Just read this article on the New Scientist website, about a naturalist who lived as a “Mother Turkey” for a year. He even picked up the language of the wild turkeys and discovered the complexity of turkey talk.
Though not quite related, I suddenly thought of two tiny ants I spotted some days ago in my kitchen sink.
No, I didn’t play “Mama Ant”.
The ants simply amazed me with how differently they responded to the same situation.
I had turned on the faucet without realising that these little fellas were happily running around my clean kitchen sink – yes, there were no crumbs or leftovers waiting for them – presumably looking for drinking water in the hot weather.
By the time I turned off the faucet, there was a tiny puddle threatening to encircle them.
One went into a frenzy. I seriously thought I could feel its panic as it darted here, there and everywhere, except towards the dry spot that was right in front of it. Took it quite a while to figure its way out.
The other one, however, was calmly navigating around. It found a dry opening in no time and made its way out to safety.
It struck me that perhaps, even the smallest creatures are like human beings, each wired in a different way. We just don’t understand all the creatures around us enough to know what goes on exactly in their heads and their lilliputian worlds.
Does that mean we are stupid?
* By the way, the scientific study of ants is called “myrmecology”.
my vanilla world 