outdoors

Also in this section:
Busy bees
New database on the migratory wildlife of the Americas
You don't have to be a flower child...

Nature's cooperative lifestyle

Social Darwinists like to portray nature as a never ending struggle in which the "fittest" individuals survive and the weaker members of a species are eliminated. Generally that's coupled with self-serving insinuations that those with inherited wealth are genetically superior or that the descendants of conquered peoples are genetically inferior. But although competition does play a role in nature, so does cooperation, and the struggle for survival is more often a team effort than an individual test. Here we have a species of euglossine bees collecting orchid nectar to feed their hive, and in the process doing the plant a favor by pollinating it. The bees don't usually compete with rival hives, because different species of this genus specialize in different flowers. Photo by John Flisek

Also in this section:
Busy bees
New database on the migratory wildlife of the Americas
You don't have to be a flower child...