fur or no: horrible, horrible creatures…I thank heavens that they are small and live underground

Or maybe a frog that just finished giving one of his toad buddies a tongue bath.

The NYT gallery is interesting. The photos of animal faces seemed at first to me like attempts to make animals seem human–the whole anthropomorphism problem. 

But there’s something about these photos that doesn’t do that. Instead, they remind me that human animals aren’t so different from other animals. The latter have different personalities, just like people do, and a careful observer can see that in their faces. They also have intelligence and, no doubt, their own versions of “thoughts.”

This page does that for me too–

http://www.jamesmollison.com/project_apes.php 

These careful, humane (ha!) photos makes me think that the whole concept of anthropomorphism is cracked. Those who fling it about often go too far in perceiving a line between “animals” and “people” that isn’t really there.