Wild Ones 1 Intro/Bears Flashcards
noodle
to improvise on an instrument.
“We drove on. We looked for more bears. People noodled on their laptops and iPads. It felt aimless.” (18)
jumping the shark
expression to say that something that was once good has now peaked, and has taken a severe downturn in quality or usefulness.
“The phrase refers to a 1977 television episode of Happy Days. In this television show, the main character of Fonzie (Henry Winkler) dons water skis and performs an absurd stunt jump over a caged shark.”
“It was starting to feel as if the polar bear had jumped the shark.” (20)
triage (in medical use)
the assignment of degrees of urgency to wounds or illnesses to decide the order of treatment of a large number of patients or casualties.
“….the province of Manitoba wanted to establish a place where those cubs could be flown, triaged, and fattened back up, before being distributed to zoos.” (21)
cultural carrying capacity
is the maximum number of individuals of a species that the human population will tolerate. The number may or may not be the same as the species’ biological carrying capacity.
“Wildlife managers sometimes talk about a species’ ‘cultural carrying capacity,’ meaning that it’s not just the availability of food or habitat that determines how well a species will fare, but also-if not mostly-our willingness to tolerate it or help it along.” (21)
off-brand
an unknown, unpopular, or inferior brand of retail product: you bought me off-brand sneakers instead of Keds.
“…all showing the convoluted and sometimes arbitrary ways in which we forge feelings about wild animals; and also the story of the Endangered Species Act, the law through which we impose those feelings on the landscape, shaping it so that certain off-brand animals are left to fend for themselves while the icons we love are battened in place.” (22)
batten
strengthen or fasten (something) with battens: Stephen was battening down the shutters.
“…all showing the convoluted and sometimes arbitrary ways in which we forge feelings about wild animals; and also the story of the Endangered Species Act, the law through which we impose those feelings on the landscape, shaping it so that certain off-brand animals are left to fend for themselves while the icons we love are battened in place.” (22)
Northwest Passage
a sea passage along the northern coast of the North American continent, through the Canadian Arctic from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. It was sought for many years as a possible trade route by explorers that included Sebastian Cabot, Sir Francis Drake, and Martin Frobisher; it was first navigated 1903-06 by Roald Amundsen.
“In fact, the main economic hope for the town these days is that a longer season of open water on Hudson Bay will bring more ships into Churchill’s seaport and that, eventually, the town will become Canada’s outpost for trade with Russia, with ships loading up with grain from the prairies and navigating a new, ice-free Northwest Passage.” (39)
corollary
a direct or natural consequence or result: the huge increases in unemployment were the corollary of expenditure cuts.
“This is a corollary of the same unconventional migration that strands them here every fall to be marveled at by tourists.” (34)
seethe (verb)
be filled with intense but unexpressed anger: inwardly he was seething at the slight to his authority.
“Ultimately, it’s easy to imagine Thomas Jefferson as an early American George Costanza, a seething nebbish quick to take umbrage but never quite able to respond convincingly.” (49)
nebbish (noun)
a person, especially a man, who is regarded as pitifully ineffectual, timid, or submissive.
“Ultimately, it’s easy to imagine Thomas Jefferson as an early American George Costanza, a seething nebbish quick to take umbrage but never quite able to respond convincingly.” (49)
umbrage
offense or annoyance: she took umbrage at his remarks.
“Ultimately, it’s easy to imagine Thomas Jefferson as an early American George Costanza, a seething nebbish quick to take umbrage but never quite able to respond convincingly.” (49)
charismatic megafauna
are large animal species with widespread popular appeal, which are often used by environmental activists to achieve environmentalist goals.
“One historian writes that most in Congress believed the Endangered Species Act was ‘a largely symbolic effort’ to protect only the kinds of species environmentalists call ‘charismatic megafauna’ - grizzlies, whales, bald eagles, and other large, beautiful species that people tend to feel an easy connection with.” (57)
Fish and Wildlife
is an agency of federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior which is dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats.
“It required the government to rule on petitions according to strict timelines, but also set up the candidate list so that, if a particular species needed protection in a hurry, Fish and Wildlie would have the flexibility to deal with that crisis. Designating a species “warrented but precluded” would put it in a temporary holding pen, pausing the clock on its petition deadline…..” (59)
US department of the Interior (DOI)
The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is the United States federal executive department of the U.S. government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and natural resources, and the administration of programs relating to Native American, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, territorial affairs, and insular areas of the United States. About 75% of federal public land is managed by the department, with most of the remainder managed by the Agriculture Department’s United States Forest Service.[3]
phylogenetic relatedness
is the study of evolutionary relationships among various organisms. It is concerned with finding the genetic connections between species.
“Part of the answer seems to be that we are attracted to animals that resemble us physically, a principle called ‘phylogenetic relatedness.’ “ (60)
