The start of a beautiful friendship

I seem to be on a bit of an animal theme of late, but this is wonderful. I love the last image of the little critter following his new "dad". Thanks to @JulieMa for sharing.

Andy & Mearl: Best friends from Tim Brown on Vimeo.

My family and other animals

I just finished watching a wonderful film adaptation of the classic book by Gerald Durrell - My Family and other animals. It's based on his experiences as a young boy when his family escaped a cold and dull life in England and moved to beautiful Corfu.

I love how it really captures the characters and setting from the book, especially the snobbish yet endearing older brother (and famous novelist) Lawrence Durrell. Matthew Goode's performance as Larry is brilliant (and very funny).



It's inspiring to know that the childlike wonder and fascination the young Gerald had for the animal world continued throughout his life. He went on to become a famed naturalist, conservationist, author and television presenter.



If anyone's looking for an escape from the winter blues I highly recommend both the book and movie

Alex the Parrot

I'm a bit late to this story, but I was listening to the NPR Fresh podcast, and they told the wonderful story of Alex the Parrot. It wasn't his talking that made him special, but more the fact that his trainer could communicate with him, and that he could actually process information and think. He was able to demonstrate behaviour that was more complex than simply repeating words. His trainer (Dr. Irene Pepperberg) talked about how Alex helped to debunk the "birdbrain" theory. Personally I think it's another example of how animals are far smarter than we give them credit.

Sadly, Alex the Parrot died last year aged 31 (which apparently is not that old for a parrot). One of the more emotional anecdotes as told by Dr Pepperberg was the time she had to take him to an animal hospital when he was sick. As she was leaving him, he kept saying "I wanna go back". In this short video demonstrating his talents, you can hear Alex using that line.