Just a quick note: I am creating a small display at the Museum about invasive species. So, I was doing some basic research on the few species that we're going to put on display. One of those is the Norway, or Brown Rat. If it is something I don't know much about, I often start the research with Wikipedia, just to get a baseline of info. I was reading the wikipedia article last night when I came across this in the "Diet" section:
"Martin Schein, founder of the Animal Behavior Society in 1964, studied the diet of brown rats and came to the conclusion that the most-liked foods of brown rats were (in order) scrambled eggs, macaroni and cheese, and cooked corn kernels. According to Schein, the least-liked foods were raw beets, peaches, and raw celery.[20]" Sounds pretty good to me!
You can see it for yourself here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway_rat
That was my grandfather (father's father) , who was a famous and very well respected animal behaviorist. What an unexpected thrill it is to be reading something rather random and stumble upon something like that.
This reminded that he was actually a short subject in a book that came out several years ago: Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants I'm ashamed to admit that I have yet to read this book, though it's been on my list for years.
Within that same exhibit area, I created a short educational activity sheet that deals with science-related etymology (the study of the derivation of words) that partially relates to the names of several sciences that fall within natural history that are displayed on a nearby wall. Most of those displayed names are relatively common sciences - astronomy, paleontology, mammology - but a few are rather obscure. These include oology (the study of eggs, mostly birds), malacology (the study of shells - mostly molluscs), and ethology - the study of animal behavior. I did the latter as a subtle homage to him. You can download a copy of this worksheet by clicking here (you don't really need to be there to complete most of the sheet).
2 comments:
Hey Jason,
I haven't stopped by your blog for a while, and thought it was about time. Really interesting about your grandfather... Also, I know the YBRA camp well; that was the primary base when I did my geology field camp. It looks like you got one of the swankier two-person cabins. I was stuck in one the odoriferous bunkhouses.
Hi Chris, So good to hear from you. Can you send me an e-mail so I'll have your address? I have your Drexel one but that can't possibly still be good. Talk to you soon,
Jason
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