Animalia

Sparkle pony or not, this year proved that even with lavish accommodations like RVs and power drops, Burning Man is a bestial experience — which is apropos considering the theme this year was “Animalia.”

This article is part of Animalia, a column exploring the strange and fascinating world of animals and the ways in which we appreciate, imperil and depend on them.

Beavers, after all, are some of Animalia’s most unruly members: they compel rivers to overflow, transform single-channel streams into braided ones and ingeniously sabotage our precious infrastructure.

A longtime animal rights activist and vegan, she turned her attention to a new project: Flora Animalia, an urban garden where she hosts educational food workshops and crafting seminars.

Although that might not seem so extraordinary from your privileged position in Kingdom Animalia, this multicellular microbe is not an animal.