Multitasking

There is this expression: “Walking and chewing gum at the same time” that becomes the cliché about multi-tasking. 

So the other day, as my wife and I were skipping around the deer pellets that our wild friends had been spreading all along the pedestrian trail we take during our daily walks, this was for us a good opportunity to say “ambling and dropping pellets at the same time”. But was this activity really falling under the multitasking umbrella? 

Well, on the one hand, dropping pellets is a reflexive action for deer, similar to how humans blink or breathe. It's automatically controlled by their nervous system, which works unconsciously and independent of the animal’s voluntary actions. 

I would also add that ambling, is a consciously controlled movement. The deer seems to be actively making decisions about where to go and how to move its body, which would indicate that the deer isn’t multitasking because the two actions are controlled by different systems. 

On the other hand, even though dropping pellets is involuntary, it still requires some coordination with the deer's movement. The muscles involved in digestion and elimination need to work together to expel the pellets smoothly, without interfering with the deer's walking. 

Additionally, the pellet dropping can be influenced by the deer's environment and behavior. For example, a deer might be more likely to drop pellets while walking if it feels threatened or stressed. 

In that sense, we could argue that the deer is multitasking to some extent, because it's able to perform two actions simultaneously that are both relevant to its survival. Ultimately, this whole discussion is a matter of perspective and how we define the term "multitasking”. 

Merry Christmas!