Termites: The Inner Sanctum Page #4

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This one's smoking very actively,

and that one and that one,

and this one's coming up too.

What counts here is the difference

between the top holes

and the bottom holes,

because the wind is stronger

the further above the ground you get,

so that the high holes suck air

into the low holes, and it

passes through the mound.

To live in this dry, hot climate,

termites need air conditioning.

But these vents don't just

keep a termite mound cool.

They also expel waste gases,

carbon dioxide and methane.

Not break it.

Yeah.

Mounds with a single vent

are especially valuable

to Joanna and Reinhard.

They can use them to measure

how much gas is released,

and that helps them estimate the number

of termites living in a single mound.

You have to be careful when

dismantling a heavy vent.

This was built to last.

Multiply the figures from one mound

by the number of mounds in the savanna,

and you could theoretically work out

how much greenhouse

gas, especially methane,

Africa's termites release

into the atmosphere.

Get it right,

and you know the contribution

termites make to global warming.

But it isn't an exact science yet.

We can't make any meaningful estimate

of the biomass of termites.

We have figures for which termites

produce how much methane,

but we just don't know

how big their population,

how big their biomass, is.

So yes, they are a contributor,

but we don't know how big.

It's easier with something like cattle.

Cattle contribute in the same way.

It's the intestines, in both cases,

which produce methane

as a metabolic waste product.

But whereas with cows

it's relatively easy

to count the heads and work

out how many there are,

and so how much methane they produce,

with termites, we don't know.

We think there are lots of them,

but we don't what their biomass is.

We need to know more about them.

Hacking into the base of the mound

reveals the passages of

the subterranean city.

Stragglers from a termite nursery

are the last to scurry to safety.

Once again, entomologists

become archaeologists

as their live objects of interest

disappear before their eyes.

While Jo and Reinhard

investigate their Kenya colony,

another termite colony is receiving

a lot less attention.

It takes a child's sensitive ears

to pick it up at all.

What is that tapping sound?

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Want some orange juice?

- Yes.

- Here.

Some more.

I heard like, this noise last night

in the wall.

Really?

What kinda noise was it?

I dunno, it was like a,.

It was probably just the Boogey Man.

You sure you weren't dreaming?

Yeah, I'm sure.

Danny wasn't dreaming,

but this is a nightmare.

Bye, Rose.

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