The spider and the bamboo
- lamtaputbamboofact
- Apr 2
- 2 min read
Going back from work late one evening, I came across a large spider perched on the folds of a fresh bamboo shoot. A new thought struck my mind. Something we take for granted, but something so important- habitat.
The observations do not stop there. A Brown Boobook (Brown hawk owl) that roosts regularly in the same place in the bamboo grove, the Paradise flycatcher that hawks for insects in the bamboo, the Black-naped Monarch that raises its brood in the bamboo (we have observed nests in the bamboo), and so many more.
Bamboo is home. It is habitat for living creatures.
Contrast it to the steel and aluminium industries that we as moderns have become so enamoured of. They start in the most destructive way possible- destroying of habitat by mining. The damage continues with smelting of ore which is accompanied by pollution and much heat sent to the atmosphere. The steel producing cities are covered in soot and dust. No wonder our places are becoming unbearably hot!
Bamboo grows in quiet beauty. In silence. No fuss, no publicity. It does us great good with no propaganda. It takes in the harmful carbon di-oxide and releases much-needed oxygen, all the while creating raw-material for industry.
Even from a strength-point of view, it is no weakling. In bending, bamboo rivals steel for its strength to weight ratio!
Going back to the spider… I quickly got the camera out and grabbed a pic before this rare frame disappeared! And here it is for you to view along with more habitat pictures from our birding sessions. The last one is a sunset framing the growing bamboo in our garden, giving us hope for a future with cleaner, healthier industries!
