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Richard Conniff has mites. A lot of them. At least, that’s what the world’s expert on follicle mites discovered after using a microscope to view a swab taken from the author’s (and Audubon blogger’s) forehead.
“I didn’t know I had all these follicle mites on me,” says Conniff, adding somewhat reassuringly that “it’s entirely natural,” because our bodies are typical environments for these tiny organisms.
Conniff has had more than his share of intimate, sometimes harrowing experiences with nature, many of which he elaborates on in his new book, Swimming With Piranhas at Feeding Time: My Life Doing Dumb Stuff With Animals. I confess I haven’t yet read it, but I did listen to an interview Conniff did last week on “The Book Show,” an Australian program, during which he discusses his job as a natural history writer, mentioning some of the stories he included in his latest work. If you tune in, you’ll hear a bit about the multitude of mites mentioned above, chimpanzee peacemakers, family reunions among lemurs, and the lessons barnacles can teach (if you watch them long enough).
Through the anecdotes and observations Conniff shares, you might even recognize some things about yourself, such as tendencies toward dominance, rivalry, and reconciliation. "These are things that are deeply rooted," says Conniff, “They're all influenced by our evolution from animals." Perhaps that’s why humans tend to anthropomorphize--we’re only trying to identify with our relatives.