Honey Badger

According to the news magazine, The Week, arrau turtle moms talk to babies while they are still in the egg. Amazing, right? I mean, I know many pregnant women who sing, talk, and play music to their pregnant bellies and firmly believe they are communicating. However, these mommy turtles communicate to their future hatchlings a certain time to break out of their shells and head for the sea. Going en-masse increases the likelihood of more babies making it to the protection of the water without being eaten by predators.

I learned this bit of turtle trivia back in February 2023. Since then, I have visited Jekyll Island on the coast of Georgia and met Honey Badger, an injured loggerhead turtle. The local turtle center rescues injured and sick turtles, in addition to protecting the nests of turtle eggs to increase the hatchlings’ chances for survival. On my visit, I met Honey Badger, a loggerhead juvenile who had suffered a fractured carapace (shell). I also learned that the gender of these long-lived survivors isn’t evident until they reach 30 years of age—so we are just assuming that Honey Badger is a girl.

So, imagine that humans can really communicate with their embryo growing in the womb. What would you tell it? “Hi! Welcome to the world where you can be shot and killed in your kindergarten class, raped and forced to have an unwanted child, trafficked for sex or labor, forced into child soldiering, and deprived of basic necessities while the top one percent owns mansions and yachts on three continents. You can watch as much violence and sex on TV and social media as you can stomach, but don’t expect to grow into an empathic and loving adult. Oh, and did I tell you that, due to climate change, you may not have food to eat or water to drink? But don’t worry! There are plenty of folks who will get you hooked on fentanyl, so you won’t care.”