Life As An Albatross

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I recently had a short-story titled “Life As An Albatross” published in the Spring 2016 Issue 1.2 of the Kaaterskill Basin Literary Journal (you can read the whole issue on their website for free). I’ve had many short stories published over the years but this one was special. Why, I hear you ask?

• It didn’t start life as a short story. First it was a one woman show (which never happened) then split into several short stories (which were never published) then one short story about the albatross (which was rejected several times) and a short play (which never happened). I then discarded all but two of the original stories to create this version.

• I love Wandering Albatross. I would love to have studied them after finishing my PhD but it wasn’t to be. It breaks my heart that their numbers are dwindling with human carelessness - in fishing practices, introducing invasive species to breeding grounds, dumping plastic waste - a major factor.
  

• I wanted to write something which showed a side of animal behaviour scientists I’ve seen many times but which the public rarely sees. The connection they feel with the animal they study, the knowledge that while the scientific method is the best we have in providing rigorous, repeatable proof as opposed to mere opinion, our limitations in devising ways to measure the complexity of what we see means the method can fall short at times.
  

• Which brings me to anthropomorphism - it’s damned if you do, damned if you don’t. We absolutely cannot let ourselves see animals as furry, scaly or feathered humans. However, the other end of the spectrum is falling into the Descartesian trap of seeing animals as automata or into full-blown anthropocentrism.
  

• Non-human animals have their own way of seeing the world which has nothing to do with us and to make animals “just like us” does them a huge disservice. Each species has its strengths, each fills a niche. We share some characteristics, often expressed in unique ways (e.g. bird cognition vs mammal cognition), and we are completely different in other ways. They are not, and never will be, human and I am grateful for the diversity we all provide. However, I’ve erred on the side of anthropomorphism for this story because sometimes it is the only way we humans make sense of what we see.

Overall, it’s been lesson in hanging in there when you believe in something and that is something I think we all need to remember.