The Bat & the Black Ghost Knife
“The Bat and the Black Ghost Knife”—it sounds like I’m about to tell you a horror story by the campfire. But no, these are two of the creatures Ed Yong talks about in his book An Immense World for the incredible ways they perceive their environments (echolocation for the former and electricity for the latter). I also happen to have fond memories of them both.
I doubt I understood much as a kid about how a knifefish perceives the world, but watching them in my dad’s aquarium was fascinating regardless. They’re long, with a fin beneath that runs from its head to tail. This fin ripples like its caught in a water current, but the motion is the fish propeling itself through the water. This was already a stretch of the imagination for me, forget about all the ways they use electricity as part of their daily life (communication, navigation, and hunting). Pectoral fins (which they also have) easily made sense, like their version of hands. But a nearly full-body fin? I had no human comparison for that.
That thought is always at the heart of An Immense World—we see our world from a distinctly human point of view. But, as we learn from Yong, the world is full of organisms that understand our shared environment very differently. And as humans we may be blind, deaf, and otherwise unable to sense their Umwelt: “the part of (an animal’s) surroundings than an animal can sense and experience—their perceptual world.”* Their perceptions, from UV colors to vibrations to magnetic fields, can be so far outside our abilities that it might feel like magic even when there are distinct evolutionary origins.
I spoke with a friend recently who didn’t understand why I consider reading nonfiction as necessary research for writing a fantasy novel. This is why. A book like this forces me to think outside of myself and helps me consider the “what ifs” that can make compelling fantasy. I said “Wow!” about five hundred times while reading this book, and sometimes “Amaze!” à la Project Hail Mary (read or listen to the book before the movie arrives in March!) because wow is not always enough. I barely managed to avoid telling Lucas about every neat new thing I learned so he can enjoy the full context when he has the chance to listen to the book. And I’m going to resist the urge here too, so I don’t spoil it for you either. If you haven’t read An Immense World yet, I really hope you’ll put it on your list for sometime this year.
It’s easy to distance ourselves from nature’s incredible feats when we’re captured by the glow of our phones or computer screens or TV. Our Umwelt seems to have narrowed from the physical world around us and broadened inside the increasingly untrustworthy world of the internet. I’m so grateful that I grew up in a time before smartphones and social media and AI, with parents who forced me to do things besides read in my room (sometimes with a lot of complaint, but thankfully they persisted). My praiseworthy parents often got us out of the house on hikes at the Ledges or walks around the Neil Smith Wildlife Refuge or visits to the Omaha Zoo. Which brings me to the bat.
“To perceive the world through other senses is to find splendor in familiarity, and the sacred in the mundane. Wonders exist in the backyard garden, where bees take the measure of a flower’s electric fields, leafhoppers send vibrational melodies through the stems of plants, and birds behold the hidden palettes of rurples and grurples.”
—Ed Yong, An Immense World
You might think that growing up next door to a vet clinic would make me immune to the wonder of seeing any particular animal up close. I’d encountered the usual cats and dogs and guinea pigs and rabbits, the less usual blue-tongued skinks, geckos, and bearded dragons, and the occasional big wild bird in for rehab, among numerous others. But for some reason that was nothing compared to being within a foot of a very big bat behind the scenes at the zoo’s newly opened Desert Dome.**
This bat had none of the goofiness of Batty Koda, the character voiced by Robin Williams in FernGully: The Last Rainforest, a staple of my childhood. This bat was quiet, for starters. I couldn’t get over its size. If I’d been able to hold it, it would have been like cuddling my cat. I could have sat for hours watching those dark eyes, that furry body, and those large leathery wings. What was it like to stretch those wings? To hang upside down like that was the only way to relax? What did it see when it looked at me? (By the way, if you also have an appreciation for bats check out the Congress Avenue Bridge in Austin from late spring to early fall. And at home don’t forget to look up at the sky at twilight!)
I may have been a teenager when I learned to appreciate bats, but it’s never too late to appreciate another creature or an aspect of our world. Bill Leikam was nearing 70 when his doctor told him he would benefit from taking a walk every day. So he started walking and on one of his walks happened to observe a fox. He was a retired English teacher and had no idea what kind of fox, but he kept going back. He started taking notes. Now he’s 85 and the guy for gray foxes. (I learned all this from the Ologies podcast episode Urocyonology (Little Gray Foxes) with Bill Leikam, give it a listen!)
Is there an animal, insect, or plant that you would like to learn more about? What did you find fascinating within the pages of An Immense World?
Please leave a comment below.
*Umwelt as defined by Ed Yong in the introduction of An Immense World
**The Omaha Zoo boasts the world’s largest nocturnal exhibit, The Mahoney Kingdoms of the Night
***Ed Yong is a big fan of footnotes. I found them worthwhile to read, even though I had to work for it on an e-reader. Remember the days before high speed internet? That’s what waiting for my Nook to load a footnote felt like.
House Wren Babies
Our house wren family appears to have flown the nest/bird house. We’re thrilled for them (and for us, because we were tired of getting yelled at when we were in the backyard), if a little sad. Here are baby bird pics from Cornell Lab to celebrate >>
Now to pick up all the sticks that were too big for them to shove into the bird house and clean out the debris for next year… Thankfully the adorable bird house Lucas chose comes with a hatch to make that easier. If you’re in the market for a bird house, check it out on Etsy >>
Birds & Bugs on Blooms
You guys. It’s HAPPENING. All that work we put into the backyard last spring is really paying off. Yesterday there was a giant monarch on our common milkweed. An hour ago I saw goldfinches hopping onto our ox eye sunflowers, bending them over to presumably nab the seeds. Chipmunks are making off with our plums and wild strawberries. The robins are all about the serviceberries. It’s a firefly party back there every night. The climbing roses are like ground-bound pink clouds. But the big show is still to come. Most of our plants will bloom in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
July’s Book
I hope you’re seeing fireflies on these late June nights! We’re in for more treasures of the dark in Night Magic: Adventures Among Glowworms, Moon Gardens, and Other Marvels of the Dark by Leigh Ann Henion.
See you next month!
Image Credits
Sunrise and sunset photos by Lucas Gray
Black ghost knife reference photo by Derek Ramsey
Bat reference photo by Sgarton
All digital artwork and other photography by Leigh Anne Gray
