Robert McNeil: Birds and the bees starting to think? They'll be giving us a slap rather than a tickle

CREATURES: can't live with them; can't live without them. I'm not talking just about animals. Animals get all the publicity, even though many are antisocial and dim. No, it's the birds and the bees I want to talk to you about today. When I say "the birds and the bees", I don't mean, you know, "a bit of the other".

I mean, literally, the birds – and indeed other insects – and the bees, no metaphor intended. For our lives are intertwined with theirs, and the time has come for us to embrace them like brothers and sisters, and to realise our future is tied up with...