Farming.

The animal kingdom is a pretty sweet place. We (humans) tend to think of ourselves are special and very different from the other creatures we share our planet with, but it's really not that true.

Checking out the sage bush.

While in Drumheller this weekend, I encountered something pretty neat. Dom, Heather and I were hiking in the Badlands when Dom noticed a strange looking sage bush with little black things all over it.

Turns out the black things were aphids. Aphids are little insects that suck the sap out of plants (making them the bane of gardeners). When the aphid taps into the sap-containing phloem in the plant, the high pressure phloem sap is forced through the gut and out the other end of the aphid. Sounds gross, right? This is known as honeydew, and it's irresistible to ants.

Crawling all over the aphids on the sage bush were ants. The ants are farmers of sorts; they eat the honeydew produced by the aphids, and in turn protect the aphids from hungry invaders in return. This is an example of a mutualistic relationship, one where both parties benefit from the interaction.