BIRDS THAT WEAVE BASKETS
1 Human beings are fond of saying that someone 'acted like an animal,' meaning he acted in a particularly disgusting and revolting way. How unjust! Human beings are not only born like animals. We do not only have four limbs, two eyes, a nose, mouth, lungs, heart, skin, liver, blood, ears, the same hormones, childhood, youth and old age. It is just those feelings: homesickness, mother love, marital fidelity, the spirit of comradeship, the selfless responsibility one individual takes for the rest of the community and love of children which we regard as noble, beautiful and good in us which are not only characteristic of human beings but are also common to many of the higher animals.
2 Animals fall in love just as we do. Often, the outward signs are laughably similar. The young wild gander and his maiden goose start with glances. One looks at the other and then hastily looks away again when the look is returned. They pair up in Autumn. They get engaged, stick together, protect each other, although they are a long way from mating, as the wedding does not take place till Spring. They stay together as a faithful couple throughout their lives, and in the case of the wild goose, this lasts several decades. This is a matter of instinct and feeling.
3 In the case of domestic geese, these instincts have been impaired, as is the case with so many domestic animals. The domestic gander pairs up with many geese: there is no question of monogamy. Human beings are also domesticated, and many of their instincts, which they had in common with animals, have become sadly degenerated.
4 Instinctive behaviour is a matter of feeling; it is hardly influenced by reason. We are constantly experiencing this when a man, no matter how wise, an academic or a philosopher, falls in love. His friends shake their heads and wonder how a thing like that could happen. However, we regard love as particularly beautiful and noble when the heart alone dictates and not reason, which lifts us above the animals. On the contrary, as soon as common sense has a hand in the decision on matters of love, love becomes unnatural. As soon as the bridegroom takes into consideration the fact that his prospective father-in-law is a Cabinet Minister and could get him a job, or the bride chooses a husband because he has a beautiful house and a pensionable post: when, in fact, we act in a way different from animals, it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth.
5 Do animals only concern themselves with their mates and not with their property? In Africa, I was able to observe things - the weaver birds' behaviour - which made me doubt it. There are more than six hundred species of weaver birds. The sparrow is one of them, as it actually migrated into our cold regions and the cheeky fellow likes snuggling up in his softly upholstered nest when it is really cold. Although she is considered to be of a low class and rears countless young ones in freedom, no one has ever really succeeded in persuading her to do the same in a cage.
6 All weaver birds build beautiful nests. Some kinds, in fact, make astonishing constructions. With some species, every bird builds its own, while many others build fifty to hundred nests communally on one tree. Others, down in South Africa, even construct a large communal roof and under it a huge clod of dried grass, the base of which is six or seven metres in diameter and almost two metres high. Sometimes, the branches on which this bird town is built break under the strain.
7 About forty kilometres inland from the harbour town, Sassandra, on the Ivory Coast, we lived for several weeks, during our exciting elephant hunt with cameras, alone with servants in a farm house. A few metres from the verandah, there was a lemon tree. The earth around it was always yellow with fruit, which nobody picked up. Some black-headed weaver birds were brooding. The males have black heads and red eyes, but apart from that, almost the whole of their body is brilliant canary yellow, which makes them conspicuous. The females' dull colours, on the other hand, make them inconspicuous.
8 I had set up two cameras on the verandah; my son put his cine camera alongside. First of all, we sat comfortably in deck chairs, talked, read novels and got the birds used to our presence. Even so, it was difficult to get really satisfactory pictures because these brightly coloured birds keep the same kind of working hours as people do in Africa. They only work early, at first light, until the sun is high in the sky - from about half past six to nine o'clock - and then again in the evening from half past five to late dusk, that is, about half past seven. During daytime, they are hardly seen and for this reason, one never has really good sunlight for taking photographs. That was just what we needed, because the long telescopic lens needs a lot of light and we, alas, needed to use short exposures because the birds moved so fast.
9 The brightly coated males build proper hollow globes that have a hole on one side. To this hole, they attach a short plaited tube. The birds slip through this tunnel into their little stronghold. It is an excellent protection against attack for the globe is attached to thin branches which none of the small prowlers can crawl along. It is also completely safe against birds of prey, because it is enclosed all round.
10 One cannot help being constantly amazed at the way in which the males sew and weave with such industry and skill. They fly to some palm or bamboo, where they tear off a long strip, like a green ribbon. This is tied round a branch, and gradually a ring is formed, which makes the basis round which the bird then begins to weave the ball.
11 Of course, to begin with, a half-finished nest of this sort is green, but the sun soon dries it yellow, and the newly interwoven strips of green show that the little basket-weavers are constantly strengthening it. It is hard work, for these colourful little birds rush through the air with strips which are five or six times their own length, and they often have to fly a long way because the palms nearby have already been plucked quite bare.
12 I have observed some males who simply did not bother to make this effort at all. They sat by their nest and waited until one of these tiny freight planes arrived. Then they simply got hold of the end of the green strip and pulled it away from its rightful owner with a good deal of scolding and fluttering. Two males built the whole of their nest from stolen property. A little fellow, who only had one good leg - the other one was lame and hung limp - still managed to weave a fine nest, not inferior to the others in shape and very acceptable to the opposite sex.
13 As I said, only the colourful males build nests. The little females hop around and watch what is going on. As soon as a young bachelor is half-way to finishing his house, he hangs by his legs from the bottom of it so that his back is towards the ground, cranes his head upwards, flaps his wings and sings. This means: 'Here is a bachelor with a marvellous house, who is looking for a wife.' The females do in fact come to look the house over. They do not seem to take any notice of the males at all. They hop round the nests, slip inside, look over the interior, and apparently marry the one with the most beautiful villa.
14 Is this comparable to human females, who go for men with secure positions of property? Not quite. Animals usually fall in love with the partner who is the healthiest and strongest, whose hormones have given him the most splendid display feathers, or have made it possible for him to perform the most spirited and impressive courtship dance.
15 Now, nest-building is purely a matter of instinct. The birds, apparently, are incapable of doing otherwise, and they enjoy it. With some species of the weaver birds, the male builds ten or eleven nests and then marries the equivalent number of females. Even outside the mating season, they are continually re-building: tearing old nests apart and starting new ones. The birds that are the healthiest and strongest have the strongest instinctive behaviour pattern and build the finest nests. When the females choose the nests, they are also choosing the strongest and healthiest males. It is a matter of feeling and instinct.
16 When a female has decided on a particular nest, she immediately fetches more building material and upholsters the hollow. Feathers, hay, fine grass, soft seed flakes and even tufts of hair are used for this. At this stage, the male takes no part in the work. He only improves the rest of the nest. While the female goes on furnishing the nest, the male sings non-stop, dances to his chosen bride and drives away rivals.
17 The females are much more industrious when it comes to raising their young ones than they are at building nests. Like the males, they bring food for the two hungry beaks which are gaping in every circular nest. It is easy to take these chicks out; you only have to bend the thin branches where the nests hang down towards you. Africans frequently do that and eat young weaver birds. In fact, only adults are allowed to do that, because they believe that if children do so they would develop wobbly heads. Every time I say that to my friends from Europe, they laugh.
Adapted from: He and I and the Elephants: 'Birds that Weave Baskets' pages 73-79, by Dr Bernhard Grzimek, 1966, published by the Camelot Press Limited, London.