For all of you kids ‘vacations’ spells as entertainment and fun.  Fret not, if the family has not booked tickets to travel out of the city or if there isn’t any interesting movie or play in town.  You can make use of this precious free time to explore and witness nature’s dramas – they can be most fascinating – thrillers, comedies, romance, – it is all there for the asking.

 Scene:  A park near my house, where I go every morning for a walk.

Suddenly, a seemingly lifeless chrysalis that was hanging from the leaf of a Rui Plant starts moving.  The fragile pupa skin slits and out emerge two black compound eyes.  Next appears the entire head with its coiled up proboscis and soon, the Plain Tiger Butterfly steps out in her entirety, wings and all.

Plain Tiger:  Hi, I can hardly wait to meet all of you, especially nectar-laden Lantanas and Periwinkles.  I just have to hang on a bit till my wings are completely dry.

As soon as the butterfly’s wings are dry she begins to flutter about, heading towards a bed of Periwinkle flowers.

Periwinkle:  Come, come to me pretty butterfly, drink from my ample nectar supply.  How else will I get pollinated?  Only if you transfer my pollen to the stigma will I turn into a fruit and produce seeds.

The Plain Tiger alights on a Periwinkle flower and uncoils her proboscis, ready to suck the delicious sweet drink.  Unknown to her, a Crab Spider who was of the same colour as the flower, was lurking about in ambush.

Crab Spider:  Aha, walk into my flower you foolish butterfly, I am waiting to make a meal of you.

Plain Tiger:  No, No, please don’t eat me.  I still have to lay my eggs so that more of my species are born.

The Crab Spider, however, is ruthless and grabs hold of the Plain Tiger’s orange wings.  The butterfly struggles with all her might… Just then, a long sticky tongue is shot out at the Crab Spider.

 Crab Spider:  Owch!  Something has hit me.  Help!  I am being pulled away!  Oh no!  It’s a lizard.  She wants to gulp me down.

The lizard thrusts the tip of her sticky tongue into her mouth and gobbles down the spider.  She then cleans her eyes with her sticky tongue and feeling contented, settles down to snooze.  But her siesta gets interrupted.  For, circling above her, high up in the sky was a Black Kite whose sharp eyes had caught sight of the lizard.

 Black Kite:  Aha!  A fat lizard, fast asleep.  I shall swoop down and grab it.  My hungry chicks back home are crying for food.

The Black Kite swoops down and with one swift move, grabs the lizard by the tail in her deadly talons.  But the victim, alarmed, wriggles about and breaks off her own tail, leaving it writhing in the bird’s claws.

 Lizard:  Phew!  Saved by the skin of my teeth.  No doubt I am tailless but that does not matter.  I shall soon grow a new tail.

Peace prevails at last.  The wild dramas were over.  Or were they?  As I walked a little ahead I noticed a long army of ants carrying seeds into their underground home.  The workers inside would be removing the husks and chewing them into small balls.  They would be cultivating fungal gardens in there for their young larvae…  The wonders of nature never seem to cease.  The dramas go on…

So kids, you could spend your holidays looking around for nature’s intriguing dramas to entertain you.  You don’t have to go very far.  They could be happening in your own backyard.