CyberDodo and Ants (1-1)

“Do you know about social insects?”2/2

The collective intelligence of a colony is truly impressive, for example:

- Ants invented breeding millions of years before man, with numerous species using aphids which they keep, protect and regularly milk to get the food they need. In this regard, ants are the only ones, together with man, which own domestic animals!

- Equally, ants practised harvesting way before we did, by regularly going outside to collect a type of mushroom which they transport into the anthill on top of leaves!

- Let's also talk about their construction genius; they are capable of adapting themselves to almost every type of constraint to livelihood on land, including deserts, which we already mentioned, and forests; they can go through rocky soil, moving soil, trees or even towns; they have established themselves practically everywhere. Well before us, they knew how to maintain a constant temperature in their habitat without having a negative impact on the planet!
 

- How do we talk about their collective intelligence without mentioning their capacity for communication and defence? If the colony is attacked, a few seconds is all they need to mobilise themselves - invaders are confronted by thousands of individuals ready to sacrifice themselves for the group

- A colony is a particularly well maintained and neat living space. Ants naturally produce a series of substances which help them fight against other insects, viruses or bacteria

- Ants have another major function: they rid the environment of dead animals. However, in order to avoid risking contamination of the colony, these cleaning tasks are carried out by the oldest workers who are quartered in specific areas of the anthill

- This collective intelligence also helps them, whenever necessary, to set up super colonies by gathering thousands of nests and hundreds of thousands of queens; these super colonies can then group together hundreds of millions of ants and offer them better chances for survival

Regarding millions and billions

Scientists have come up with an impressive figure: if the weight of an ant is only a few milligrams, their collective number (millions of billions) makes the total weight of ants exceed that of man

Something to think about!

To see the cartoon on ants, click here

For the quiz, click here

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