The science of engineering is not the sole preserve of humankind. Animal are adept at it too. The animal world holds a vast and available reservoir of building technology that is not only perfect in design but also in complete sync with the natural world
Heading down the Sekonye river in Kalimantan, in Indonesia, over its black mirror-like waters coloured by the decaying leaves of the rainforest, we turned a bend and saw a big male orangutan climbing up a tree. As he reached the highest branches he sat in the fork, and with an expression of disdain on his face, which only an orangutan can carry off, he proceeded to make his nest for the night. Essentially a messy bed for the night, its looks are deceiving. As we watched, we saw there was a method and technique to nest-making: Carefully breaking the smaller branches which were in the way and folding them over the stronger ones to make the base.
A study conducted over the years by scientists from the University of Manchester showed that orangutans, in fact, use complex engineering skills for constructing their nests which have to be sturdy enough to hold their weight — in the case of an adult male orangutan, it can be as much as 80kg. The best branches are picked, folded, bent and woven together to create an outside base of sturdy and thick green branches. The inside of the nest is then filled with slim branches which give it a springy and comfortable centre. All this is constructed in about five minutes. It began raining as the male was halfway throughhis project, and to keep himself from getting wet he improvised. He left one straight branch standing in the middle of the nest and basically made himself an umbrella.
We’ve built bridges, dug many metres into the ground, under and over the sea, through and on top of mountains, and constructed buildings that are so tall that they sway in the wind. We’ve constantly modified and changed the environment physically to suit our needs and created structures and spaces. While there is no comparison to the scale and extent of this, it is not an entirely new concept.
All animals and insects create some form of a ‘home’. Sometimes it’s just a little nook in the fold of a branch, but there are many animal engineers out there who are burrowing and building and designing complex elaborate structures. Of course, when we do think of ‘builders’ in nature, the first on the list are birds. Birds are incredibly evolved and adaptable, which is even more impressive when we consider that for a species that lacks opposable thumbs and multiple limbs they can build sophisticated and carefully-designed nests, like that of the weaver bird, in a matter of days. While some birds are quite happy with a pile of twigs or sometimes even just a potted plant, there are others who take nest building quite seriously.
Bower birds at first sight seem to have a simple and a rather unruly nest. They build what is called an ‘avenue bower’ — two walls of twigs woven together with a passage way in the middle which leads to a ‘display’ court which has been decorated by the males with carefully collected and placed bright colourful objects like flowers, shells, and even bits of plastic.
What researchers in Australia have now found is that the placement of the objects is all part of a plan. They noticed the objects lining the display court got progressively smaller as they neared the entrance of the bower. It seems the males were creating a forced perspective, an optical illusion where they would appear larger than they are to the waiting female. Moreover, the location of the nest is also carefully picked to ensure the best lighting.
In open canopy forests the nests were almost always facing north-west and in dense closed canopy forests the males build only where gaps in the canopy had lit the forest floor. To test their theory, the researchers rearranged the objects and reversed the size order of the objects in 15 nests. Within three days the males ‘fixed’ it and restored their original design.
If bower birds are the psychologists of the forest, then the beavers are certainly the architects. Well known for their ability to create artificial dams beavers are also classified as ‘ecosystem engineers’ because of the effects of their dams on streams. Altering the biological diversity, water chemistry and even affecting the population of trees and plants along the stream, beavers literally create their own habitat. Essentially building a micro-dam and flooding an area, beavers encourage the growth of plants that they like to eat, and that too in places which are easily accessible to them.
With underwater entrances to their lodges beavers are also safe from all the top predators. The dam affects the local environment profoundly where an entire of community of insects that thrive in running water is replaced by pond dwelling creatures like dragonflies and worms. Interestingly, with this change in the ecosystem the total biomass of organisms in the water increases by two to five times, aquifers are recharged, pollutants are filtered and a buffer against both flood and drought is created.
Right up there with the beavers is the humble cheenti. Ants are prolific builders, continuously improving, repairing and expanding their underground empire grain by grain. How they manage to construct such well-planned and complex structures, without a leader and in complete darkness is still a mystery. There seems to be some unwritten plan or a blueprint genetically embedded into their memory which they follow in complete order and silence.
By studying the structure of an ant colony, it becomes clear that ants are not only creating multiple chambers for different purposes but they are constructing in relation to distance from the surface as well. What ants do underground, termites do above, creating skyscrapers of the insect world, which can reach up to 16 feet in height. And, what are the construction materialsIJ Chewed up remains of woody trees, mud, feaces and, probably, copious amounts of termite spit. Termite mounds in spite of their less-than-appealing materials of choice are fully automatic climate-controlled, air-conditioned buildings that come with a water harvesting and fungi garden system installed within. It’s a masterful combination of engineering and self-sustenance.
Recently, an underwater mystery was solved. In 1995, a geometric circular structure measuring approximately two metre in diameter was found on the seabed off the coast of Japan. No one could decipher or explain the source of this symmetrical and geometric circular design with lines and valleys emanating from the exact centre. They ended up calling it the ‘mystery circle’ until it was discovered that the artist behind the structure is a tiny male puffer fish. Once a female is suitably impressed with a male’s creative efforts, she lays her eggs in the middle of his nest which he then guards till they hatch. The purpose of all design might not be immediately clear to us.
The secrets they hold may only be revealed when we look beyond the obvious, for the animal world holds a vast and available reservoir of engineering technology that is not only perfect in design but also in complete sync with the natural world.
(The author is a wildlife film-maker)