In my collage I have placed a dog, a man, and a bee hive. Not visible are the countless other creatures that probably exist in this scene. The giant wax moths, for example, that feed parasitically on the bees. The ground animals--squirrels, voles, chipmunks. And the birds that are fleeing the fiery trees. How do each of these creatures experience the sound of the fire engines that are blasting warning as they approach the forest fire? That is the subject of today's blog.
The house I moved into in late 2023 is located a few blocks from a firehouse. Every day, at noon, I hear the fire whistle. From time to time that siren goes off and calls firefighters to duty.
I hear the siren. So do my dog and cat. What does the siren sound like to them? What does it sound like to the residents of the house that's right behind the fire station?
Recently I had a hearing test and the finding was that my hearing is a little off. I was told this deficit is age appropriate. The hearing loss is not something I notice. But since getting that result I wonder sometimes what the noise I detect sounds like to other people, to other creatures. The ability to hear has an objective measure, and yet it is a subjective experience.
Scientists believe the greater wax moth has better hearing than any other animal on earth. This is apparently an adaptation, because the moth is hunted by bats. Bats also have acute hearing (that is, the ability to detect sound). In order to survive, to evade a major predator, the moth must be able to hear the bat coming. The moth must have better hearing than the bat.
Wax moths are enemies of honey been colonies. Here is a picture of a honeycomb that has been invaded by the wax moth. Moth larvae eat not only honeycomb wax, but also bee larvae.
Isaac Hopkins, 1907, Public domain
Compared to the wax moth, bees do not have very good hearing, but good hearing wouldn't help them. The moth sneaks in by mimicking bee pheromones. Without bats, and other natural moth predators, including owls, bee colonies would suffer devastating losses. Bats and owls rank right under moths when it comes to detecting sound.
What about the dog and the human in my collage? The dog comes in #5 in the top ten species with the best hearing--right after the elephant. I do notice that when my daughter is coming home from work, the dog knows her truck is in the neighborhood before I see it coming around the corner. He gets excited and lets me know she is near, although I have no physical sign of her.
Here's a picture of him standing on my bed, looking out the bedroom window. My daughter was due home soon when this was taken (that's the dog cover sheet on the bed).
Humans? I'm afraid we don't make the top ten. We rate in the middling range in hearing acuity--somewhere between 20 and 20,000 Hz (Hz= hertz, the number of sound vibrations in a single second). Compare that to the bat, which can hear up to 200,000 Hz.
However, while in humans hearing is not as acute as it is in the bat or the owl, still humans have a unique ability to 'hear' and process speech. This ability, it is hypothesized, is a result of distinct neural connections in the brain.
My Collage
The prompt for this round of the LMAC collage contest (#245) was the picture of a dog! Here's the picture, offered by 
Template: LMAC 245
Hearing was on my mind, after I got the results of my hearing test. Then there was that gorgeous dog in the prompt picture, with his ears perked. The idea of a fire siren sounding followed, as did the burning trees, the forest, the lake, the road and the bees' nest. When I was young we used to watch distant forest fires from the roof of my house, so everything fell into place.
For me, it wasn't much of a stretch to go from a dog to a forest fire scene. I don't know how AI would handle this, but the neural connections in my head--memory, experience, ideas--came together in this very human expression.
Here are the elements I used to make my collage. I borrowed from LIL and from Pixabay. I also used a Lunapic filter and I drew on the scene with a digital paint brush. With this brush I added flames, smoke, flowers and stems. GIMP and Paint 3D were very helpful as I flushed out the details of my idea.
Here are a few of the stages the collage went through. In the first picture, which is very raw, I'm thinking:
Here, in the next picture, I added context for the burning trees.
I added flame. I did it manually and with a Lunapic filter, and I needed to find a road, where I could put the fire trucks as they raced to the fire. I softened the flame effect from Lunapic and also made the sky smokier with a GIMP digital brush.
Time for the man, the dog, the tree, the bee hive, the bees, and the flowers (bees need to eat). Some of this was done with a digital brush (GIMP).
Here are the elements I borrowed from LIL and Pixabay:
Burning tree (multiplied, many times)
LIL
Fire Truck
LIL
Lake and mountain ch9199
Pixabay
Road İlhan Erce Feyizoğlu
Pixabay
Man
LIL
Tree
LIL
Bee hive der_niels
Pixabay
Bees terski
Pixabay
Join Us, or Visit Us
We have dedicated collagists in the community. Although we offer prizes, these days the financial rewards in Hive are not great. People still come back. They still create. I don't get a prize, and yet look how much time I spent on this collage. It's really a satisfying activity. That's especially true for someone who is not skilled at creating visual art.
Round 245 ends in a week. That leaves plenty of time for anyone to join in this contest. But you don't have to participate in the contest. Just make a collage. Really, it's great fun and relaxing--also lot cheaper than talk therapy :)
Thank you for reading my blog. Hive on!
Peace and health to all. May peace and kindness prevail in my country.