Fire ants have developed a natural defense mechanism to protect their colonies from drowning whenever it floods. Each ant has a waxy exterior that can expel water. When floodwaters come, they will link their legs together to form a raft and float downstream to a dry location. Then they unlock their limbs and disperse in order to gather the materials they need to rebuild a new colony.
...
From time to time the howls
Of animals in the zoological
Department reach my ears
...
W. G. Sebald, "The Sound of Music"
