We need to learn resilience from animals

To deal with the pandemic, we require the capacity to recover from challenges that are both inevitable and unpredictable. In the animal world, resilience is the byword when it comes to recovering from a stressful scenario and improving evolutionary fitness.

It is hard to imagine the ants surviving a hurricane. But the South American fire ants beat the disaster by forming clusters of together creating a ‘living raft’, which is water repellent and can float on water, till they reach dry land. Salmons hatch in fresh water but migrate to the ocean to mature. In about five years, the adult salmons return by swimming upstream to spawn and lay eggs. The resilience with which they journey against rushing water, wild predators and fishermen’s nets is remarkable. With the singular commitment to reproduce, they make the journey with the aid of olfactory cues, environment and salinity of water.

During breeding season, the male emperor penguins group together in freezing temperature of -70 degrees Celsius in the Antarctic region and keep the eggs warm underneath their body. These incubation shifts last for several weeks as the females would have gone to feed at sea. By the time the females return, the males have not eaten anything and have lost half their body weight. The females then take charge and relieve the males, who now head towards the sea for food.

The female penguins bring a belly full of food that they regurgitate for the newly hatched chicks. Camels can live for months without a food and water whilst surviving in harsh conditions of scorching dry desert. The web of a spider is never made in a single attempt. Every time that it is destroyed, the spider untiringly rebuilds it. Birds are known to make epic journeys across oceans during their migration period.

Covid-19 has necessitated the human race to embrace the resilience and adaptability shown by animals in order to survive. Let us bend not break and develop that inner trait to adapt to changing situation and keep moving forward.