In a piece of water, the blue masks that are only stretched open by the water flow are fully stretched. They are thin and thin. The earbands resemble flexible tentacles, swaying lightly and wandering freely, just like floating umbrella-shaped jellyfish.
Seeing such a metaphor, you might think that the scene is beautiful, and the decorative words and metaphors are vivid and appropriate. Masks and jellyfish, two unrelated species, are miraculously used by analogy because of their similar colors and similar sizes.
However, it was not me who came up with this metaphor, but a group of out-and-out marine creatures. They are different from me. They are not only keen on analyzing the composition and flavor of the language, but they are really real. In the process of predation, they mistake the masks that fall in the water and wander slowly for delicious jellyfish. Serious consequences.
You might think that a mask is a symbol of safety. If you loosen your ear straps, there must be a ruddy human face and a protected expression of safety underneath. In fact, after unwrapping a thin and light protective mask on different occasions, I saw something surprising underneath it. It was the mouth of a macaque, the feet of a pair of crabs, the legs of a pair of seagulls, a pufferfish in an inflated state, and even a whole baby octopus.
Why do animals encounter masks? Why do masks cover these strange body parts? How do masks invade the territory of birds and marine life? These questions hit my mind all at once.
Let us get the five masks mentioned above and go to the scene where the masks were discovered to explore the truth in detail!
Scene 1: Macaques and masks
We climbed a hillside and ran into this pair of macaques on the hills outside Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Masks are a new item to them. They chew on the straps of the masks and tear the masks of the masks, looking curious and having fun. However, according to expert analysis, such fun behaviors can easily spread the virus, and there is also a potential choking hazard for the macaque itself, and the ingested plastic can even cause fatal intestinal obstruction. At this point, you realize that masks, as highly effective protection products recently, have such a big health hazard on animals.
Scene 2: Crabs and masks
After observing the macaques, we dived into the blue sea and encountered a crab with a strange behavior. It seems to be carrying a special-shaped and slowly leaking hot air balloon, shaking and falling continuously. Take a closer look, a blue mask tightly entangles the crab’s two pincers, like a long swimming ring, trapping a very small crab, causing it to gradually become weak, lose its balance in movement, and lose its direction. Fall deeper. We hurriedly caught the small and ordinary mask for humans, but under the visual impact we realized that juvenile crabs may also be a small and ordinary species for masks.
Scene 3: Seagulls and masks
Back in the busy street, we found a wounded seagull. Its damage was not on its wings, but it could not fly into the sky. It turned out that the legs of the seagull were entangled in the earbands of the mask for a week, and the joints had been severely swollen, and they could only walk funny and staggering on the road, just like a girl with her feet bound for the first time. When the seagull’s legs were untied, the mask looked like a dark letter, but it was never delivered to the correct address.
Scene 4: Puffer fish and masks
Walking down the street to the bank of the river, an angry pufferfish has died. It is in a brightly inflated state, which means that it thinks it has encountered an enemy, and this enemy is different from the past, it is actually a disposable mask. The pufferfish was attacking with all its strength, and the thorns born in an emergency pierced the mask, but they were still exhausted in front of this behemoth and defeated. It never thought that the harder it was to inflate it, the more it would tighten the ear straps of this mask, which would put itself in a more dangerous situation.
Scene 5: Octopus and mask
We dived into the bottom of the ocean again inconceivably. This time we saw a static mask, which was very dangerous, but fortunately it did not cause any harm. We took a breath and picked up the ordinary mask that fell beside the coral. Unexpectedly, the moment it was lifted, a dark-colored baby octopus appeared in the field of vision with almost convulsive tentacles. Its state is not as fast as it is usually seen in documentaries. It has a quick response, sprays black mist, and swims extremely fast. It can’t move at all and has lost its vitality. The mask is like an airtight tent, and it shields it tightly, slowly causing it to lose its strength to struggle.
At this time, do you still think that the analogy of masks and jellyfish has a sea-flavored romance? It is just a trance hallucinogen in the eyes of marine life, which can bring deceptive illusions. After mistakenly swallowing masks as a staple food, or just entangled with mask earbands for a long time, the tragedies such as physical exhaustion and suffocation risk caused by this have been solidly pierced through this bubble-like metaphor, and the only thing left is a mirage-like sigh. .
After visiting the five masks, we changed our impression of masks in the past. Originally, we regarded it as the most effective protective equipment for safety and security, because wearing this simple facial protective gear, we can walk on the street with greater peace of mind, step into the outdoors, and enjoy nature at a distance. Now, although this small tool protects the user, due to our random disposal and improper handling, animals are facing a new type of crisis.
In fact, there will be about 1.6 billion masks flowing into the ocean in 2020 alone, and it will take at least 450 years for these masks to be decomposed. If the mask is a small mask that belongs only to humans in a special period, how to wear and manage this mask and how to maximize the warmth under the mask are issues that we should think about. Masks should not be frequent visitors in natural places. When you need to discard old masks, please cut off the ear straps that may be entangled with small animals, and directly put them into special mask disposal buckets or medical waste bags for centralized disposal by professional institutions.
