed up kelp, disturbing a huge swarm of kelp flies. This was my inspiration for the second collaboration. I tried to herd the kelp flies as far away from the kelp as possible. As I walked towards them they would fly away, but some would escape around the side of me to return to the kelp. Before I could get them even a few feet they had all escaped and returned to the original kelp clump, or another one nearby.
At the tidepools I found an octopus! It was hiding under a rock, in a hole when I uncovered him. Even after I knew he was there he was still hard to see because of the camouflage. It scampered away to hide somewhere else, and when I touched him in his new hideout under an anemone, he raised his arms defensively. After that I left it alone.



Goat saying hi

Goat getting pet

Tracks in the sand that I followed.

Kelp flies
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