Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Story on the trails, not on top of trees

Every time when I go for my jungle trekking, I always hope that I can encounter some animals other than monkeys. I do not have the intention to discriminate monkey. They are actually playful, and occasionally, they may snatch your foods likes what human use to do. The only reason is that monkey is too common at Cerok Tokun. So far I can see two types of monkey. If I find the third species or more, it is then I have the excitement to tell you.

My hope is yet to be realised. I am not looking for any excuses, but you must understand, all trees grow big leaves, be it big or small trees. Animals can easily hide themselves behind the dense leaves. I met once a woodpecker busy working on a tree, but it was the time that I did not have the habit to bring my camera along.

Every time I lift up my head, every time I look at the trees, it brings only disappointment at the end. If one day, I would like to think, all the trees are leafless, just like those on winter time, squirrels, hawks and any others will not escape from my sight. I am sure.

That is why I have changed my strategy. I explore something that stay low, on the trail. By then, you read no bird's story, no squirrel's story, but I have the story on ants in return.

The colony of ants spreads over a big area. They needed to travel, travel and travel, and continued busy at travelling everyday. There was nothing they were working on. I observed. They did not carry any food. They must be like us doing daily trekking and adventure. Do they update their blogs daily? What actually do they write in their blogs? Do they write funny human who on the other side write something about them?

But before they are able to go blogging, they must first survive from our footsteps. There is no warning sign or traffic light installed for this pedestrian crossing.

The size of giant ant in the next picture is measured at normally 25mm. It is not the type that goes in group. These ants are always seen wandering around in a couple or three. Cannot imagine if these ants appear in a big group, how gorgeous it should be.

I managed to find them only at my jungle trails. They dislike urban life.

Usually, ants bite people. These types do not. They do enjoy only trekking. They can find food at any time and in any places in the jungle because there is no winter over here. No preparation for winter is necessary. That's why they have the luxury to enjoy trekking or wandering around.

There is one type of big red ant that bite. We called them Weaver Ant. It is very painful by then. I shall tell you if I get the picture.

3 comments:

Rick (Ratty) said...

I loved your ant story. I always want to do some stories about bugs, but there are none here in the winter. Strangely, I didn't see very many when it was warm here either. I must have been looking in the wrong places.:)

rainfield61 said...

Ratty, when I wrote the post, I were thinking of the cartoon talking about grasshopper and ants. It inspired me.

Dav DiDi said...

Nice picture.... nice shots!