No, wait. Really! I’m sure there’s a perfectly valid reason that somebody in a blue uniform (a cop?) in Manhattan would suddenly yell out to the crowd for a “nature expert.” It must have happened at one time or another, right? Well, here is one possible scenario:

Perhaps a fellow traveler spotted a wounded monarch butterfly on the pavement and prepared to step on it, but a policeman intervened and stopped the stomp. Wanting to be sure of his actions, the cop calls for a nature expert to advise whether the butterfly is a Federally Protected Species. 

So, we have an out-of-town country woodsman in the Big Apple rendering assistance to unenlightened city folk. Maybe Mark could get a movie deal or TV series out of this!

Well, Mark, you might feel more comfortable if you were not dressed like a lumberjack. Perhaps normal “city clothes” would help you fit in. 

In your pre-Rivera days, Mark, you used to wear a jacket and tie when the situation warranted. Now, you always look like a walking advertisement for L.L. Bean. 

I suppose we should take Rivera’s occasional hints more seriously and consider that these stories are from the early days of Mark’s journalistic career, before he became a seasoned world traveler and world-famous nature reporter. That might also account for a lot of the poor humor.