Paperwork: When you look a squirrel in the eye, you begin to wonder

A flash of reddish fur caught my eye. A squirrel.

He was on the tree a few feet past my living room window. His tail was “talking” constantly as he explored the wren birdhouse I had anchored on the limb.

He suddenly perched on the little roof and then stared straight at me, sitting on my couch, sipping coffee. Wait, I thought. Is he looking at me?

I’ve had these moments, usually with the dog. Eyes link and there is a connection and generally an understanding. Dogs are smart. But squirrels?

Squirrels that scamper around my house know what they need to know about me. I suspect they know where I am before I see them. If I see them.

So who is smarter ... in the game of survival?

It’s been on my mind lately – the intelligence in nature vs. humans. It started with a Facebook post of a fascinating closeup photo of ants on a green leaf surrounding a drop of water.

The caption read: “A drop of water on a tree leaf. 12 ants have gathered to drink ... what’s amazing is that the ants have divided themselves into four groups. This is to maintain the balance of the water drop from tilting and falling to the ground. It is a science of ants to cooperate and divide the share of water equally among them and give everyone his right.”

We of superior intelligence would call that engineering with a focus on community and survival.

I doubt those ants had a meeting to plan the process. It had to be a natural instinct. Still, as a human, I am in awe of such wisdom? (Note: I accept the photo and explanation as true.)

Now along comes Rakus, who “shocked” the scientific community and prompted headlines like this: “Orangutan in the wild applied medicinal plant to heal its own injury.”

Rakus lives with some 150 orangutans in a protected rainforest in Sumatra where they are carefully observed.

NPR reported: “When a wild orangutan in Indonesia suffered a painful wound to his cheek, he did something that stunned researchers: He chewed plant leaves known to have pain-relieving and healing properties, rubbed the juice on the open wound – and then used the leaves as a poultice to cover his injury.”

“This case represents the first known case of active wound treatment in a wild animal with a medical plant,” biologist Isabelle Laumer, the first author of a paper about the revelation, told NPR.

There’s more to the story including theories on how he learned to use the proper plant. But what’s especially interesting to me is how humans are still wowed by nature.

Perhaps it’s time to stop putting nature on the intelligence spectrum. Ants didn’t get their knowledge from 12 years of schooling. And Rakus didn’t read a self-help book. But there had to be some kind of learning process.

We say animals have “natural instincts,” but that seems a little lacking. Maybe it’s deeper than that, and their actions come from a shared consciousness, which is about understanding and awareness, especially of your surroundings.

That’s not quite the same as intelligence, is it? I admit I’m confused. And feeling like a stupid human who is not always aware of his surroundings.

Which might be exactly what that squirrel was thinking as he was laughing at me on my couch.

• Lonny Cain, retired managing editor of The Times in Ottawa, also was a reporter for The Herald-News in Joliet in the 1970s. His Paperwork email is lonnyjcain@gmail.com. Or mail The Times, 110 W. Jefferson St., Ottawa, IL 61350.