Tag: Douglas J. Lanzo

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Grief-Stricken Memories of an Elephant Calf by Douglas J. Lanzo

desiccated bones
by parched watering hole
caressed by the trunk
of a daughter clinging to
mother’s memories

by Douglas J. Lanzo

This scitanka underscores the tragic deaths of elephants due to increased instances of extreme drought caused or exacerbated by climate change. 

One unfortunate byproduct of climate change is that the warmer air holds more water vapor, as warmer air has the ability to absorb more moisture before reaching its saturation point.  This leads to extreme precipitation and storms in some areas, but in desert and other dry areas it results in the warmer air acting like a sponge.  As such, the warmer air absorbs a larger percentage of the scarce desert / drier area moisture that is present there, exacerbating drought. 

Further reading:

There are numerous moving BBC documentaries and video clips depicting elephant grieving for fallen matriachs, including Serengeti II (BBC/Discovery, 2021), Natural World: Elephant Nomads of the Namib Desert (2008), Life Story (BBC) (2014) and BBC Earth Clips (2007-2008).

Author bio:

Doug is an award-winning American author and poet of over 587 internationally published poems whose debut novel The Year of the Bear won the Ames Award for YA Books and whose second book I Have Lived was named American Book Fest Novella of the Year. His Author’s website is www.douglaslanzo.com.

Check out other sciku by Doug here.

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Hell’s Kitchen Houdinis of Hotdogs by Douglas J. Lanzo

pavement ants hoist
bacon bits and sauerkraut
along sidewalk cracks
as we savor hot dogs
overloaded with flavor

by Douglas J. Lanzo

Pavement ants are perhaps the most successfully adapted animal species of modern times to New York City.  As the most populous ant species, they outnumber humans in the Big Apple by the ratio of 2,000:1, representing over 50% of the billion plus ants in each of its 5 boroughs.  Just how these aptly named insects thrive through all seasons in NYC is a marvel to behold.

Enamored of greasy foods like hotdogs, pavement ants send scouts out on initially randomized foraging walks to cover as much territory as possible.  With extremely sensitive olfactory receptors on their antennae, they can detect the fat and protein molecules in a hot dog in concentrations as low as a few parts per trillion.  Following windblown hotdog odor plumes, these ants follow “scent gradients”, tracking rising concentrations of scent until they locate the food source.

If you’ve ever been to Manhattan and grabbed a hotdog, chili dog or street taco, you’ll readily appreciate how easy it is for a portion of these overloaded toppings to end up “fragrancing” the city’s streets. Not only are pavement ants masters of locating NYC’s offloaded fast food treats, they are masters at breaking them down into pieces and hoisting them on their waterproof, triple-segmented exoskeleton, weathering wind and rain, back to their queen and larvae for high-energy feeding.  Foraging in groups of hundreds, the scouts leave a trail of pheromones for their worker ants to follow.  Once at the hot dog, worker ants sample the food to determine its quality, and if satisfactory, break it down with their mandibles, digest some of it in their social stomachs and carry the remainder in bits back to their nests, cleverly utilizing sidewalk cracks to avoid being stomped in the process.

Further reading:

To learn more about these remarkably successful fast-food scavengers, and entrancing behavior, check out Episode 2: Food of BBC Earth’s series: New York: America’s Busiest City (2016) or the “60,000 Hot Dogs” Research published Dr. Elsa Youngsteadt, in Global Change Biology (2014), calculating that Manhattan’s arthropods could consume the equivalent of 60,000 hot dogs annually in the Broadway and West Street corridor alone.

Author bio:

Doug is an award-winning American author and poet of over 560 internationally published poems whose debut novel The Year of the Bear won the Ames Award for YA Books and whose second book I Have Lived was named American Book Fest Novella of the Year. His Author’s website is www.douglaslanzo.com.

Check out other sciku by Doug here.

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Volcanoes Transforming Dark Depths by Douglas J. Lanzo

plate tectonics
plumes of fire, sulfur and ash
erupting undersea

by Douglas J. Lanzo

Magma erupts through ocean floors from the earth’s mantle when oceanic plates collide with, or tear away from, each other, with staggering force.  This results in spectacular undersea volcanic activity that forges massive sea mounts from plumes of magma that thrust toward the ocean’s surface with incredible heat, speed and fury.  Yellow-orange magma turns red and then further glassy black as it cools so quickly that crystals do not have time to form, spewing plumes of sulfur and billowing ash into surrounding waters. 

While this activity brings death to some sea creatures, others thrive off of it, with aptly named Pompeii worms, vent shrimp, yeti crabs and giant tube worms thriving off the bacteria and superheated minerals found in abundance by these smoking-hot hydrothermal vents.

This activity is on such a massive scale that over time it can produce entire volcanic island chains, such as the Hawaiian Islands.  Even when a sea mount does not become a “Mauna Kea” and pierce the ocean’s surface, it can rise for thousands of meters and form one of the highest mountains on earth.  Just for the record, Hawaii’s now dormant volcano, Mauna Kea is over 10,000 meters in height when measured from its base on the Pacific Ocean’s floor, which dwarfs Mount Everest’s mere 8,849-meter height.

Further reading:

To learn more about this awe-inspiring undersea tectonic activity, I highly recommend the breathtaking 2017 BBC Blue Planet II (2017) Episode 2 “The Deep” documentary narrated by Sir David Attenborough and the 2006 BBC Planet Earth Episode 11 “Ocean Deep”. 

For some good reading on it, check out the Underwater Volcanoes webpage published by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution under its Ocean Learning Hub at https://www.whoi.edu/ocean-learning-hub/ocean-topics/how-the-ocean-works/seafloor-below/volcanoes/.

Author bio:

Doug is an award-winning American author and poet of over 560 internationally published poems whose debut novel The Year of the Bear won the Ames Award for YA Books and whose second book I Have Lived was named American Book Fest Novella of the Year. His Author’s website is www.douglaslanzo.com.

Check out other sciku by Doug here.

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Soulful synchrony by Douglas J. Lanzo

perfect synchrony
of two soulmates
the mating dance of grebes

by Douglas J. Lanzo

Grebes embody soulful love, beauty and grace with their elaborate courtship dances. Endowed with striking eyes, chestnut-colored ruffs, regal black crests, and slender flowing necks, great-crested grebes take your breath away with an enchanting courtship dance.

As synchronized as a scene from the Nutcracker Suite ballet, they dip their heads underwater in synchronous movement before shaking them side to side as soon as they resurface as a pair. Their theatrical paired head-bobs, dips and weaves culminate in a spectacular, coordinated twenty-step-per-second dash across the surface of the lake with upright necks, arched backs and wings spread, dignified and adorable at the same time.

Their larger cousins, Western and Clark grebes, are the largest vertebrates on earth with the capability to walk, or shall we say, run, on water!

Further information:
To learn more about this remarkable and entrancing behavior, check out Boyd Huppert’s Land of 10,000 Stories video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMT9ym3Ug3I&t=153s or enjoy numerous BBC nature videos, including BBC Life (Birds) featuring Clark’s Grebes performing rushing dances on Oregon lakes, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, and Iolo’s Secret Life of Birds (BBC One) starring Great Crested Grebes in full courtship displays.

For online reading enjoy ‘All About Birds’ by Cornell Lab of Ornithology at https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Grebe/lifehistory#behavior which features an informative “Life History” page describing the awe-spiring rushing ceremony and touchingly humorous weeds ceremony of the Western Grebe.

Author bio:
Doug is an award-winning American author and poet of over 560 internationally published poems whose debut novel The Year of the Bear won the Ames Award for YA Books and whose second book I Have Lived was named American Book Fest Novella of the Year. His Author’s website is www.douglaslanzo.com.

Check out other sciku by Doug here.

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Fantastical Flocks That Feast by Douglas J. Lanzo

red-billed quelea
millions of birds mirroring
shifting sands

by Douglas J. Lanzo

Highly social, fast-breeding, migratory birds, red-billed quelea swarm for protection while feeding on a huge volume of grass seeds.  Red quelea also avail themselves of grain-based farmer crops, leading them to refer derogatorily to the quelea as feathery locusts. 

Intensive cereal crop farming in Africa in recent years has augmented the already mind-numbing sizes of these swarms, which often number in the millions.  Some swarms have been estimated to surpass 40 million quelea.

Further reading:

To learn more about this incredible swarming behavior, check out the BBC One Planet Earth Plains documentary from 2009 at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00381fg, which captured what is claimed to be the largest flock of birds ever caught on camera, which represents only a small fraction of the 1.5 billion quelea that swarm over Africa’s savannah during their breeding season.  Additional information on red-billed quelea can be found at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-billed_quelea.

Author bio:

Doug is an award-winning American author and poet of over 530 internationally published poems whose debut novel The Year of the Bear won the Ames Award for YA Books and whose second book I Have Lived was named American Book Fest Novella of the Year.  His Author’s website is www.douglaslanzo.com.

Check out other sciku by Doug here.

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Masterful Mimicry by Douglas J. Lanzo

desert drongo
mimicking meerkat sentries
to draw them off guard

by Douglas J. Lanzo

Fork-tailed desert drongo first win the trust of meerkats by sounding an alarm when a threatening hawk circles above their burrows.  Having won their trust, a wily drongo then betrays it by sounding a false alarm.  This sends meerkats into a tailspin, inducing them to flee to their burrows.  In the process , the duped meerkats abandon captured insects, lizards and scorpions, leaving the tasty critters behind for grateful drongo to claim.

Once the meerkats catch onto this trick, fork-tailed drongo elevate their deception to the next level.  From their desert perches, they imitate the warning bark or high-pitched squeal of the meerkat sentry itself, sending the clan into a panic.  The burrowing meerkats leave behind insects, scorpions and lizards for the breakfasting drongo, who swiftly swoop down from trees and shrubs to retrieve the coveted prey.

Further reading:

To learn more about this fascinating opportunistic behavior,  called kleptoparasitism, check out the BBC series Wild Africa to witness these amazing interactions among Kalahari desert meerkats and fork-tailed drongo, available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEYCjJqr21A 

‘Forktailed drongo’, Wikipedia article, available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fork-tailed_drongo 

‘Kleptoparasitism’, Wikipedia article, available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptoparasitism.

Author bio:

Doug is an award-winning American author and poet of over 530 internationally published poems whose debut novel The Year of the Bear won the Ames Award for YA Books and whose second book I Have Lived was named American Book Fest Novella of the Year.  His Author’s website is www.douglaslanzo.com.

Check out other sciku by Doug here.

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Fledgling Courage to Pierce the Pane by Douglas J. Lanzo

thirst for survival
drenched fledging great dusky swift
pierces waterfall

by Douglas J. Lanzo

This sciku was inspired by watching the “South America” episode of the BBC series Seven Worlds, One Planet narrated by David Attenborough.

It shows how great dusky swifts build nests protected by the waterfalls from hawks and other birds of prey, which nests get flooded from dam releases upriver of the spectacular Iguazu Falls (on the Iguaçu River). The torrential dam releases sometimes force the parent great dusky swifts to have to abandon their fledglings, who unless they can escape from the torrents and fly through a massive cascading curtain of water into the sunlight, will either starve or plummet to their deaths. The poem recognizes the courage and tenacity of the fledglings who attempt to breach this waterfall curtain and succeed in doing so.

Further reading and watching:

‘Great dusky swifts: A leap of faith’, 2019, Seven Worlds, One Planet, BBC, available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07tcnyf

‘Protectig a South American wonder of the world: Iguazú Falls’, 2019, Webster, J., BBC, available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5MbnkmwJmQ1zpTrksTVRSmF/protecting-a-south-american-wonder-of-the-world-iguazu-falls

‘Great dusky swift’, Wikipedia article, available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_dusky_swift

Author bio:

Doug is an award-winning American author and poet of over 500 internationally published poems whose debut novel The Year of the Bear won the Ames Award for YA Books and whose second book I Have Lived was named American Book Fest Novella of the Year. His Author’s website is www.douglaslanzo.com.

Check out other sciku by Doug here.

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Deceit Woven by an Orb Weaver by Douglas J. Lanzo

false beacon of light
flashing forest firefly
caught in spider web

by Douglas J. Lanzo

The orb-weaver spider is a master at weaving elaborate wheel-shaped webs that span across forest trees, capturing fireflies absorbed in mating rituals. Unfortunately for fireflies, the first firefly caught is not immediately killed, but rather just immobilized. That causes it to continue to flash, attracting more and more fireflies into the deadly spider web. And so the orb-weaver’s tale is woven…

Further reading:

‘Orb-weaver spider’, Wikipedia article, available: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orb-weaver_spider

‘These Spiders Use Captured Fireflies as Flashing Lures to Snare More Prey’, 2024, Sullivan, W., Smithsonian Magazine, available: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/these-spiders-use-captured-fireflies-as-flashing-lures-to-snare-more-prey-180984940/

Author bio:

Doug is an award-winning American author and poet of over 500 internationally published poems whose debut novel The Year of the Bear won the Ames Award for YA Books and whose second book I Have Lived was named American Book Fest Novella of the Year. His Author’s website is www.douglaslanzo.com.

Check out other sciku by Doug here.

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iceless improvisation by Douglas J. Lanzo

bobbing for apples
polar bear on off-shore rock
jaw-clamps belugas

by Douglas J. Lanzo

Deprived of seal hunting grounds due to melting ice, polar bears swim out to rocks and await high tide. These apex predators then pounce on unsuspecting belugas as they pass by their rocks, clamping down on their heads with skull-crushing jaws. But for this brutal improvization in hunting technique, some polar bears might otherwise starve. Receding Arctic ice greatly diminishes their ability to stalk seals surfacing through, or basking on, the ice.

Further reading:

‘Incredible moment a starving polar bear kills a beluga whale in Canada as ‘climate change’ forces the predators to hunt new prey’, 2019, Carr, J., Daily Mail, available: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7741099/Polar-bear-dives-pod-beluga-whales-David-Attenboroughs-Seven-Worlds-One-Planet.html

‘Filming the world’s most captivating animals for a spectacular series’, 2019, BBC, available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/23z89nKK5Mb9v36WpsdGldN/filming-the-worlds-most-captivating-animals-for-a-spectacular-series

‘Seal River polar bears hunting belugas. BBC Earth. Seven Worlds, One Planet’, 2020, Williams, G., Churchill Wild, available: https://churchillwild.com/seal-river-polar-bears-hunting-belugas-appear-in-new-bbc-earth-series-seven-worlds-one-planet-new-arctic-adventures-on-the-horizon/

Author bio:

Doug is an award-winning American author and poet of over 500 internationally published poems whose debut novel ‘The Year of the Bear’ won the Ames Award for YA Books and whose second book ‘I Have Lived’ was named American Book Fest Novella of the Year. His Author’s website is www.douglaslanzo.com.

Check out other sciku by Doug here.

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Undersea Fireworks by Douglas J. Lanzo

firecrackers
a sperm whale dialogue
ignites in dark sea

by Douglas J. Lanzo

I was inspired to write this Sciku by reading an article in the July-August 2024 issue of Harvard Magazine entitled “Decoding the Deep” by Jonathan Shaw. I was struck by the tremendous energy in the short staccato bursts of sperm whale communication and by the intricacy in their communications, including what may be simultaneous speaking and listening in their species.

The article details the richness and wonder of the firecracker-evoking clicks of sperm whales and the billions of vocalizations the CETI project, with the help of machine learning, is ambitiously seeking to collect and decode.

Further reading

‘Decoding the Deep’, 2024, Shaw, J., Harvard Magazine, Volume 126, Issue 6. Available: https://www.harvardmagazine.com/harvard-researchers-language-of-whales

‘Animal (Code) Cracker’, 2024, Shaw, J., Harvard Magazine. Available: https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2024/07/harvard-undergraduate-whale-vocalizations

I also recommend watching ocean documentaries, many of which are available on Amazon Prime, about whales.

Author bio

I am the author of ‘The Year of the Bear’ (Ames Best YA Book of 2023) and the 2024 Firebird Award winning ‘I Have Lived’ (a newly released novella) and have published poems in 76 literary publications worldwide. I reside in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with my wife and twin sons and enjoy basketball and tennis. My author’s website is at www.douglaslanzo.com.

Check out other sciku by Doug here.

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Signaled Synchrony by Douglas J. Lanzo

diving in formation
sperm whale pod
upon one matriarch click

by Douglas J. Lanzo

I was inspired to write this Sciku by reading an article in Harvard Magazine entitled “Decoding the Deep” by Jonathan Shaw. It reinforced the beauty and intricacy of whale communications that had fascinated by watching ocean documentaries over the years.

The article details the complexity of the staccato clicking language of sperm whales and the billions of vocalizations the CETI project is seeking in order to decode their speech. However, I was struck that the first sperm whale word we have learned is the word to dive. Given that sperm whales travel in pods led by matriarchs and that a single click can be emitted at well over 200 decibels, I came up with this sciku to capture their magnificent synchrony of movement signaled by a single whale click.

It is amazing to think of the tremendous depths to which whales can descend (nearly 3,000 meters) at over 100 atmospheres in pressure and even more amazing to ponder the vocalizations of these wondrous creatures with the largest brains in the world.

Further reading

‘Decoding the Deep’, 2024, Shaw, J., Harvard Magazine, Volume 126, Issue 6. Available: https://www.harvardmagazine.com/harvard-researchers-language-of-whales

‘Animal (Code) Cracker’, 2024, Shaw, J., Harvard Magazine. Available: https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2024/07/harvard-undergraduate-whale-vocalizations

I also recommend watching ocean documentaries, many of which are available on Amazon Prime, about whales.

Author bio

I am the author of ‘The Year of the Bear’ (Ames Best YA Book of 2023) and the 2024 Firebird Award winning ‘I Have Lived’ (a newly released novella) and have published poems in 76 literary publications worldwide. I reside in Chevy Chase, Maryland, with my wife and twin sons and enjoy basketball and tennis. My author’s website is at www.douglaslanzo.com.

Check out other sciku by Doug here.

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Sentient Sea Play by Douglas J. Lanzo

sentient sea play
upside-down tentacles swirl
through schools of minnows

by Douglas J. Lanzo

Watching a common octopus in the movie ‘My Octopus Teacher’ harmlessly herd tide-surged minnows into a school and repeatedly maneuver its tentacles through it, harmlessly playing with it, I was astounded by its high level of intelligence. Despite interacting with the helpless minnows for an extended period of time, the recreational creature did not eat or catch a single minnow.

Further reading:

For additional information, besides watching the movie ‘My Octopus Teacher’, please take a look at a fascinating article on adaptive behavior in the March-April Issue of Harvard Magazine entitled ‘Inner Senses’ and a recent Harvard Law School article entitled ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ that chronicles the exploratory behavior and ability of octopi to individually recognize humans.

Author bio:
Doug is an international author whose Newbery-nominated novel, The Year of the Bear, won the 2023 Ames Award for Young Adult literature, was a finalist for the 2023 Hawthorne Prize and is a 2022 Firebird Award Winner. He has published 337 poems in 70 literary publications in 10 countries. He and his twin son poets enjoy nature, fishing, tennis, hiking and snorkeling. His Author’s website is at www.douglaslanzo.com .

Check out other sciku by Doug here.

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Ornamental Defense by Douglas J. Lanzo

Christmas ornaments
pursued seabed octopus
adorns legs with shells

by Douglas J. Lanzo

I was inspired to write this Sciku by watching the movie ‘My Octopus Teacher’ and observing a highly intelligent Common Octopus evade a Pyjama shark predator in a kelp forest in False Bay, South Africa by covering its arms with seafloor seashells.

Its amazingly high level of intelligence was reflected in its recognition of the free diver who dove to its lairs in the kelp forest on a daily basis to interact with it, its playing with fish with its tentacles in the tide, its cloaking itself with strands of kelp to temporarily escape from a Pyjama shark, its dashing onto a sand beach to escape the jaws of the menacing shark and its riding atop the startled shark and slipping off its back to complete its getaway.

Further reading:

Please check out ‘My Octopus Teacher’ for more information about the intelligence and remarkable sentience and adaptive behaviors of octopi as well as the recent article ‘Inner Senses’ by Jonathan Shaw in Harvard Magazine for information about its adaptive behavior at https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2023/03/feature-nicholas-bellono-animal-adaptations

Author bio:
Doug is an international author whose Newbery-nominated novel, The Year of the Bear, won the 2023 Ames Award for Young Adult literature, was a finalist for the 2023 Hawthorne Prize and is a 2022 Firebird Award Winner. He has published 337 poems in 70 literary publications in 10 countries. He and his twin son poets enjoy nature, fishing, tennis, hiking and snorkeling. His Author’s website is at www.douglaslanzo.com .

Check out other sciku by Doug here.