Page 74 - Devotion Among Animals Revealing the Work of God

DEVOTION AMONG ANIMALS

care and attention. Ants keep their eggs and larvae in underground cham-
bers built especially for that purpose. Worker ants frequently move them
from chamber to chamber, according to fluctuations in humidity and tem-
perature, going to and fro, carrying the larvae in their jaws. When their
nest comes under attack by other creatures, the worker ants immediately
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evacuate these chambers and carry the larvae to safety outside the nest.
Birds' care for their eggs is truly astonishing. For example, the little
ringed plover lays four eggs in a hole in the ground. If the temperature
rises dangerously, it plunges its abdomen in water and on its return, cools
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the eggs with the moisture on its feathers.
Most egg-laying animals regulate the temperature of their eggs' en-
vironment. Water fowl, like ducks and geese, for example, cover their eggs
with feathers that they pluck from their own own breasts. This prevents
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heat loss from the eggs.
Like many smaller birds, swans maintain their eggs' warmth by sit-
ting on them. The female frequently gets up and turns the eggs so they will
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warm evenly.
For incubating its eggs, the phalarope bird uses an altogether differ-
ent method. Once the female lays her eggs, her mate takes over the re-
sponsibility of looking after them. Sitting on the eggs, he soon loses the
feathers on his breast and abdomen. This increases blood flow to these
areas of skin, and the warmth is sufficient for the male to incubate the eggs
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in just over three weeks.
Regulating the temperature in the nest is vital for the development of
the eggs of all creatures. It is very significant that animals are most sensi-
tive in this regard and regulate the temperature by a variety of methods.
It's not likely that any bird, snake or ant should know the importance of
proper temperature and then, all by itself, discover an appropriate method

for keeping temperatures at the needed level. That knowledge must lie
outside of these animals. To thinking people, God, the Creator of every-
thing, reveals His endless wisdom by creating different qualities in count-
less different creatures.

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