Sunday, July 3, 2011

Team of ants moving a fig



When scouts of the desert ant Aphaenogaster cockerelli find an item too large for a single ant, they quickly organize a small team that lifts and carries it directly to their nest, thus evading more aggressive competitors. This impressive ability is not seen in most ant species, which instead exploit large items in place, cut them into small pieces, or mount much clumsier retrieval efforts.

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