18 Comments
13 hrs agoLiked by Bryan Pfeiffer

Fascinating, as usual, Bryan. Keep up the investigations!

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Gladly! Thanks, Steve!

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13 hrs agoLiked by Bryan Pfeiffer

Wow! Thank you for pulling it all together in your essay. Grand!

My most exciting find recently was the congregation of tiny flying ants in my raised bed in the New Salem Community Gardens... I keep looking and learning. Never bored.

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I need to learn more about Hymenoptera!

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13 hrs agoLiked by Bryan Pfeiffer

Hi Bryan, I suspect you may have encountered someone at some point, perhaps just a wee bit curious about your state of health obsessing over nature's oddities. Perhaps this may help, but even if not, I suspect you'll get a kick out of it: "Darwin's gardener is said to have responded once to a visitor who inquired about his master's health: 'poor man, he just stands and stares at a yellow flower for minutes at a time. He would be better off with something to do'." (from Charles Darwin by Loren Eisley).

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Ha! Yep, that's me! Me and Charles! 😃

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"In nature, all I need is exuberance, curiosity, and an open mind." And many thanks, yet again, for sharing this with us.

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You're a force of inspiration as well, John!

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11 hrs agoLiked by Bryan Pfeiffer

Wow, so amazing Bryan, thanks for sharing! I have lots of amber snails in my garden so now I have something new to look for! And kudos for not turning the flatworm into a bad guy. As I wrote about a chance encounter I had with a snake swallowing a frog alive, I felt sorry for the frog, but I also felt sorry for the hungry snake.

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Thanks, Margie. Yeah, a snake's gotta eat!

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Cheers to curiosity and your most sincere account of aggressive mimicry. I admit, some of it was difficult to read due to my empathy/ love for snails, but I have learned much from your essay and am grateful for the work you do.

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All of this engendered a new fondness for snails on my part. (And if it was tough for you to read, well, I'm now really glad I left out certain other details. 😬😳)

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10 hrs agoLiked by Bryan Pfeiffer

So great. I'm looking forward to next year's video of a bird munching on a broodsac in the wild.

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I'll be famous! 😝

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9 hrs agoLiked by Bryan Pfeiffer

That was well worth every minute of reading. Thank you for taking the time to wonder and then to share your research and insights with all of us.

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Isn’t part of exuberance, curiosity, and an open mind placing oneself in the snail’s shoes… or 🐚… to empathize with what they might be experiencing? I agree that click baiting stories about creatures is selfish. I wonder if viewing snails and worms from a detached point of view can blind the viewer from intuitive awareness and compassion for all involved in these delicate sentient cycles of life and reciprocity. Thanks for the article!

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Fascinating and so full of your curiosity. I have been battling an invasions of small ant battalions for several weeks and you have inspired me to learn more about why they are here and what is the purpose of making home in my kitchen. Much less frustrating and perhaps we will make peace. Thank you.

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This would make a great horror film!

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