I actually had the idea that sparked this story a
number of years ago. I don’t recall how I came up with it exactly, but one day
I started thinking about the evolutionary process and how it relates to the
impact of man on the environment. There’s no doubt that humans are greatly, if
not solely, responsible for the extinction of a large number of species,
hunting and habitat destruction being two of the primary means by which animal
and plant life have gravely diminished in a world in which humans have become
predominant. However, if there’s one thing that evolutionary theory teaches us,
it’s that life is incredibly adaptable. Remember learning in school about the
changes that took place in the moth population during the Industrial Revolution
in England? Within a very short space of time the predominantly white moth
population became a predominantly black one – because moths had a greater
chance of survival when they were better able to blend in with their new,
sootier environment. And they reproduce quickly enough to put those physical
adaptations in place in the blink of a human eye.
So it seems reasonable to suppose that similar changes
would occur in other species whose environments have been severely impacted by
human activities. Indeed, it may be those species that are best able to adapt
to a human-dominated landscape which will continue to thrive into the next
century. The ant. The cockroach. The pigeon. The squirrel.
I actually think it would make for an interesting
scientific study, if anyone were sufficiently motivated to do it, to monitor
the world’s population of squirrels and track whether they’ve adopted physical
or cognitive adaptations in response to alterations in their environment. We
think we know how squirrels behave. We see them running halfway across the
street and then suddenly scurrying back when they see a car coming, which is
how they get hit half the time. But what about the ones we don’t see, the ones
who are too smart or too nimble to get caught in traffic? What if there really is
something else going on behind the scenes…? Look out! It’s a Squirrel
Revolution!
