Sometimes every little creature can use a helping hand. I was at one of my bird watching areas sipping my morning coffee and enjoying the day when I looked around and saw this millipede (Narceus americanus) all coiled up on top of the leaf litter. The area around it was crawling with little red ants, and at first I thought the millipede was dead, but when I touched it, it moved just a little and I realized it had coiled itself up as a defense against the ants. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem to be working very well since there were quite a few ants on it. I picked it up and gently dusted the ants off of it before taking it deeper into the woods away from the ants. When I set it down and partially covered it with some moist leaves it didn’t move. I thought I might have been too late to help it. I felt a little sad, but this is the way of nature, so I went back to bird watching. About half an hour later, when there was a break in the birds coming and going, I decided to check on the millipede, and it was gone! It had uncoiled itself and moved on to where ever millipedes go. Do I feel at all sorry for the ants? The answer is yes and no. Ants need to eat too, but right now there is so much food around that I’m sure they simply found something else. Some people say I’m too sensitive, but I hate watching anything die, and especially slowly and cruelly. Nature can be very cruel, but it can be amazingly beautiful too, and as with most things you have to take the good and the bad together.