homo sapiens sapiens | mensch

999. HOMINIDAE: Hominini - Homo

Mensch | Mensch (A) - Human

ID: easily identifiable by the waste they leave behind; still some of the more stupid specimens might be mistaken for Apes (genus Pan, or even Gorilla in some cases); note: it isn't too bad to confuse Humans with Apes, but never make the mistake of mixing them up with Monkeys

Habitat: since their ancestors descended from the trees Humans have become a rather secretive species and prefer to live in houses; they even spend a great deal of effort (and money as they call it, some medium of exchange they value highly) to build them (or exchange them for money): it seems that their houses are a status symbol just like the horns of a bull or the comb of a cock, and to own a nice house definitely makes them sexually more attractive to the opposite sex
2007.08.01/b 48°06' N 16°51' E (male house-dweller in a Carnuntum villa 175 m, NÖ BL 2404 Petronell)

Habitus: they are bipeds who however are able to move in quadrupedal motion when required (also their young do before they learn to walk upright); a plump and usually quite ugly torso thus usually has four limbes attached to it, and on top of it a head which seems to be the centre of their intellectual activity (except when they're in the rut at which time lower body parts take over); here's a typical head, covered with a hat (Humans are eager to cover their bodies with synthethic materials):
2009.09.25/b 46°57' N 14°25' E (small town 634 m, K SV 9360 Friesach)
Humans are divided into several races, here's one of mixed race (African/European):
1990.02.25/b 48°33' N 13°46' E (Rastafarian, 510 m, OÖ RO 4144 Oberkappel)

Here you can see some mutantes who seem to have grown sticks from their hands which, for some reason, they don't want to have removed surgically even though Human culture would (or should) be capable to do away with them:
2009.09.13/b 48°11' N 16°29' E (bridge in Lobau 153 m, Wien 22)
Also there seems to exist a three-dimensional race of humans (two dimensions plus time) which strangely enough seems to thrive well in the four-dimensional space-time of our universe:
2009.09.22/b 48°11' N 16°29' E Homo sapiens f. planus (Lobau 154 m, Wien 22)

Way of Life: predators, scavengers and omnivores - they eat almost anything; in order to make their living transport is very important: they've built a world-wide infrastructure just for this purpose, here you can see one of them using a vehicle called bicycle:
2008.09.12/b 48°11' N 16°24' E (broad street as they call it, 165 m, Wien 3)
Here you see them fishing; they wait hours on end to catch just a few fish and even then they throw most of their catch back into the waters:
2008.10.09/b 48°09' N 16°29' E (bayou, 152 m, Wien 11)
And here some scavengers sharing their loot:
1994.08.26/b 48°17' N 14°17' E (city, 260 m, OÖ L 4020 Linz/D)
Strangely, this species has a habit of producing reproductions of their kind - be it with painting walls or paper, or of chiseling idols out of stones, or of forming some from snow:
2009.12.25/b 48°33' N 13°46' E (Mühlviertel, 710 m, OÖ 4141 Pfarrkirchen/M)
It is unknown why they do it; they call this "culture" but probably this is just an euphemism for vanity.

Reproduction: sexually, but little is known about reproduction rituals - not because they'd be so secretive about (which they aren't at all) but because it seems there is no clearly defined ritual as how they are supposed to approach the opposite sex; for once it isn't always necessary the male who is the active part nor is it the female but roles might change in an unpredictable way, so here we can only offer some observations:
2008.08.01/b 48°10' N 16°18' E (female making a trophy shot of a male - outside the picture - she seems to have taken recently, Schönbrunn park 235 m, Wien 13)

Strangely enough some Humans seem to be in the rut all around the year while others seemingly are not interested in sex at all for long periods of time; this surely should have some biological or social reasons but so far the mechanisms governing this behaviour haven't been discovered. Below you can see two shots of women considered to be sexually attractive, the first one being a photograph (with two fully dressed women), the second one a piece of art where secondary sexual organs are exposed in a way which may seem ugly to you but which is nothing out of the ordinary in Human culture (there exist taboos to expose primary sexual organs the same way but this still is done, if usually not as openly):
2008.11.23/b 48°14' N 16°24' E (exhibition, 165 m, Wien 22)
2008.08.01/b 48°13' N 16°21' E (street/bridge m, Wien 9)

Occurence: basically everywhere, but preferably in crowded places:
2010-11-21/f 48°11' N 16°20' E (Vienna XV. district, Giatl)

Peculiarities: some very strange habits of Homo sapiens are still unclear, like this one here for which so far no explanations have come forth:
2008.06.21/b 48°31' N 13°52' E (agglomeration of houses = a village at 603 m, OÖ RO 4134 Putzleinsdorf)

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