Structural surveys

There is no doubt humans are the supreme creators of the built environment and this, argues Mike Hansell, the author of a new book on animal structures, tempts us into anthropomorphism when we admire the efforts of many other animal species. “But, if asked to explain the basis of our admiration, we are confused. Is it because such a simple creature is able to make something so complicated, or is it that the animal has revealed itself as not so simple as we thought,” he writes. Hansell, the UK’s first chair of Animal Architecture, has been pondering the question of how animals create structures that can create admiration amongst humans for most of his career. His interest in animal builders ranges across beavers, shrimps, rats, weaverbirds, woodlice, dinosaurs and male bowerbirds. What appeals to Hansell is asking common questions across all species. Why do animals build? Mostly to create homes, trap prey or display, he argues. Are they especially equipped to build? Generally not, he concludes: they use their beaks and limbs that they possess anyway. He notes that any observer would see birds as the key group of animal builders, given that almost every species builds a nest and some of these can be extraordinarily elaborate. He describes the efforts of the longbilled spiderhunter of Asia which suspends a nest from threads of spider silk punctured and anchored in leaves from below in flight. No one has seen the nest building in action in these secretive birds, but the construction can be inferred from the results, Hansell writes. And it is crucial to ditch the anthropomorphism if an understanding is to be gleaned. Most animals build, says Hansell, using simple, stereotyped, repeated actions. They interact with the built object, not with each other. It appears the queen bee and ant emit pheromones that enable individuals to measure the space around them; beyond that they seem to build with no direct communication between themselves. Although their architectural sum may be hugely impressive, often its parts are simple, linked or piled together. No more so than the termite mound which is a striking feature on any scale.