Blog #66--Nature's Myriad Survival Strategies

I never cease to be amazed by the vast diversity of life on Earth. While all living things, including humans, function due to the same general balance between opposite polarities and have much in common, each species has it own unique combination of behaviors to enhance its survival. As scientists who study the natural world continue to discover as they gain more intimate glimpses of a larger array of species, there is a never-ending variety of complex strategies that aid survival both of self and species.

There is no better survivor than the cockroach. Found throughout the world in practically every environment, the cockroach has survived unchanged for millions of years. It is great both at self-survival and species survival. Humans have tried all sorts of poisons to kill them off, to no avail. And they reproduce rapidly, guaranteeing plenty of success for future generations.

Crocodiles and alligators have also survived unchanged for millions of years. They attack their prey directly, although stealth is also required as they wait for prey to approach them. They produce offspring in decent numbers, and some varieties of crocodiles actually protect newborns for awhile after birth, carrying them gently in their mouths to safe locations. But they are still fortunate if two offspring live to replace their parents.

Aggressive, direct predators may be stronger than their prey, but they still don’t take over the world as some might fear. For example, eagles live solitary lives and produce few offspring. If there are two hatchlings in the nest, only the stronger one is allowed to live. But eagles are great self-survivors. They have tremendous eyesight and can spot prey from great distances. They are big and strong enough to defend themselves if threatened. Thus, they need fewer offspring. If two babies survive to reproduce themselves, their parents have replaced themselves within their lifetime, and the process continues.

Hyenas can be even more aggressive than lions, but both benefit when teamwork is utilized. Stealth and patience are required to surround potential prey before they are recognized. Once the attack materializes, success often follows. Of course, that doesn’t mean they will eat their fill since other animals with larger numbers or better teamwork may steal the spoils. And there are plenty of other species willing to wait for any scraps left untouched.

Other species are more indirect. While there are a few types of aggressive spiders in the world that attack their prey, most seeking nourishment must wait for bugs to stick to their webs. One type of spider creates a copy of itself with its web. It attracts prey that get stuck in the web.

Cuckoos lay eggs in the nests of other birds, and the surrogate family feeds and protects the cuckoo baby. Some trees excrete chemicals that inhibit competitors from taking root within a certain distance from them. Plants and flowers sometimes tilt to prevent sunlight from reaching smaller competitors in their vicinity.

One type of small catfish mixes its eggs with cichlid eggs. When the mother cichlid sucks up the resulting offspring in her mouth for protection, she sucks up catfish babies also. They eat the smaller cichlid young, while the mother continues to protect the young catfish as her own.

Sometimes two species have symbiotic relationships. The honey guide bird leads a honey badger to a beehive, where the latter rips out the honeycomb and then shares it with the bird. The clown fish enjoys life protected by an anemone with tentacles poisonous to other fish. Predatory fish allow smaller fish to clean parasites off their bodies without being a threat to their existence.

Some species are parasitic in nature, surviving at the expense of others. Roundworms and tapeworms live inside their hosts’ bellies, feeding off nutrients ingested by their hosts. Heartworms are a problem for short-haired dogs that live outside during the summer, where they are susceptible to mosquito bites, the source of the worms. The adult worms live within the heart of the victim, reducing blood flow and endangering the life of the host. Several species of external parasites live off the skin of their hosts, including fleas, ticks, mites and lice.

Deceit is a common and effective survival method for many, including many humans. Playing dead and smelling like decaying flesh seems to help opossums, for example. Some plants produce chemicals that mimic reproductive pheromones of certain insects, attracting them either for reproduction or, in a few cases, ingestion. Camouflage is especially common; blending into your surroundings hides you from predators.

The aye-aye, a type of lemur native to Madagascar, has a specialized elongated finger which taps trees to find grubs, then digs into the tree and uses it to scrape out the grubs. One type of small, slender fish hides inside the hollow alimentary canal of a sea cucumber to avoid predators when not searching for food. Parrot fish hide their chemical scent from predators by excreting a slimy saliva, which they use to cover their bodies when hiding or resting.

One kind of polyrachis ant enslaves smaller formica ants, stealing them as pupae and enslaving them once born to obtain food, feed and groom them. Burying beetles bury a dead shrew, then remove fur, add digestive enzymes, eat the shrew and then regurgitate into mouths of up to 30 babies.

The honey bee has an elaborate way of communicating distance and location of nectar to fellow bees. It is called a "waggle dance," and it is highly effective. Highly aggressive mantis shrimp can break a crab’s hard shell with a punch from a powerful appendage that completes its task in one millisecond.

Human survival strategies are more complex, but they all have more simplistic counterparts elsewhere in Nature. As one of many examples, some African-American slaves and Native American Indians saw through the hypocrisy of their captors/conquerors but were smart enough to hide their conscious awareness so they could survive. In most cases, slave owners were too self-absorbed to notice lights within their slaves' eyes, as were those who pretended superiority over Indians.

I encourage those interested in Nature to learn more about survival strategies. Some might be copied for human use, and all examples help us recognize and appreciate a much more interesting and complex world.

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