The word's been popping into my head lately because, I mean, my cubicle is lovely and all, but I get to really feeling like an animal in a cage. I do a lot of pacing and rocking. I'm zoochotic.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
At least we're not being eaten by lions
The word of the day today is zoochosis. Coined in 1992, it refers to the strange behaviors exhibited by animals in captivity - rocking, pacing, self-injury, and stuff like that. It's weird, but even animals in really big enclosures, enclosures designed to make animals feel free, do it too. Animals will pace in the same spot so much that they wear grooves into the ground.
The word's been popping into my head lately because, I mean, my cubicle is lovely and all, but I get to really feeling like an animal in a cage. I do a lot of pacing and rocking. I'm zoochotic.
It's not a complaint, just an observation. I'm a writer, and I'll always be one. No matter how big my enclosure gets...
The word's been popping into my head lately because, I mean, my cubicle is lovely and all, but I get to really feeling like an animal in a cage. I do a lot of pacing and rocking. I'm zoochotic.
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3 comments:
Is that an okapi?
Baby giraffe. This was at Disney world - they drive you through a giant safari park where all the herbivores roam free. That picture isn't zoomed in at all - the giraffe was that close to our vehicle.
I'm curious as to whether the animals in that park experience zoochosis, considering they've got miles of land through which to wander, no cages, and plenty of other critters to interact with.
That's an okapi; their coloring is darker, and oddly, they've got what look like brown zebra stripes on their back end.
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/pix/sdz2/Okapi.html
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