Thigmotaxis

Last night, I was reading a cool book given to Corey 15 years ago by his late Great Aunt Betty (according to the inscription, it was a Christmas present from 1993, when Corey was a senior in high school). It's called The Moon by Whale Light and it's by Diane Ackerman. It contains essays on different animals that once appeared in "The New Yorker" in shorter form. The chapter on penguins is especially neat to read because it contains a description of some time the author spent helping out in a penguin nursery at Sea World.

Ackerman describes how one chick she was caring for nearly fell off a table when Ackerman moved away briefly to grab a fish. She wrote, "My hand caught it. Even though it couldn't stand properly yet, evolution had gifted it with thigmotaxis, an overwhelming drive to press up hard against a parent."

Now I know most of the pictures on the blog are of Charlie Jo standing or playing alone, but we spend a large chunk of the day physically together. I'm either carrying her somewhere, cuddling her, or just serving as a jungle gym as she crawls all over me. Even if she's playing a few feet away, she returns every so often to press up against me in some way. I think she is just like a baby penguin and has the instinct of thigmotaxis.

Thank goodness we're not penguins though. I don't think I could live on an iceberg.