28 Apr, 2009

Insects collect food and nesting material to tide the colony over during the coming winter.

In the morning before sunrise we reach the top of a high pass in the mountains, in South Africa's Karoo National Park. It is always wonderful to see the sun's first rays touch the waiting Earth and in these early hours, tiny creatures are already hard at work…

From first light a colony of harvester ants (Messor capensis) has been collecting food and nesting material in preparation for the coming winter months.

I track the ants backwards and come to a fynbos shrub from which they are removing fluffy parasol-type seeds, probably for use as nesting material to insulate their nest against the coming cold. This is a symbiotic relationship; the ants help the shrub with seed dispersal when dropped seeds become new growth.

The other half of the colony seems to be preoccupied with a different chore. They are carrying succulent green seeds which will no doubt serve as food through the winter.

I follow their trail back to another fynbos species where they collect these seeds. I am amazed at the collective mind which instructs half the ants to perform one task, while the others perform a different one, but all to the common good.

Ants are one of nature's most impeccable creatures, in every sense sculpted into a most remarkable form. The collective intent of the colony is expressed clearly in each and every individual.

One ant saws through the stem of a selected seed with amazing tenacity.

To see this constant endeavour, this relentless doing of what must be done in order to ensure the survival of the whole, fills me with awe.

And back on the shrub finally the seed comes loose, and now begins the challenge of getting it to the ground and to the nest.

Wind buffets the large seed, but the ant holds on and begins the trek home with its prize.

– by Paul Myburgh, Earth-Touch crew © Earth-Touch

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