Nature is endlessly amazing. Adaptive. Innovative. And sometimes—seemingly inexplicable.
For example—a sloth can hold its breath underwater for up to forty minutes. A dolphin usually needs to surface for air at least every ten minutes. Strange, huh?
The binturong, a mammal natural to the rainforests of Southeast Asia, looks like a cross between a cat and a bear. Interesting little creature. It releases a distinct “buttery” scent to attract mates. Those who have experienced the odor will tell you it smells exactly like buttered popcorn.
I seriously doubt many binturongs are taking their mates to the movies for a date, and it seems to be a peculiar and unique odor for a rainforest creature to have acquired! However, I myself, have personally used buttered popcorn to attract a date.
Crows have been observed to possess the ability to remember specific human faces, recalling them years later, approaching the person spontaneously years later in fondness of that person—or in holding a grudge. Edgar Allen Poe would have liked that one! Bottom line: Don’t cross a crow. They’ll find you years later and make you pay for it.
There are countless other examples of “Why is that possible?” For what purpose? Nature doesn’t do things by accident. Although out of our ignorance, we claim some things must be.
The reason, I suspect, is that nature has given creatures an assortment of abilities that serve them in ways and for reasons we “common folk” don’t understand. And we don’t need to. Unless you plan on going snorkeling with a sloth.
Many of the strange animal abilities, we do know the reason. Such as the sloth’s ability to hold its breath is so it can hide underwater from predators for extended intervals of time. By the way, they swim a lot faster than move on land.
The superb lyrebird, an Australian songbird, can mimic almost every sound it hears, including car alarms, chainsaws, and camera shutters. Which could come in handy if you wanted someone to think you were breaking into a car with a chain saw to take pictures. That’s got to be in a thriller story somewhere!
Nature demonstrates infinitely greater expressions of imagination than we do. I use that as an inspiration as a writer. Infinite possibilities. And rather than ask “why is it possible?” or “how is it possible?”, to simply know that it is possible. And there is a purpose, regardless if I am aware of it or not.
As writers, we have fun with it. Imagination.
And if someone says, “Hey! That’s not possible.” Or, “Why could she or he do this or that?”
My response: “A sloth can hold its breath under water for forty minutes. And by the way, that crow in my story—the one with an incredible memory? . . . He’ll be paying you a visit tonight.”