The Redwood Sap

. . . whether great or small cooperate for the Common Good. Ants, for instance, love lugging around heavy loads many time their body weight. If you were to see a convoy of 400 ants leaving your refrigerator with an ear of corn on the cob hoisted up on their shoulders, you'd probably start squishing the vegetable thieves one by one till you'd notched at least 300 or 350 kills. In the Animal Kingdom, on the other hand, a woodpecker will heat up the moving corn with a blowtorch, gobbling down the kernels as they pop. Living underwater, beavers specialize in fixing submarine sandwiches. However, when Woody's chow-time wristwatch alarm goes off, he's content to eat all the fixings, leaving the paddle-tails stuck with empty slices of bread. Squirrels, of course, are partial to nuts, which serve to bulk up Woody's protein levels so he can hibernate all winter inside an ice cube. THE REDWOOD SAP illustrates how it takes all kinds--stock pile specialists and eaters--to keep things in balance.