Our little apartment in Medellín is on the 7th floor. But that doesn’t prevent nature from doing its thing.

The food chain starts with a banana. We cut it up and put it on a wooden feeder. So far, we have been visited by Guacharacas (see video), Mieleros, Bichofues, Candelarias, Azulejos, Verdulejos, Mayos and today even a Carpintero.

No matter how hard these birds try to scrape the last piece of banana from the feeder, there is always something left. But it doesn’t go to waste! Because, believe it or not, ants find their way up to the seventh floor. And they feast on what is left of the banana.

Normally this would be mildly worrying. If only because Colombian ants can be notorious forces of destruction, as I for instance understood from One Hundred Years of Solitude. But so far it has been more or less fine (knock on wood), because a third creature comes to our rescue: tiny little lizards (lagartijas), who come in the evening and seem to have a big appetite for ants.

So far, this little system has been more or less stable: 1. the birds patiently wait their turn, 2. the ants keep coming, but don’t overrun the household, and 3. the lagartijas (at most two or three) keep things nice and tidy.

In the end, we are the weakest link in the chain, as we sometimes forget to put out the banana. On days like that, we feel the weight of an entire ecosystem crushing down on our already heavy conscience.

But then again, the birds, ants and lagartijas will probably be doing their thing somewhere else.