Inbreeding

For once, this blog will refer to inbreeding as an actual (and in this case, sadly unavoidable) condition and not as an insult directed at stupid people.

There's this pond by the mall where I take the baby for library storytime. The pond is completely surrounded by parking lots, streets, etc., with no other greenspaces nearby except across a busy road. Still, it's a thriving hotspot for ducks and nutria! I always look for the nutria when I pass by there and am rarely disappointed; the little cuddly brown creatures are usually foraging in the grass, right there along the sidewalk, as if cars were not zipping past on a busy street.

This afternoon I went by myself to the mall to pick up a necklace I'd had repaired and as I passed the pond, I saw something on the grass and thought to myself, Gaaah, people are such pigs, there's some trash on the grass... I looked again and found that it was an albino nutria! I rounded the curve and saw another one in the grass on the other side of the pond.

Now, I am pretty sure nutria are a non-native species, and probably undesirable, but it's not the fault of these particular nutria that they are here, and I can't help but root for the underdog. They are so cute... The albinism is most likely due to inbreeding, one would think, because there doesn't seem to be a way for the population of this pond to breed with a different population elsewhere. Not without some change and a fairly comprehensive understanding of the local public transit.

So, I will continue to be excited about spotting what amount to be giant rats around the mall pond, and I will marvel at the white ones. I'm just that way.