Enigma of the Animal World

Dr. Abe V Rotor

Lecture on Zoology

 Orangutan (right)

Who came first, with mind closed and eyes blind,

We know who emerged at the dawn

of knowledge and consciousness, leaving behind

an ancestor long humans disown. 

Tukak Ba-ug (puffer frog)

Bellied frog, all but air resounding,

booming, and croaking;

Threatened, it lodges between rocks,

or floats dead feigning.   

Mouse deer

With the likes of the man from Transylvania transformed,
This creature maligned, two kinds combined and deformed.  

Barn Owl

This owl is dead, it's just a specimen,

 so with the wisdom in it and in men. 

Fruit bat

It's a fruit bat clumsy with its load, 

that drops on a roof at night,

scaring children in their bed believing

in a vampire with utmost fright

Sea urchin, spines hang for wind chime

Do you also play the tune in the deep
to wake the mermaids in their sleep? 

 Arupama, biggest freshwater fish

 A giant you are in the Amazon River

Famed of beauty more than terror;

If I were to believe in your being gentle

where have been your friends before?  

 Water iguana

Harmless though frightening you are,  

from the wild now behind bar;

Ugly and ancient people see you  

in their mind millions of years ago. 
 

Starting termite mound, architecture of a house sparrow's nest.

 Aestivating toad; snap turtle hatchlings

 A pair of yellow luna moth. SPU-QC.

 Black dots on their wings like eyes,

would-be predators are surprised.

  Red heart pigeons; red parrots.  Photos by the author

Your heart is bleeding I can see it through,

Need not tell you your love is true;

unreciprocated, you are in sorrow,

'til you met your kind - a happy duo    

 Kapis shell from which a province is named - Capiz.

 Lanky tree frog (atop a shower head) 
watching me took a shower one summer day 
in a retreat center in Lipa City;
Where have you been hiding these years? 
Here is retreat center, indeed, 

 White heron are migratory, arriving in time of rice planting

 Janitor fish comb the pond's bottom for algae and detritus. 
Author's residence in QC

Queen termite, with king (top) surrounded by members of the colony - 
soldiers (big head) and workers. Berkshire swine breed. (Note characteristic white band.)

Giant blue starfish pick on the coral reef of Calatagan, Batangas.

Spiny puffer fish. 

Black birds (martines) nesting on tree fern atop an acacia; 
photo taken by author's son Marlo with a 200mm telephoto lens. ~