Making fun of evolution has its merits
When Mountainfilm director David Holbrooke first invited me to present at the festival this year, I have to admit I was a little surprised. I’m not a documentarian or visual artist. I’m not an environmental activist or mountaineer. I haven’t scaled any sheer rock faces, won any international awards or explored any active volcanoes (unless growing up in the general vicinity of Mount Rainier counts).
So what did I do that merited the great honor of being included in this year’s lineup? I made fun of weird animals on the Internet.
Let’s back up. I’m a science writer and editor, which means that my day job is to learn about science and craft stories about it that will appeal to the general public — and hopefully teach them a thing or two as well. I’ve covered everything from geology to environmental science to engineering, but I’ve always had a soft spot for the biological sciences and all of the strange and glorious discoveries they bring.
To see what I mean by "strange," just take a look at the animal kingdom. The babirusa, for instance, a wild pig native to Indonesia, has overgrown teeth that erupt through its snout and curve backward around toward its own face. The tusks are, as far as biologists can tell, almost completely useless. The gum-leaf skeletonizer caterpillar, which has to shed its hard outer skeleton in order to grow, keeps a stack of its shed head cases piled on top of itself like a hat. No one knows why. A rodent called the antechinus mates itself to death. Marabou storks look like imaginary monsters. Wombats poop cubes. The list goes on.
Just over two years ago, I started a blog called WTF, Evolution?, where I post photos and videos of these odd species and poke fun at their evolutionary origins. Last fall, the blog became a book. In both places, I imagine what evolution would have to say for itself if it had to explain how it arrived at some of these oddly engineered organisms. Much of the time, I suspect, it would be lazy, distracted, drunk or completely out of its mind.
Don’t get me wrong. I love every weird creature I write about, and I don’t really think evolution can talk. But by pretending that it can, and giving it grief for some of the “solutions” it’s come up with, I get to reveal a bit about how evolution actually works and doesn’t and show how random and unplanned it really is.
I’m very excited to visit Colorado, which is home to one of my favorite awkward animals, the sage grouse. I can’t wait to explore the festival and its surroundings — and, of course, take the stage with Telluride actor Cat Lee Covert on Saturday at the Sheridan Opera House to present WTF, Evolution? I’m still not sure where exactly I’ll fit among all the artists, adventurers, idealists and world-changers at Mountainfilm. But I’m really looking forward to finding out.
—Mara Grunbaum, author of WTF Evolution?
Image Credit:
From WTF, Evolution?! - Workman Publishing South American Tapir Tapirus terrestris
Photo © Thomas Vinke/age footstock
