Gorongosa 2024-FULL-FINAL - Flipbook - Page 17
ENVI RONM ENT
|
goroNgosA sPeciAl
A Map of life
like None other
In one of the most biodiverse places on the
planet, scientists are charting the amazing
web of life
BY K ATHAR INE G AMM ON
T
HERE’S A PSYCHOLOGICAL PHENOMENON
called pareidolia that Piotr Naskrecki, an
entomologist from Harvard University,
often thinks about on slow walks around
Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique. Pareidolia
describes an experience when people see a meaningful
image in a random visual pattern: faces in a piece of
toast, human figures in trees. It has to do with our
evolution. In our prehistoric years, humans needed to
be prepared for anything hiding in the bushes. Even if
a poisonous snake turned out to have been a stick, it
was a good idea to have jumped over it. At Gorongosa,
Naskrecki harnesses this basic human impulse for science. “I let my mind take the reins of my imagination
and guide me toward finding things that I normally
would have completely missed,” he says.
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