The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think

by Jennifer Ackerman

With climate change, shrinking habitats, extinction of species, the analogy may become even more pertinent. When I think about what we are doing to our fellow travelers on this planet, to the planet itself, I feel a wave of despair. Just before his death in 2009, the world’s leading expert on species associated with army ants, Carl Rettenmeyer, completed the first comprehensive list of animals known to keep company with Eciton burchellii, the “mini-lion” of neotropical forests. Rettenmeyer recorded 557 species in consort with the ants, ranging from mites and insects to a huge variety of birds. It’s the largest group of animals ever described centering on a single species. At least 300 of these species depend on the ants, including the charismatic ocellated antbird. The disappearance of Eciton burchellii from any habitat over their vast range would trigger the extinction of hundreds of birds and other animals.