for bionerd: context drawn from sub-primates
These prairie fires erupt here periodically, and believe it or not gender is not typically an issue (which should be no surprise given the 3:50 ratio of active members). Think of caged (or not) animals of a single species you've observed, either directly or through the lens of a documentarian, times past: birds, dogs or (for our present purposes) a colony of howler monkeys. Now and again, for reasons that probably make sense to the participants but which mystify the casual onlooker, a quarrel erupts, with much screeching, flailing, posturing and occasional biting and scratching exchanged within the troop. In nature this generally serves to settle dominance heirarchies. Because most of us at IWT have actually shed our tails by now (box will have to drop his drawers before I'm convinced), the dynamics are a little more complex. Times past these contretemps have led to the self-exile of valued members, but most of us are thicker-skinned.
Women are a rarity here, but once the friskier members of the troop have settled down you can look forward to attaining the coveted "one of the howler monkeys" status, which is already yours in the eyes of those of us, ahem, of breeding and discernment.
cordially,
[edit: typo]
