Cartozoology, the discipline dedicated to the discovery and study of animals outlined paradigmatically by street layouts as they appear on maps, took almost three decades to mature from idea to reality. It was conceived in 1974 on a plane between Oslo and Reykjavik; but the Norwegian Cartozoological Society was founded only in 2003. It seems to have produced only a handful of specimens and now appears to be dormant.
But what beauty, grace and humour those few specimens exhibit!
Patient zero of cartozoology was the Ur-Fish, a sea-dweller whose rudimentary shape was summarily extracted from Oslo’s grid of city streets. Later examples show more elegance and sophistication. A personal favourite is the West Side Riesenterrier (Canis diplomaticus), discovered between Oslo’s Slotsparken and Frognerparken in January 2003 by Roger Pihl, Secretary-General of the NCS.
Another nice one is the Ring-Nosed Dala Horse (Equus vallis circumnasata), discovered in March of 2003 by Eilert Sundt, another NCS Secretary-General.
Maybe it’s time to wake the NCS from its slumber, and expand the scope of cartozoology beyond its initial (and only) hunting grounds in Scandinavia. Here is the original NGS website in Norwegian (English version here). Strange Maps also welcomes new examples of cartozoology, and will showcase the best examples if and when enough fitting specimens are sent in.
Cartozoology was brought to our attention by musubana in the comments section of the recent entry on the Afro-Latinosaurus Rex (#420).
My old property law professor at Yale Law School famously refers to New Haven, CT as having the shape of a “pregnant kangaroo.” The outline created by the city’s meandering boundary does bear a certain resemblance. What do you think?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NewHavenAreaOutlineMap.png
http://www.ctdatahaven.org/img/map_neighborhood.jpg
Comment by sosa1998 — November 3, 2009 @ 11:22 pm
North Haven on the above wikipedia map looks like a guy’s head in profile (nose, mouth, ear) with his face looking west.
Comment by sabernar — November 4, 2009 @ 1:57 am
Reminds me of animalsontheunderground.com
Comment by hc5duke — November 4, 2009 @ 4:59 am
More than 10 years ago I saw a map with a cock on it. It was drawn on the streets around Hahn (the german word for “cock”).
It’s the village where the airport “Frankfurt-Hahn” ist located – although Frankfurt ist about 120km away.
Since then I’m searching for a copy of this map!
Comment by trillian — November 4, 2009 @ 7:11 am
I suppose the original cartozoological manipulation would be by Eldridge Gerry in Massachussets in the early 19th century, when he manipulated the boundaries of a voting district to maximize his vote. It looked like a salamander – hence gerrymander
Comment by Jonny Morris — November 4, 2009 @ 8:22 am
The original of this is the Glastonbury Zodiac, in Somersey, UK, ‘discovered’ by Katherine Maltwood. It can be seen here: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/GGZodiac2.html
A similar zodiac was worked out around Kingston upon Thames in Surrey, By Mary Caine
Comment by john rimmer — November 4, 2009 @ 8:36 am
Here’s a strange map: http://blog.vodkaster.com/2009/06/25/the-top-250-best-movies-of-all-time-map/
The question is why they placed Stalag 17 rather than Dr Strangelove at the crossroads of War and Comedy.
Comment by Job — November 4, 2009 @ 11:11 am
This is becoming really exciting for me!
Imagining an animal shape for countries and islands is a fascinating endeavor, even more fascinating than street layouts.
The French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe obviously looks like a butterfly.
The largest island of the Philippines, Luzon, vaguely looks like an octopus swimming toward Vietnam.
If you look at a map of Finland and then turn the map 90 degrees clockwise (so as West is Up), then Finland looks like a snail, with its Lappish protrusions into Norway as the snail’s antennas.
An old Lonely Planet guide of Slovenia mentioned that the country looks like a hen running toward Hungary, with the region of Prekmurje as the hen’s head and the town of Murska Sobota as the hen’s eye.
Feng Shui fans in Japan like to view the archipel as a mythical dragon. They state that the Seikan train tunnel linking Hokkaido (the head of the dragon) with Honshu (the body of the dragon) is “bad feng shui” because it slits the throat of the dragon.
Maori mythology views the North Island of New Zealand as a big fish (a manta?) captured by mythical hero Maui, hence the name Te Ika A Maui (the fish of Maui).
With a little bit of imagination, beautiful Iceland looks like an ugly deep sea blackdevil angler fish (Melanocetus johnsonii) swimming toward Greenland, the Westfjords as the luminescent lure that fish uses to attract its prey.
Comment by Stergios — November 4, 2009 @ 11:46 am
Rolf Harris used to use a map of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (with Ireland itself also shown) that was drawn as a kangaroo (England, Scotland, Wales) facing a koala (NI+ Ireland). Sadly I can’t find an example online but it was very convincing.
Comment by Gridlock — November 4, 2009 @ 4:14 pm
In the abscence of an illustration; the Mull of Kintyre becomes the kangaroo’s arms, Devon and Cornwall it’s hind legs, Kent its behind, the Higlands its head, etc
Comment by Gridlock — November 4, 2009 @ 4:16 pm
The old British School of Motoring used a silhouette of Britain with Cornwall as the foot pressing on the pedals and the Llyn peninsula (North Wales) and the hand reaching to the steering wheel
Comment by john rimmer — November 4, 2009 @ 5:05 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BcK1xV1zFo
note that the elephant is the symbol of the city of Catania
Comment by Feo — November 4, 2009 @ 7:44 pm
I recommend you take a look at ‘The Brightonomicon’ by Robert Rankin. It has several fine examples of cartozoology and it is a crazy-good read.
Comment by Will — November 4, 2009 @ 8:17 pm
Berlin has its dog head http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Ringbahn which even inspired an art project: http://knifeandfork.org/hundekopf/
Comment by Robert — November 4, 2009 @ 10:10 pm
The city of Ann Arbor MI has highways all around it that make the shape of a bird (I’ve always thought a dove) flying west.
http://www.wdi.umich.edu/files/Conferences/2005/WTOConf/AnnArborMap.jpg
Comment by Molliewobbles — November 5, 2009 @ 1:06 am
Also, I just remembered that I’ve always thought of Thailand as an elephant. I don’t know…
Comment by Molliewobbles — November 5, 2009 @ 1:10 am
Union County New Jersey bears a striking resemblance to a terrier.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_County,_New_Jersey
Comment by Jason — November 5, 2009 @ 1:29 am
The Philippines looks like a sitting dog with an enlarged head.
Comment by Duboi — November 5, 2009 @ 4:37 am
Close to where I live, just south of Frankley Reservoir, south Birmingham UK – you can clearly see the outline of a reclining pregnant woman with a moustache! Check it out on Google Earth. 52.24 deg N 2.00 deg. W
Comment by Elwood Herring — November 5, 2009 @ 1:48 pm
I’m surprised no one’s mentioned the puma shape of Cusco, Peru:
http://www.cusco.net/articulos/cuscoinca.htm#Puma
http://www.qosqo.com/maps/map06.htm
I’ve seen better maps but couldn’t find any at the moment.
Comment by DK — November 5, 2009 @ 11:25 pm
Have yo seen this? This is a typical theme for Cartozoology:
http://www.animalsontheunderground.com/
Comment by Tamas — November 6, 2009 @ 7:53 am
You can find more examples from the recent book (ISBN 87-90820-22-3) by NCS here:
http://www.introite.dk/elefant/presse.htm
Comment by Christian med c — November 6, 2009 @ 8:34 pm
Very interesting, I always think the island of Formentera in the Spanish Balearics, looks a bit like a seahorse.
Comment by Mapamundo — November 6, 2009 @ 9:25 pm
This reminds me of when I was a kid (in Scotland), being told how to remember the shape of Fife because it looks a bit like a dog.
The latest London Underground map also has a suspiciously similar dog outlined in orange, interestingly….
Comment by Finlay — November 7, 2009 @ 2:03 pm
The British humorous-fantasy novelist Robert Rankin has written a book called ‘The Brightonomicon’ (obviously inspired by H P Lovecrafts ‘Necronomicon’) in which each chapter is headed by a part of the street map of Brighton (UK) with an animal, relevant to the story, outlined using the roads on the map. The chapters are listed here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brightonomicon
but unfortunately I can’t find any on-line reproductions of the street map/creatures.
Comment by john rimmer — November 7, 2009 @ 3:14 pm
One interpretation of the “Peralta Stone” is that the horse’s head is a cartozoological representation of a part of a map. I can’t find the map (it was printed in a questionably reliable book called “Rebel Gold”) but here’s a site with pictures of the stones.
http://awesomeactionadventure.blogspot.com/2008/03/peralta-stone-map-part-ii.html
Comment by jesse — November 15, 2009 @ 2:41 am
not an animal, but an analogous situation: there are streets that form the shape of a bell in San Francisco. they’re adjacent to the former St. Mary’s College (now in Oakland), and are most likely a reference to The Bells of St Mary’s:
Comment by jonathan — November 18, 2009 @ 7:12 am
Interesting! Does the “Lobster Claw” of the Scandinavian Peninsula count?
Comment by Tom Tac — November 21, 2009 @ 3:19 pm
There’s a whole website devoted to an underground (pun intended) branch of zoocarthographics:
http://www.animalsontheunderground.com/the_animals.html
Comment by IIVQ / Tijmen Stam — November 22, 2009 @ 11:33 am
Tswanaland looks like a little stone, rectangular (een blokje).
Comment by Faust — November 22, 2009 @ 9:21 pm