Drag Queen Cuttlefish & Other Stories
by Ailsa, Ana, and Joanna
“What is our obsession to anthropomorphizing? Anthropomorphism is our tendency to project human qualities onto nonhuman beings and things. Even from the earliest stages of our lives, from when we played with stuffed animals and toys, to the myths and fables of ancient civilizations, seeing humans as animals, and animals and humans has served as a tool to understand ourselves. Human’s capacity of understanding is limited by its subjectivity; in order to easily understand animal behavior, we often compare animal’s actions to human behavior, for example, comparing a cuttlefish to a drag queen or stating that a leopard seal can have feelings like we do. In Drag Queen Cuttlefish and Other Stories, we will tell you stories of various animal behaviors and exaggerate our instinctual anthropomorphism to add humor and facilitate our understanding of these semiotic behaviors.”
This is the introduction you can find in our zine Drag Queen Cuttlefish and Other Stories. Our purpose with this zine is to talk about the semiotic behavior of some creatures of our interest, in a fun, accessible way. We use humor to convey topics that can be hard to cover. Humor can make it easier to remember the semiotic behavior of other creatures. We believe that humor and anthropomorphizing can make these semiotic behaviors accessible to us, and easier to be learned to a wider audience. In the end, instead of fighting our anthropomorphizing, as it happens constantly in the world of science, we prefer to embrace it so that we can have at least a basic understanding of semiotic behaviors that are different from ours.
The zine describes semiotic behavior that we found were interesting of five creatures; the smaller male cuttlefish’s use of mimicry to fertilize the females, the geese fixed action pattern behavior, the leopard seal and photographer Paul Nicklen’s close experience with one of them, the bower bird and sexual selection, and the salmon magnetic field detection used in order to travel.
One example from our zine was the bowerbird. In the zine we describe the bowerbird as "The bowerbird is a species of bird in which the females select their male mates based on elaborate structures, called bowers. The male birds construct them using many types of materials; some natural, like leaves, flowers, and sticks, and some that are manmade, like bottle caps and other colorful objects. In areas where there is an abundance of food and resources, males in many species must seduce a mate instead of fighting for her. Most species that display this type of inter-sexual selection have male birds that are elaborately colored and have fancy plumage, but male bowerbirds are plainer and impress the ladies with only their nest and sometimes a dance. Biologist Jared Diamond claims that bowerbirds are the most humanlike of birds, pointing out a specific bower in Papua New Guinea which has a pile of beetles that the bowerbird killed specifically to decorate. Humans are the only other species known to exhibit this same behavior." How we chose to boil down the idea of the bowerbird into an illustration is by inserting the bowerbird into the show "Cribs". The illustration (pictured below) shows the bowerbird welcoming you into his "crib" just like the intro of the show cribs which always begins with the star of that particular show opening their door. In this particular case we used the rapper Lil bow wow as a point of reference for how we would illustrate our bowerbird version. In addition, the illustration has a caption and logo much like in the actual show cribs that displays their name and occupation. In our bowerbirds case his now was "Lil Bow Bird" and we replaced the occupation with his scientific name. By relating the bowerbird to something from popular culture this both gives the viewer a point of reference and supplies some humor.
The semiotic behavior is anthropomorphized and adapted to a human behavior of ours. The zine aesthetic is simple; black and white images little color in each comic are used, and are accompanied with text that explains the semiotic behavior of each creature. The text is generally simple, but its content is heavier. Some of the explanatory text includes the experiments scientists made to prove the semiotic behavior. We believe the inclusion of these experiments will give more depth of information of such behaviors, while the comics serve as a more didactic, playful tool to learn and remember the behaviors mentioned.
We therefore took the opportunity to make accessible all of our learning in class, to some that might not have the chance to take a whole course that addresses these subjects in depth.
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| Drag Queen Cuttlefish |
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| Bowerbird |
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| Greylag Goose |
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| Leopard seal |
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| Salmon |
Bibliography
Giller, Geoffrey. "Salmon Use Magnetic Field–Based Internal Maps to Find Their Way." Scientific American 7 Feb. 2014: n. pag. Web. <http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/salmon-use-magnetic-fieldbased-internal-maps-to-find-their-way/>.
This article discusses the behavior and life cycle of salmon and goes into detail on the experiment that was conducted to prove this behavior. It also compares the salmon to birds and how their migrations are different.
Putman, Nathan, and David Noakes. "Study Confirms Link between Salmon Migration and Magnetic Field." OSU News and Research Communications. Oregon State University, 6 Feb. 2014. Web.
This is the article published by Oregon State University researchers who conducted an experiment on Chinook salmon to prove that they can sense magnetic fields and use them to find their way back to their natal breeding grounds.
Elbert, Jessica. "Cuttlefish Win Mates with Transvestite Antics." Nature.com. Nature Publishing Group, 19 Jan. 2005. Web. <http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050117/full/news050117-9.html>.
Elbert goes over the mating rituals of the Giant Australian cuttlefish and its use of mimicry in mating. It also gives data based on the observation and genetic testing of the animals.
Hanlon, Roger T., Marié-Jose Naud, Paul W. Shaw, and Jon N. Havenhand. "Behavioural Ecology: Transient Sexual Mimicry Leads to Fertilization."Nature 433.7023 (2005): 212. Marine Biological Laboratory. Web. <http://hermes.mbl.edu/mrc/hanlon/pdfs/Hanlon_et_al_Nature_2005.pdf>.
This is an article that outlines Roger Hanlon and his team’s work in observing the mating rituals of cuttlefish and doing DNA testing to determine if the mimecry indeed works of the smaller cuttlefish.
Prevett, J. P., and L. S. Prevett. "Egg Retrieval by Blue Geese." The Auk 90.1 (1973): 202. JSTOR [JSTOR]. Web. <http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4084031?uid=2&uid=4&sid=21106628844183#page_scan_tab_contents>.
This article goes into depth on the various species of goose that display the egg-rolling fixed action pattern. It outlines the various experiments and findings of the researchers.
Alters, Sandra, and Brian J. Alters. "Fixed Action Patterns." Biology: Understanding Life. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2006. 722. Print.
This is an overview of what a Fixed Action Pattern is, and uses the example of greylag geese and their egg retrieval method.
Howard, Brian C. "How a Leopard Seal Fed Me Penguins." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 11 Mar. 2014. Web. <http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140311-paul-nicklen-leopard-seal-photographer-viral/>.
This is an article written by Brian Howard about Paul Nicklen, a National Geographic photographer who had an interesting experience with a female leopard seal. Nicklen tells the story of the seal attempting to feed him penguins and there is also a video of Nicklens account.
Castro, Joseph. "Bowerbird Bachelor Pads With Best Illusion Snag Mates."LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 19 Jan. 2012. Web. <http://www.livescience.com/18015-bowerbird-mating-illusion.html>.
This article goes into depth on the behavior of the bowerbird and its methods of attracting a mate. It also brings up the question of cognitive ability in the bird and whether this means the birds are creating “art.”
"Cross-Dresser." BBC News. BBC, 26 Nov. 2009. Web.
This is a video that shows the giant Australian cuttlefish and its mating rituals, particularly the behavior shown by smaller males of impersonating females as not to attract the attention of larger males.
Salmon Confidential. Dir. Twyla Roscovich. Salmon Confidential. N.p., 7 Mar. 2013. Web. <http://www.salmonconfidential.ca/watch-salmon-confidential-documentary/>.
This is a documentary that mainly focuses on the dangers of salmon farming in the natal rivers of wild salmon. It goes into the politics of the industry and why it seems that the government is trying to hide statistics from the public.
"Bowerbird Woos Female with Ring." Worlds Weirdest. National Geographic Society, n.d. Web. <http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/weirdest-bowerbird>.
This is a video of the typical behavior of male bowerbirds. It shows the bird constructing his bower and then trying to woo a female with his structure and a dance.
Morell, Virginia. "Build: Bowerbirds." National Geographic (2010): n. pag. PDF.
This Article from National Geographic explains why and how bowerbirds create their nests. In addition the photos incorporated into the essay serve as great visual examples of the diversity of Bowerbird nests.
"Life - The Vogelkop Bowerbird: Nature's Great Seducer - BBC One."YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. Apr. 2015.
As stated in the video’s description, “A lesson in seduction from the Barry White of the bird world. The male Vogelkop bowerbird is a master of attracting a mate and getting her in the mood for love.” This provided more info on why the female would be attracted to a this type of visual mating call.
"MTV Cribs Lil Bow Wow." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjlcqSBQFhU>.
This video served as reference for the bowerbird comparison to the Lil Bow Wow MTV cribs episode. This particular episode is what we used for the bowerbird illustration and concept.
Shit Italian Moms Say. Dir. Daniel Franzese. Perf. Daniel Franzese. Youtube, 9 Feb. 2012. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eac91tZsZMw>.
This video was reference for the concept and illustration of the leopard seal. It shows similar behavior between the leopard seal that Nicklen encountered and a stereotypical “Italian Mom.”
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