The Tick and the Bird

Once upon a time there was a female tick that lived in the plumage of a Laysan Albatross. Together, they roamed the vast expanses of the North Pacific, between the Hawaiian archipelago and the Aleutians. Then came the time for the albatross to return to the ocean, leaving the tick all alone.

The tick shows incredible capacities of resistance: trampled by webbed feet, lifted by some mischievous air currents, or even crushed by an egg falling from a height equivalent to a thousand times its size, it survives as best it can and gives life to the next generation.