Wondrous encounters of the exotic kind

Just look at that sweet little face down there. It's a marmoset, one of the world's smallest primates, and it's indigenous to the Central and South American rainforests. Which is why someone in East Palo Alto was startled to find this one running along their back fence yesterday. I should mention that despite its slightly exotic sound, East Palo Alto isn't exactly part of the rain forest. It's a suburb down Highway 101 in the Bay Area here in California, about a half hour from where I live.

So...holy cow. What would you do if you were, say, doing the dishes, maybe humming a little tune, la la la, and then looked up out the window...and saw that? Would you start to wonder just exactly how much wine you'd had with dinner?

"We thought, 'Sure. What have you been drinking?' Scott Delucchi, spokesman for the animal care agency, said of the call that came in from a resident saying a monkey was running along the back fence. "But when our officer arrived, there he was."

The marmoset is a tiny little thing, only twelve ounces, and no one knows where it came from. They were able to catch him, thank God, with the lure of a banana, and he's going to go live in Primarily Primates, a sanctuary in Texas. Which ought to be a bit of a culture shock for the marmoset, if he's a Bay Area native.  Here's the whole story.

It's kind of wondrous to stumble across a wild creature like that, and it suspends you in a moment of absolute sweet surreality—provided, of course, you haven't stumbled across a python, or something. (Still surreal, but less sweet.) A few years ago, my route to the train station from my job near the Embarcadero in San Francisco (close to San Francisco Bay) took me past a bar called Bricks and through a small park studded with with cypress trees. One evening as I passed Bricks I saw a...tiny cockatiel sitting at the curb. This little green thing. Like it had just stopped in for a few drinks and was waiting for a cab. It flew away as I drew nearer, and I thought, "Huh. Someone's pet, perhaps, has escaped." And I wished it good luck, and wondered how it would survive.

But then, as I entered the park, I heard this racket that sounded like...Good God, it sounded like... But it couldn't be... Could it?

I slowly looked up and saw, perched in the cypress trees...dozens of brilliant, noisy parrots. Chattering away. Big, green and red exotic birds, clinging to the branches, hanging upside down, preening, just generally being parrots. It was absolutely glorious, like plummeting headfirst into a Garcia Marquez novel.  And it brought on a brief sort of out-of-body experience, because it took me a moment to synchronize my accepted sense of reality with what I was actually seeing.

I'd stumbled across the wild parrots of Telegraph Hill, a famous flock of parrots all of which probably used to be pets but have managed to create a home with each other in San Francisco. That particular park, and those cypress trees, are part of their daily route, too.  The wonderful 2003 documentary about them recieved rave reviews. It's a marvelous story.

And one day my sister, who lives in a woodsy town in very northern California, was driving along a curving mountain road when she noticed something odd jogging alongside the road. Something, um, unnervingly taller than the car. She slowed the car...and had her own sort of "Holy crap!" moment.  Because it was an emu. A giant, prehistoric-looking, three-toed bird, jogging down a mountain road. And when she pulled up alongside it, it actually slowed down and peered into her car. LOL. Turns out there was an emu farm in the hills where she lived, and this one had gone on the lam.

And so, since I won't be blogging on the weekends, generally, I just wanted to share those stories with you, and here's hoping your Fourth of July is safe, colorful, and delicious, and may you have a few wondrous, exotic encounters of your own. :)  And if you've had any odd little exotic encounters of your own, whether startling or wonderful, tell me about them in the comments!

Comments

[Goatkat]

I live on 4 hot and dry acres of beautiful Arizona desert. We share this space with all kinds of animals; rattlesnakes, gekos, javalinas, gila monsters, rabbits, quail, doves, and owls just to name a few. People expect to see these animals around. I also raise Nigerian Dwarf Goats. These goats are the size of a large dog and I move them from place to place in my car. I was taking four of them to be bred at the home of a friend and I thought I was going to cause a pile up on the highway. Apparently people don't expect to see goat heads sticking out of a 1991 Saturn sedan.

[Julie Anne Long]

Arizona *is* beautiful, Goatkat. I heard it was home to the largest number of types of poisonous critters in the United States, too. LOL. Have you read the Bean Trees? It's a Barbara Kingsolver book, and I read it before I first visited Arizona. Lovely descriptions of the place.

I started cracking up when I pictured everyone doing double-takes at all the goat heads peeking out your Saturn! LOL. If you feel like it or have the time, you should send some photos my way. I'm going to set up a reader gallery of sorts. It would be fun to share photos with folks. Have a great 4th!

[Donna S.]

Happy 4th of July, Julie! My exotic encounters mostly have to do with spiders, but my husband takes care of those. :) I make him take them outside. No smushing allowed.

[Isabel]

Hi Julie! Haven Rich from Romantically Inclined told me you had your blog, and it's absolutely beautiful. :)

This morning I'm sitting at my desk, sorting through some paperwork, when my co-worker screamed "Isabel!!! You gotta look at this, is this...this has to be the most SPECIAL creature in the whole wide world!" She turns in my direction and doesn't see me sitting in my chair because I'm clinging to the ceiling a la Sylvester from Looney Tunes after she startled me out of skin...my co-worker had been reading the Marmoset article on SFgate.com and desperately wanted me to look at the picture of the curious little creature. I must say it's cute, and I hope they find a good place for him in San Antonio.

The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill book and documentary are definitely worth anybody's time. I have a six year old Nanday Conure, a true treasure of nature, she's our little girl.
As for interesting encounters with animals, do skunks count? I was once "held" hostage in my own car by a of skunk. I stayed in my car for about twenty minutes until I was sure the little stinker was in not position to, uh, strike.

[Julie Anne Long]

Donna—I don't smush spiders, either! I confess that they both freak me out and intrigue me, because something about the way they move makes it look like they're really *thinking* about things. LOL. I always trap them and escort them out the door. Squealing like a little girl, usually.

Isabel!! How nice to see you here! Thanks for the compliments on the blog, too! I think it'll be fun. :) We'll see how it develops over the next month or so. I'm been pondering a few regular features, too, but I'll have to see if the reality of my schedule allows for all the ideas I have. :) Hope you pop in often!

And oh, that marmoset. I tell you, I'm an absolute sucker for an animal story, and I can't read the tragic ones. LOL. I'm just so glad they caught him (the marmoset)! It's kind of amazing that he was still there when the animal control officers arrived. He looks a bit worried, doesn't he? Sounds like he's in good hands, though.

Skunks count!! LOL. It's funny, but in San Francisco I've stumbled across a few reminders that we do share space with wild critters. I once saw a fox on Telegraph Hill. Beautiful little thing. Opossums and rats are plentiful in Golden Gate Park, and raccoons are there, too. A friend of mine in Portrero Hill used to wake up and scold his cat, because every morning the cat's drinking water was strangely dirty and kibble was *everywhere.* Then one night he (my friend) got up very late to get a drink of water...and watched a raccoon come in the pet door, WASH ITS HANDS in the cat's water, help itself to kitty kibble, then waltz out of the pet door again, all while the petrified cat looked on from the top of the refrigerator. LOL.

I was once waiting for a Haight Street bus when a BIIIG rat poked up out of the sewer and sat on its haunches next to me, as it was getting ready to commute, too. LOL.

And here's a review from Salon (one of my favorite websites) of "The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill," in case anyone's interested. http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/movies/review/2005/03/17/btm/index3.html

IT's quite a story.

[J Brookwell]

Everytime I see a special animal...I think that its a blessing .... I once saw on a residential street on the way to work a peacock.... that was amazing. Seems he does live on that block tho he doesn't get out much!

Another time I saw a perfectly and totally black squirrel....he too was amazing to see - for me anyway.

The greatest was a HUGE OWL who hopped in front of my car, spread it's wings (larger than the front of my car) and gracefully took off for higher ground.