Unearthing the Original Mediterranean Diet 🐟

Every animal has its day and Wednesday was World Monkey Day.

We are monkey-free here on the west coast of Canada. But we still celebrate the over 260 species of monkeys worldwide, especially the one with an odd nose, a potbelly, and fur the color of pumpkin, with hints of garnet in the shining sun: the proboscis monkey.

Proboscis monkeys live only on the island of Borneo, where they monkey around in mangroves, on beaches, and along rivers. The first time I saw them was on a beach in Bako National Park. A big male sat in a fig tree watching the humans watching him and his harem. The mothers and their brood flickered amid the branches, scurrying and leaping, tree limbs bowing as the monkeys landed and springing like trebuchets when the monkeys jumped off. The trees quivered with life.

The second time I saw the monkeys was a week or so later, in the north of Borneo, along the Kinabatangan River. Almost 2,000 proboscis monkeys roam the lower river, which flows through a corridor of old-growth forest, a haven for these endangered creatures. I wrote a story—“The Wonderful, Transcendent Life of an Odd-Nosed Monkey”—about the trip to the river and the Danau Girang Field Centre (DGFC) where scientists study the mysterious primates. The DGFC researchers have filled in basic knowledge gaps about this coastal and riverine monkey, a species that puzzled researchers for most of the 20th century. And the key to knowing a species is knowing more about how to protect it.

We’re a hopeful bunch here at the magazine, and in honor of World Monkey Day, I reached out to Benoît Goossens and company at the DGFC for a proboscis update. The monkeys may remain in a precarious position, but they’re doing well. Hope is the thing with pumpkin fur, a big nose, and a potbelly perching in a fig tree, honking its schnoz.

Jude Isabella
Founding editor

PS Studying anthropology at university, I adored primatology, and all things archaeological. This week, as if monkeys were not enough, we have a story about one archaeologist’s quest for ancient fish along the Mediterranean’s shoreline. She found the original Mediterranean Diet.

This Week’s Stories

Unearthing the Original Mediterranean Diet

Archaeologist Dimitra Mylona’s odyssey to reveal the Mediterranean Sea’s lost bounty.

by Paul Greenberg • 3,200 words / 16 mins

What Is “Urbanized Knowledge Syndrome”?

Survey research suggests people who live in highly built landscapes tend to think more simply about coastal environments.

by Steve Murray • 800 words / 4 mins

Rethinking the Resilience of Salt Marshes

The painstakingly slow recovery of an Oregon marsh raises new worries about how delicate these ecosystems can be.

by Meghan Bartels • 550 words / 2 mins

The Wonderful, Transcendent Life of an Odd-Nosed Monkey

The island of Borneo is the only home of the proboscis monkey, an endangered primate that is surprisingly resilient.

by Jude Isabella • 5,400 words / 27 mins
Originally published in 2020, this story is updated with new details.

What We’re Reading

Need a fun fact to share at your upcoming end-of-year parties? Well, look no further! In the 1960s, the crew onboard a submersible called Alvin abandoned ship after a gear malfunction, leaving behind their packed lunches. When the sub was recovered from the seabed 10 months later, the bologna sandwiches were still fresh. This long underwater shelf life is a result of carbon cycling in the deep. (Wired)

A severely injured humpback named Moon has completed a 4,300-kilometer journey against all odds. In early December, experts spotted the female whale off Hawai‘i. She’d migrated from the British Columbia coast as usual, but there was a catch: her back was broken and twisted, leaving her tail paralyzed. Scientists are amazed, but they worry Moon won’t survive the return trip. (CBC)

Conservation groups have warned that eels—which are already critically endangered—will face a tough battle in 2023. Annual fishing negotiations have concluded with quotas for European waters being set well above what scientists said declining eel populations could handle. (The Guardian)

Speaking of slithering sea creatures, the fossil remains of two new marine worms that lived 455 million years ago have been discovered in Morocco. During the Paleozoic era, before dinosaurs roamed the Earth, these giant worms inhabited the oceans. (Phys.org)

Is it possible to determine the true cost of a traditional smoked salmon? Jared Qwustenuxun Williams, a Quw’utsun chef working on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, breaks down the price of this sacred food in the Western market while acknowledging that its traditional value is impossible to quantify. (IndigiNews)

As easy as it would be to smirk at a book called Looking for the Hidden Folk: How Iceland’s Elves Can Save the Earth, consider that this is the time of year when many of us make magic for children with stories of elves and a miraculous man who can circle the Earth in 24 hours. Author Nancy Marie Brown quickly dispenses with the question of whether elves are real or not and asks us instead to consider what we mean when we say something is real? “Are gravity and dark matter real?” Today, we explain the universe through invisible phenomenon; is this just the modern iteration of how elves and other huldufólk (hidden folk) once helped make sense of living in a harsh and rugged land? Brown, a cultural historian, has traveled to and written about Iceland for over three decades, and her resulting book is a quirky and fascinating exploration, even a “mischievous guide,” that helps animate the Icelandic landscape and inspire its protection.

In episode two of the Hakai Institute’s video series Whale Bones, Mike deRoos and his team arrive on Calvert Island, British Columbia. Their goal: to retrieve this young humpback whale’s bones and prepare them for display. As they strip back layers of muscle and blubber, they uncover a clue that reveals what killed the whale. (Video length: 10 mins 15 secs)

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