Animal Architects
Duration: 4 hours
Target Audience: Anyone who is interested in science, life, joy, nature and the cosmos
Brief:
A home is where one feels safe and is protected from the elements. It is a place where one experiences secure relationships and affirmation. Jane Austen said, “There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort.” We all love our homes. So do all animals who build simple homes to complex structures. Spiders spin delicate webs of silk, birds build variety of nests, and termites construct towering mounds complete with air-conditioning.
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For some animals the very living body is the home. The exterior and interior designs of their bodies resemble homes. Radiolaria, sponges, corals, and snails come under this category. Most animals are content with finding a soft and sheltered space to sleep for the night, but there are also animals that demand nothing but the finest accommodations. Nature abounds with structures built by animals other than humans, or animal architecture, as it is commonly termed, such as termite mounds, wasp and beehives, burrow complexes of rodents, beaver dams, elaborate nests of birds, and webs of spiders. The sociable weaver, native to South Africa, Namibia and Botswana, weaves huge communal nests that can hosts hundreds of birds across multiple generations. These nests, woven from sticks and grass, are permanent. The deeper inner chambers maintain a higher temperature at night, allowing the birds to stay warm. The red ovenbird builds its nest out of clay and mud. These strong nests help prevent predation and, once abandoned, can provide other birds with a relatively secure place to live. Baya weavers often build their elegant hanging woven nests in thorny palm and acacia trees or above bodies of water, where predators may have difficulty reaching them. Cave swifts create their nests primarily out of their own saliva. These nests are edible, and are considered a delicacy by some. When it’s time for the caddisfly to pupate, it spins a tough cocoon out of pebbles, sand, shells, and other lake- and river-bed detritus. It weaves these elements together with strands of its own silk to safely grow to adulthood. Beaver constructs dams, builds home known as ‘lodge’ that is air-conditioned and store food for winter, and rise its young. Beavers are known as animal engineers.
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Animal denizens lives are very interesting and evoke a great sense of wonder. Honeybees’ entire lives revolve around their hives. It is in these hives, which they construct out of secreted wax and propolis, that they process their food and raise their young. The majority of wasps actually do not actually build nests, preferring solitary or even parasitic arrangements. Social wasps, on the other hand, build elegant paper nests out of plant pulp, spit, resin and other materials. Leaf-cutter ants tunnel elaborate labyrinths underground to farm and live. The compass termite builds large wedge-shaped mounds for nests. These wedges are roughly oriented in a north-south orientation, which gives them their name. It is believed that this shape and orientation help in thermoregulation. Animal structures incorporate sophisticated features such as ventilation, temperature regulation, structural strength, multiple escape routes, traps, bait, special-purpose chambers and many other features. They may be created by individuals or complex societies of social animals with different forms carrying out specialized roles. These constructions may arise from complex building behavior of animals such as in the case of night-time nests for chimpanzees, and from inbuilt neural responses. The process of building such structures may involve learning and communication, and in some cases, even aesthetics. The male bowerbird creates bower, or a small hut, out of grass and sticks to attract females. In and around the bower, this male bird lays out berries, beetles, flowers and other colorful eye-catching ornaments into artistic arrangements to attract its mate. Tool use may also be involved in building structures by animals. Animals create structures primarily for five reasons: (1) to create protected habitats, i.e. homes, (2) to catch prey and for foraging, i.e. traps, (3) for communication between members of the species (intra-specific communication), i.e. display, (4) for food storage, (5) to create the next generation.
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Animals primarily build habitat for protection from extreme temperatures and from predation. Constructed structures raise physical problems which need to be resolved, such as humidity control or ventilation, or waste disposal which all increase the complexity of the structures.
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The Outline of Lecture:
This lecture will cover:
(1) Needs of the animals, (2) Functions and problems of a home, (3) Building materials, (4) Living body as architect, (5) Bird nests, (6) Insect homes (ants, termites, wasps, bumblebees and honeybees), (7) Amphibian and fish homes, (8) Mammal homes, (9) Physics, mathematics and science of animal architecture.
(1) Needs of the animals, (2) Functions and problems of a home, (3) Building materials, (4) Living body as architect, (5) Bird nests, (6) Insect homes (ants, termites, wasps, bumblebees and honeybees), (7) Amphibian and fish homes, (8) Mammal homes, (9) Physics, mathematics and science of animal architecture.