“Good morning, Squeaks,” said Momanita. “Last night I sorted through my African safari photos from a few years ago, and guess what?”
“I’m guessing that it’s WAY too early to guess about anything.”
To other hootmans this sounded like squeals and whistles, but not to Momanita. She MOSTLY understood cockatiel speak. I MOSTLY understood hootman talk.
Momanita folded the blue cover she tugged off my rolly cage, filled my seed dish, and changed my water.
“In my photos I noticed that the zebras stayed close to the ostriches,” said Momanita.
Ostriches! Now Momanita had my attention. Ostriches were my heroes! These 9-foot tall 300-pound birds couldn’t fly, but they could run 43 mph. If lions cornered them, they kicked them away. I admired the ostrich’s skill. I don’t fly, I don’t run fast, and I never kicked a lion. I had other skills.
“I wonder why the two species mixed together on the African savanna.”
Sometimes Momanita used words I didn’t know like savanna. A savanna was a dry grassy area. I learned that from the nature series on TV. Momanita opened my rolly nest door. I climbed out and into my cozy writing nest and we settled by Momanita’s computer because . . .
When Momanita wondered, she thought of questions.
When she thought of questions, she looked for answers.
When she looked for answers, she needed my help.
Sniffing Out
“Oh, this makes sense now,” said Momanita. “Ostriches followed zebras because they have better eyesight and can see lions hunting for them.”
“Zebras see better than ostriches? Ostriches’ eyes are HUGE!”
“Ostriches smell the lions before zebras smell lions,” said Momanita. “So, they warn each other if they see or smell a predator.”
“Teaming up is a good idea if lions chase you.”
I didn’t think lions lived around here, but I checked out the window to be sure.
A Watchful Eye
“Zebras and ostriches aren’t the only ones that team up for survival,” said Momanita. “The fork tailed drongo bird helps meerkats.”
“Cats! Doesn’t drongo bird know cats hunt birds?”
Cardinal hid from cats.
“Meerkats aren’t real cats. They’re like weasels that live underground in South Africa. Hawks and eagles are enemies of the meerkat. Drongo birds cry an alarm when the hunters are near.”
“Way to go, drongo!”
Terror birds scared me.
“When the meerkats hear the drongo’s alarm, they drop whatever they’re doing and scamper into their tunnels.”
“Smart meerkats!”
“Drongos are smart, too,” said Momanita, “The meerkats drop their food when they scurry into the tunnel. Then the drongo swoops down and snatches the food. Sometimes they cry alarms when there aren’t enemies around just so they could steal the food.”
“So, they’re mostly helpful and a little bit tricky.”
Luckily drongo birds didn’t live around here and didn’t steal my millet.
Quit Bugging Me
“Drongos and ostriches live in Africa,” said Momanita. “Last spring, I saw cattle egrets team with grazing cows.”
I saw the cows and egrets last summer when Momanita drove me to have my nails trimmed at the pet shop. I didn’t like having my nails trimmed. I liked squawking at the egrets. They didn’t squawk back.
“Cattle tromp along as they graze,” Momanita said. “Insects in the grasses fly up. The hungry cattle egrets snap them up for lunch.”
“That’s why the egrets didn’t squawk back. They were eating.”
I don’t squawk when I’m busy with millet.
“The egrets eat the insects. Then the insects don’t bug the cattle,” said Momanita. “I don’t want to bug you, but I think we should write now. We should write about animals helping each other.”
I climbed down the cage, wandered uphill to her shoulder, and whispered in her ear.
“Maybe we should write about that AND how helping others helps ourselves in lots of ways.”
To other hootmans this sounded like squeals and whistles, but not to Momanita. She MOSTLY understood cockatiel speak. I MOSTLY understood hootman talk.
Check out Momanita’s book, OPERATION HOPPER.
Momanita and I read about animals helping each other. You might want to read about wild animal relationships, too.
Anita Borgo 