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Termite mounds are a common phenomenon of the Top End landscape. Each termite mound is equivalent to a skyscraper in a human city. They have different styles and colours due to different termite species and different building materials. They are the oldest cities! Kakadu & Litchfield NP.
🦍 Kerchak evades an elephant stampede! 🐘
A masked imp on a termite mound at sunset.
Scientists discovered around 200 million termite mounds in Brazil, measuring around 9 meters wide and 2.5 meters tall covering an area the size of Britain.
Many species of termites, whose societies are built on hierarchies of kings, queens, workers, and soldiers, live in towering nests that are ventilated by a complex system of tunnels.
Many species of termites, whose societies are built on hierarchies of kings, queens, workers, and soldiers, live in towering nests that are ventilated by a complex system of tunnels.
The nests, also known as mounds, protrude from the ground like skyscrapers and can grow as tall as seven metres. They are also self-cooling, self-ventilating, and self-draining—but until now the mechanisms behind these climate control features has remained unknown.
A group of engineers, biologists, chemists and mathematicians lead by Imperial College London, the University of Nottingham, and CNRS-Toulouse have looked closer than ever before at how these nests work using 3-D X-ray imaging. They found small holes, or pores, in the walls of termite mounds which help them stay cool, ventilated, and dry.
Lead author Dr. Kamaljit Singh, from Imperial's Department of Earth Science & Engineering, said: "Termite nests are a unique example of architectural perfection by insects. The way they're designed offers fascinating self-sustaining temperature and ventilation controlling properties throughout the year without using any mechanical or electronic appliances."
In their new study, published in Science Advances, the researchers sourced termite nests from the African countries Senegal and Guinea and studied them using two types of 3-D X-ray imaging.
First, they scanned the nests at a lower resolution to measure the nests' larger features, like walls and corridors known as channels.
From the images they calculated the thickness of the nests' inner and outer walls, as well as the structural details of inner channels which termites use to get around the nest.
The researchers found that networks of larger and smaller pores in the nest walls help exchange carbon dioxide (CO2) with the outside atmosphere to help ventilation. Larger micro-scale pores are found to be fully connected throughout the outer wall providing a path across the walls, and by using 3-D flow simulations, the authors showed how CO2 moves through the nests to the outside.
How do you cool a building without air conditioning?
How do you cool a building without air conditioning? Using an approach called biomimicry, see how architect Mick Pearce harnessed the ingenuity of termites to design a natural cooling system for the largest commercial building in Zimbabwe.
Fast Cat and Invisible Insects
By Patrick McShea
An argument can be made that one of the more interesting features within this diorama are the reddish earthen mounds framing the scene.
These irregular soil towers are termite mounds, the product of coordinated efforts by thousands of tiny social insects to create safe and stable living conditions. Mound-building termites are the master architects of the animal world. If they and their shelters were magically changed to our size and scale, their mounds would stretch upward as high as a 180 story building!
Within the thick walls of a termite mound air circulates through a network of channels to both cool the structure on hot days and warm it on cool days.
From hidden positions below ground and within their distinctive towers, termites exert tremendous influence over the landscape. By physically mixing various soils and their own wastes during the mound’s construction and as part of structure’s maintenance, the colony’s thousands of tiny insects improve the fertility of the savannah.
Herbivores such as the Grant’s gazelles featured in this diorama are attracted to the richer plant growth on the resulting islands of fertility. Cheetahs and other carnivores follow the plant eaters.
Patrick McShea works in the Education and Visitor Experience department of Carnegie Museum of Natural History. Museum employees are encouraged to blog about their unique experiences and knowledge gained from working at the museum.
🦍 In “Tarzan” during the elephant stampede, Kerchak saves a baby gorilla from getting trampled to death. Before doing so, the elephants come crashing through the jungle after being frightened by Tarzan undertaking a dangerous dare from Terk and her friends. Members of the gorilla family flee the scene and termite mounds get destroyed by the panicked elephants. I based these two drawings on the scene where Kerchak is seen evading an elephant before saving the baby gorilla from the stampede. Later when Tarzan takes responsibility for the stampede, Kerchak angrily berates Tarzan by telling him he almost killed someone. 🐘
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q36Q7lw1qOE&pp=ygUYdGFyemFuIGVsZXBoYW50IHN0YW1wZWRl
