Why not make wildlife a topic of conversation?
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‘Tis the season to find yourself standing awkwardly among people you may not see often, balancing food and drink in your hands, maintaining a smile and racking your brain for agreeable things to talk about.
I learned from my spouse, who’s an artist when it
comes to making conversation, that what you really want in such a situation is
not a good story to tell, but a good question to ask.
And that’s my gift, such as it is, to you, dear reader:
questions to prompt conversation at a holiday party.
My favorite question for drawing people out is, “What
kind of wildlife did you see this year?” Replies to this question can take a
conversation all kinds of places if the folks you’re with have done any
traveling. That’s because even people who pay no special attention to the
natural world at home often take note of the more exotic animals they see when
they’re away. And people who travel especially for the purpose of experiencing
nature in far-flung places are typically even more gung ho to tell you what
they saw.
(Did I tell you about my family’s camping trip in
the Rockies this summer? Which animals do you want to hear about? We saw a pair
of moose, a group bighorn rams, elk, mule deer and a whole bunch of different smaller
mammals, from chipmunks in our campsite to pikas (photo by author), which live only above tree
line.)
You may also try to get people going on wildlife
they’ve seen locally by asking about the birds they’ve had at their feeders. Sometimes
when people have spotted an interesting bird but haven’t been able to identify
it on their own, they can provide enough clues for a group to figure out what
it was.
Of course, people also enjoy kvetching about
squirrels and other animals that cause trouble. UI Extension maintains a very
nice Website called “Living with Wildlife in Illinois” that’s full of tips for
dealing with such critters. But it can be more entertaining to hear people
describe the anti-varmint strategies they come up with on their own.
What do you
do when the squirrels defeat your squirrel-proof bird feeder?
Talking about animals can also enable you to find
out what’s unusual in the neighborhood. My next-door neighbor recently told me
about seeing a red fox on our block one morning. I knew foxes lived on the golf
course at the Champaign Country Club, but we live near Central High School. So
how cool is that? At this time of year it’s not unusual for people to see deer
and coyotes around the outskirts of town, too.
You can further expand the terrain for a
conversation about wildlife by asking people about memorable encounters they
had with animals when they were growing up. (I remember very little from the
year I turned ten, but am happy to tell about the day that summer my brother
and I found a bobcat in the woods near our home in suburban Cincinnati.) Hunters
and anglers tend to head down this path with great enthusiasm, so it might be
worthwhile contemplating in advance how to bring this conversation back to terms
suited to a mixed group.
If you’ve got a wildlife story or photo to share,
or you would like to keep up with the ones I come across, you’re welcome to
join me at the newly launched Environmental Almanac page on facebook at www.facebook.com/environmentalalmanac.
Among other things, you can see photos of all the animals we saw in the Rockies
this year.
