Althouse: “When you think of wildlife photography, do you see mice brawling on a dirty London Underground platform?”

February 12, 2020

“When you think of wildlife photography, do you see mice brawling on a dirty London Underground platform?”

An unusual choice for the win, on view at NPR.

43 comments:

mccullough said...: Next years winner will be photos of the buffet line at The Golden Corral; 2/12/20, 4:12 PM
Iman said...: Those are rats, not mice.; 2/12/20, 4:24 PM
Lucid-Ideas said...: This is the excuse Althouse was looking for to start drawing rodents again.; 2/12/20, 4:28 PM
Maillard Reactionary said...: Well of course, it's a good photograph as such. There's a dedicated, if perhaps misdirected, lad.

I'm not sure subway mice are exactly "wildlife", though. They're more of a domesticated species, or symbiont of ours, I think.

I can recall seeing them sometimes on the platforms of Philly stations, or even in sidewalk planters, while stuck in traffic. For some reason, the sight always made me feel a bit sad, not because I thought the mice were leading a terrible life, but perhaps because they were a metaphor for how thin the veneer of civilization is.; 2/12/20, 4:30 PM
Maillard Reactionary said...: Lucid-Ideas-- If I hear she's lying flat on the subway platform to sketch them, I'll be right behind to photograph her doing it.; 2/12/20, 4:31 PM
Anonymous said...: I love that photo.

Iman - How can you identify the squabblers as rats? What are the distinguishing mouse vs. rat features? I think I can easily tell the difference up closer, but not at that distance.; 2/12/20, 4:33 PM
Bill Peschel said...: Is this a Brexit reference. (Kidding, I think); 2/12/20, 4:34 PM
Wince said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/12/20, 4:37 PM
Ken B said...: Meh. It'll be stale by the next election.; 2/12/20, 4:37 PM
DrSquid said...: Doesn't look all that dirty to me, I've seen worse.; 2/12/20, 4:38 PM
Iman said...: You can tell by their size and if you look closely, Samurai Buzzard, you’ll note that the rat with the upper paw has his left paw throttling his opponent and - though barely discernible - a rust straight razor in his other paw.; 2/12/20, 4:39 PM
Anonymous said...: Bill P: Is this a Brexit reference. (Kidding, I think)

Brexiteer on the right, Remainer on the left.; 2/12/20, 4:40 PM
Wince said...: That's awesome!

It looks like one rodent has grabbed the other by the lapels and is shaking him down.

"You dirty Rat!"; 2/12/20, 4:40 PM
Anonymous said...: Iman: You can tell by their size and if you look closely, Samurai Buzzard, you’ll note that the rat with the upper paw has his left paw throttling his opponent and - though barely discernible - a rust straight razor in his other paw.

The razor, of course! I'd forgotten that classic taxonomic identifier.; 2/12/20, 4:43 PM
robother said...: The first rule of the Mice Club....; 2/12/20, 4:49 PM
h said...: I love the photo, I think it is worthy of winning a prize in the "wildlife" category; they look like mice to me; I'm not so sure that they are fighting.; 2/12/20, 4:51 PM
Ralph L said...: Did they show the other 47,999 entries on NPR?; 2/12/20, 4:52 PM
MadisonMan said...: If you enter a contest, make sure you submit something different from all other entries.; 2/12/20, 4:53 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Sanders and Buttuvwxyz?; 2/12/20, 5:00 PM
Iman said...: Only rats and CornPop fight dirty with rusty razors!; 2/12/20, 5:04 PM
Iman said...: “I'm not so sure that they are fighting.”

What... do you think one is straightening the other’s necktie ?; 2/12/20, 5:06 PM
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...: "martial rats"; 2/12/20, 5:14 PM
Danno said...: I'm not sure subway mice are exactly "wildlife"

Just as much as a picture of some jihadi slashing or stabbing some hapless UK tourist.; 2/12/20, 5:28 PM
readering said...: Must have been a heck of a morsel of stewed vegetable.; 2/12/20, 5:28 PM
Danno said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/12/20, 5:29 PM
Lloyd W. Robertson said...: Iman: I've been told rats don't live in subway tunnels. They apparently can't stand the vibration.; 2/12/20, 5:42 PM
whitney said...: I was all prepared to talk about how NPR is mired in the gutter and hates Beauty but I looked at the photograph and I really like it. So there you have it; 2/12/20, 5:58 PM
SDaly said...: Do we know the sexes of those mice? Would it be just as funny if it was a male mouse bearing up on a female? Without that information, I do not know how I fell about that image.; 2/12/20, 6:10 PM
traditionalguy said...: Wrestling Rats.; 2/12/20, 6:13 PM
Susan said...: Anyone who has ever had their lunch money stolen recognizes this scenario.; 2/12/20, 6:32 PM
rehajm said...: It’s a great shot. Well deserved. If I ever get back to Africa I’m going all macro. Dung beetles, caterpillars, kill shots with those little lizards on the screen doors nabbing the giant termites.; 2/12/20, 6:46 PM
FullMoon said...: It's staged, saw those trained rodents on Britain's got talent last year., eliminated before finals by the acrobatic cats.; 2/12/20, 7:26 PM
Anonymous said...: Feed at the trough a bit longer. They'll be defended and your responsibility next year.; 2/12/20, 7:39 PM
Breezy said...: They seem to be so human... amazing shot!; 2/12/20, 7:58 PM
Ralph L said...: I'm watching candid wild deer video on The Pet Collective, so this goes both ways.; 2/12/20, 8:13 PM
Joe Biden, America's Putin said...: Begs for captions.

"Listen you little bitch, next time I get the ladies purse with the cheese. me."; 2/12/20, 8:24 PM
robother said...: M I C...you later you little punk!

K E Y Why? because all your cheese are belong to me!

M O U S A!; 2/12/20, 8:32 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Amazing what you can do with Photoshop these days; 2/12/20, 8:43 PM
Anon said...: I love it. I live in an inner suburb and we have foxes, deer, possums, raccoons, and squirrels, plus birds and, I'm sure, rats and mice. They are wildlife.; 2/12/20, 9:14 PM
lgv said...: As an amateur wildlife photographer, it is unusual, but still easily within the category of wildlife. I have a photo of a cougar on our wooden fence inside the city limits of Dallas. Wildlife can be found in urban settings.

"Amazing what you can do with Photoshop these days"

Contest winning photos are scrutinized. Typically you have to show the RAW image as captured in camera. Wildlife photographers cheat by setting up the shot artificially, not via Photoshop. Cheaters using photoshop get caught, but it doesn't stop thousands of faked photoshopped entries. I know judges who tell stories of all the stupid entries. Blatant cheating is the cultural norm in some former Soviet countries.; 2/13/20, 4:31 AM
stlcdr said...: How does someone decide to spend hours in the subway trying to get photos of ‘wildlife”? It is a good picture, though. It’s not as if there’s a ‘thing’ going on, and you’d like to get a good picture of it, and end up taking ten thousand pictures to get it.; 2/13/20, 5:37 AM
wildswan said...: great idea, great preparation, great shot.; 2/13/20, 10:48 AM
wildswan said...: You never said we change back at midnight.; 2/13/20, 10:57 AM