Turmite mounds are extraordinary things.

They look so alien in the landscape, like small volcanoes with additional side chimneys and funnels. The termites live with One of my first encounters with termites was in Namibia, where they're sought out by bat-eared foxes.

The bat-eared fox is a small mammal, most active at dawn and dusk, that resembles, well, a fox with bat-like ears.

It uses its hugely disproportionate ears, a bit like satellite dishes, to pick out the sounds of its dinner. Insects.

And one of its favorite meals? Turmites.

Now we don't often think of insects as being noisy creatures, especially those living underground.

So to find out how the bat-eared fox finds its grain-sized prey, I lowered a tiny microphone down one of the holes of a termite mound.

I placed the headphones over my ears and what I heard next was so bizarre. It sounded like popping candy or a bowl of crisp rice cereal after

its had milk pulled over it. It made me realize that whilst everything seemed calm and sedentary

on the outside, inside the mound, the termites were really busy.

My presence didn't go unnoticed either,

and eventually a few termites came out to explore

and started blocking up the hole I was using

with fresh muddy saliva. How rude! Back in England I was reminded of those termites

when I was in the local shopping centre. It was a hot

summer's day and the temperature started to rise. Surrounded by crowds of people

I began to feel trapped. Even talking about it now actually makes me feel quite anxious. You know how

it is. You slowly feel yourself getting hotter and hotter and hotter. There seems to be no escape. I swear they do it on purpose. You can't open

any windows. There's no air conditioning. Beeds of sweat start forming on the

brow of your forehead. You can't wait to get out, get home and into the

shower. It's often the case in office blocks too. Lots of people all packed into a small

space, poor ventilation and rising temperatures.

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