{"id":17914,"date":"2022-03-25T15:41:31","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T19:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/?p=17914"},"modified":"2024-08-27T16:57:57","modified_gmt":"2024-08-27T20:57:57","slug":"wooly-bears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/2022\/wooly-bears\/","title":{"rendered":"Wooly Bears"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Wooly Bears\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

On a Saturday last fall, while riding my bicycle along the Ottawa River Parkway, I passed a wooly bear caterpillar attempting to cross the road. I stopped, got off my bike and walked back up the road to the caterpillar. Then I bent down, picked it up and carried it to the vegetation at the side of the road. I wished it well and continued my ride. One might question this peculiar act of kindness. It was, after all, just a caterpillar, but there is a story behind it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One day when I was four years old, my father and I went up Trans Island Avenue to the local cul-de-sac we called Blind Street. It was a common route for us, me on my CCM tricycle and he keeping an eye on me in a companionable sort of way. At Blind Street we ran into Mr. Brandon, a colleague of my father\u2019s. Mr. Brandon lived nearby and was out for a walk with his two daughters. I didn\u2019t know the girls very well; one was a year older and one a year younger than me. Let\u2019s call them Marie and Jean. We interacted, as little girls do, while our fathers chatted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we were skipping along the sidewalk, I happened to glance down and there, on the pavement, was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. It was a little over an inch long and it was covered with honey-coloured fur that shone in the sunlight. It had many legs and it undulated with a wave-like motion as it moved purposefully along the curb. I stopped, awestruck, and watched its progress. This was a wonder that I had never before seen or imagined in all my four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Naturally, I wanted to share this discovery with the girls. I called them over, \u201cMarie, Jean, come and see what I\u2019ve found!\u201d They rushed over and looked down at my golden wooly bear, which was still rippling along towards a destination known only to itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIsn\u2019t he beautiful?\u201d I said. \u201cLook at his fur\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEww\u201d, said Marie. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And then, before I could stop her, she raised her foot and stomped on the unsuspecting little creature. I was horror-struck. My wooly bear had been squashed flat. His yellow insides were smeared on the road, his beauty destroyed, his life snuffed out for no reason. I had observed the senseless death of something harmless and beautiful. I wept inconsolably and had to be taken home. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a loss of innocence moment. I learned that not everybody thought as I did. I am sure Marie, who was only 5, had been taught that insects and creepy crawlies were bad and should be exterminated. It is a common position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, my interest in the creatures we share the planet with was cemented by the experience. I am a biologist now and I retain a special fondness for wooly bears. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least the one on the Parkway got a second chance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On a Saturday last fall, while riding my bicycle along the Ottawa River Parkway, I passed a wooly bear caterpillar attempting to cross the road. I stopped, got off my bike and walked back up the road to the caterpillar. Then I bent down, picked it up and carried it to the vegetation at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memoir"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17958,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17914\/revisions\/17958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/lifelong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}