When asked about his fascination with the animal by [Dick] Cavett, the artist describes anteaters as “angelic.” A master of PR, Dalí knew well by this stage in his career the marketability of his eccentricities but even so, his longstanding affinity to anteaters does seem earnest, and certainly well-documented.

Photo: Salvador Dalí walking a giant anteater in Paris, 1969.

...his longstanding affinity to anteaters does seem earnest, and certainly well-documented.

That's interesting. I've seen this photo before, but always kind of figured it was a stunt, as Dalí had a penchant for.

I wonder if he possibly had his buddy here declawed, as some (asshole) owners of cats do. IIRC, anteater claws are so powerful that they can rip apart termite mounds, which are much like cement in toughness.

@anon6789@lemmy.world

Very interesting! Meeting and aardvark or anteater is a current top priority on my non-owl list of animals I must encounter. I've seen them at zoos, but we have always been on opposite sides of the display, which I'd like to remedy at some point.

I couldn't find anything saying that anteater was his actual pet. The baby one he took on Dick Cavett was a loaner from the Bronx Zoo, and from all I could find, the one from the Paris photo was also most likely borrowed from a zoo. (Ahhh, the things one could do with animals before we collectively decided they may have conciousnesses of their own...)

It sees he did actually have a "pet" ocelot, given to him by a Columbian head of state. It's name was Babou, and is apparently the inspiration for Cheryl's ocelot Babou in the cartoon series Archer.

The Dick Cavett interview is a real trip. The poor baby anteater gets tossed on the floor, a table, and finally launched on the guest actress by Dali and even she scolds him saying he scared the poor thing.

Meeting and aardvark or anteater is a current top priority on my non-owl list of animals I must encounter.

Now this is someone with their priorities in order. Multiple "must meet" animal lists, split by type. I like your style!

The poor baby anteater gets tossed on the floor...

What a fucking asshole.
Then again, foof... different Iberian culture... one in which they enjoy watching brave / foolhardy matadors enrage, and then break down upon death a healthy bovine-bull through their showy gallantry, or however that goes.

As much as that and famous 'tiger-trainer' Mabel Stark bother me, it's still just a microscopic drop in the bucket when it comes to modern "animal-husbandry," which has become so utterly cruel and soulless as to... well, that's probably a post for another day. 😅

Still, I find there's a certain philosophical / ideological quandary-- better to have the brutal 'Roman Circus' right in front of your eyes, or better for people out-of-sight to be doing the most horrific things to habitat, and animals 'less important to humanity,' etc.

(eh, this is like a bunch of comments upon all kinds of stuff, so I apologise for going a bit off the rails, mate; my bad)

FWIW, some find an alternative to "declawing"(literal amputation of the first knuckle of each toe 😫) are little polymer caps, instead.

Planning a trip now to the Scottish Owl Centre for next April! Largest collection of owls in the world, so many will get checked off the list there.

Checked off Red Panda this year. He kept pawing me for treats, which I, of course, gave him.

Cleared my rabies antibody response test, so many more doors have also opened up for me to boop many more noses.

Full grown hippo is my biggest boop so far, which will be hard to top.

Some people have definitely ruined it for the rest of us. The stories I hear from rehabbers of what they used to be able to do in the 80s and earlier look rather crazy now in a regulated world. They were at least doing things for the good of the animals, and the why for not being able to do those things anymore is much more about human safety, but alas, some will always use opportunities to do ignorant and careless things.

Huh!
I'm almost afraid to ask, but...

Ask? If I've experience with the former? Hell no. The latter? My ol' Maine Coon tolerated my efforts until the scene concluded, and then she calmly removed them to finish with a look that said, clearly, "You done? Happy? That's a one-off." 😅🥰

What a fucking asshole.

While Dalí is my favorite artist, the more I learn about him as a person the more I hate him. He was not a great guy.

Funny thing-- probably my two favorite artists of all time are a Dutch guy, and a non-Dalí Spanish guy. And there's a famous / punk-ish song about one of them, alleging he was "never an asshole," and yet from the books and lit I've read... he was totally an asshole.

And the other poor bloke's story only gets more complicated over the years, as in historians seem to be increasingly entertaining the idea that Vincent was in fact murdered... and they even know who the culprit was!

Salvador Dali was also a proud fascist. Fuck that guy.

I bet that anteater seen some shit, literally

When you consistently live your life from one stunt to the next, are they really stunts?

"Well, I certainly hope so!"
:D

Okay, that's the 'hammer in the coffin' for me.

REALLY?

You're braver than me. Have fun!

That's kind of you to use that adjective to describe my actions. My wife and ex have used many more colorful ones to describe my desire to touch every animal. 😄

No-one ever called Pablo Picasso an asshole.

Okay, if it's not down to rank jealousy, then... the mystery abounds! oO

I always try to share the opportunity, but I'm much more comfortable with seizing the rare opportunity for the story, hence the hippo boop, and I also kissed the nose of a shark I caught fishing (somewhere in the 2-3 foot range). Other stuff like the big tarantulas or hissing roaches were just too high on the creepy crawly scale for them. The hissing roach was surprisingly friendly for an invertebrate.

Well I'm not sure we followed the same comment-chain logic, but I feel you, matey. And mucho thanks for checking in, here. Actually, I'd looked up c/animals a little before, and based on the last thing I read, my mind was asploded about specific vertebrae developed and non-developed in terms of neck bones. That was some awesome research IMO.

Fuck, we need to get you a web-TV series stat, assuming you look and/or sound a bit interesting?

They probably should've, guy was an artistic genius but not a great person

I'm no Steve Irwin, but they've put weirder people than me on TV before! 😉

That vertebrae study was really cool and had a lot of surprises in it. My wife does X-rays for a living, so I was talking to her about it for a bit. She seemed mildly interested, in a wife sort of way, but I don't think she wanted to hear about more work stuff after she got home...

I'm glad you all like still hearing me ramble on about all things animal here.

His Wikipedia article is quite the read.. he believed in superior races and that slavery is part of natural order.

I don’t think she wanted to hear about more work stuff after she got home…

Haha... oh yeah, I know that one. XD

I’m glad you all like still hearing me ramble on about all things animal here.

It's just plain awesome to me, but TBH I also get frustrated with myself at times that I can't keep up with you.

In any case, like most people I have many interests, but animals & plants are high on my list, partly because we're so danged entwined with them on so many current & historic levels, and it frankly pisses me the hell off that we moderns seem to have largely forgotten that. Forgotten almost *everything*, in practical terms. Now, I'm not gonna go with the word "sacrilege," but the absurd assumptions we modern doofuses commonly make in our heads about animals, the environment, plants, sustainability are just... ugh.

Oh dear... late-reply alert! :S

Nawww, you do good with what you do. I'm happy anyone who is still posting and replying is still doing so in whatever capacity.

I said about as much on my snake post this morning that it's kinda crazy how many of us know more about tech or space or the Roman Empire or what not than we do the plants and animals in our literal back yards. Our ancient ancestors would look at us like we were the biggest bozos. 😅