|
|
|
December 29, 2005
Learning from ants
It seems that ants have all the virtues that are needed by any society to function effectively. May be human beings can benefit by learning from these tiny creatures whose fascinating accomplishments should not be taken lightly, writes Shabnam Nasir
One evening, while contemplating on the subject of my future article, I was rather amazed to see a cake crumb moving shakily across the floor. As I focused my eyes to get a better look at the object in question, I saw two tiny ants struggling with the crumb — which in ratio to their own size would make it equivalent to a heavy boulder being lifted by two children.
For a moment, I was mesmerized. Not at the action that was being taken by these two small creatures, but by the whole ritual that was slowly unfolding before my eyes. While the two ants were struggling to move their possession forward, two more ants instantly appeared on the scene and immediately took up positions next to their fellow species.
Though such a strategic manoeuvre should have distributed the weight off their load, it, in fact, disturbed the balance of their movement and made their task even more difficult. On sensing the failure of this tactic, the two newly arrived ants immediately relinquished their hold on the crumb and allowed their co-workers to carry on. The unoccupied ants then rushed off to find more edible delights to hoard away — while I was left in dumbstruck fascination.
To me the scene I had just witnessed made me aware of two major phenomena. Firstly, the fact that ants possessed a cooperative, sensible and organized nature, and secondly, the room was littered with titbits of food all over and I had to find out which one of my children had done this!
First things first, I called an emergency meeting with my household (children, husband, domestic help, etc) and proceeded to deliver a lecture of what I thought was an essential lesson in worldly affairs. “Observe the actions of these ants,” I dramatically thundered in my best news reading voice, “just look at what they are doing,” I continued, while my family cautiously observed me with expressions that basically said, “OK! she’s really lost her marbles this time.”
I hastily started to explain to them what I had just seen and how organized these small creatures were. It was obvious, however, that I was not really inspiring anyone with my excited version of ‘the four ants’ and so I decided to let my brood go and write something that I would make them read instead.
Of course, any informative article needs considerable research and so I started to search the Internet. The information I came across was quite surprising as it seems these tiny creatures hold an amazing number of qualities.
* Ants can carry up to 10–20 times their body weight working in teams to move very heavy objects.
* Their brains are amongst the largest of the insect kingdom and it has been estimated that their brains may have the same processing power as a Macintosh II computer.
* The combined weight of ants is greater then the combined weight of all humans.
* Ants have specific duties and division of labour is the key to their successful society.
* When the situation calls for it, ants can easily adapt to a new skill or job.
* They take great care of their young and feed and teach them their skills.
* The tiny creatures are capable of organizing and executing massive group projects where they raise an army of specialized soldier ants that defend the nest.
* Ants build nests which are highly complex structures that are built in the dark and construct two tunnels from different directions that meet exactly halfway. They also build water traps to keep out the rain water.
It seems that these amazing insects have all the virtues that are needed by any society to function effectively. May be human beings can benefit from these tiny creatures whose fascinating accomplishments should not be taken lightly. Qualities such as dedication, unity and commitment are something that every member of the human race can learn from these members of the insect community.
Illustration by Huzaifa Younus
|
|
|
|
