Researchers should end this madness and free the ants. I don't think that those ants are happy :/ :(
Or introduce a Queen?
Ant colony discovered in an abandoned Polish nuclear weapons bunker
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Re: Ant colony discovered in an abandoned Polish nuclear weapons bunker
#22"The continued survival of the ‘colony’ through the years is dependent on new workers falling in through the ventilation pipe. The supplement of workers more than compensates for the mortality rate of workers such that through the years the bunker workforce has grown to the level of big, mature natural colonies." For heaven's sake someone hide this article before Jeff Bezos reads it :)
i have no idea why, but this comment just made my Friday
Re: Ant colony discovered in an abandoned Polish nuclear weapons bunker
#23So, how are they reproducing? I was under the impression that only the queens are fertile; are ants just long-lived enough that they can maintain their numbers through the periodic addition of ants falling through the hole?
RTFA
No matter what the original commenter has said, the guidelines ask you not to do this:
Re: Ant colony discovered in an abandoned Polish nuclear weapons bunker
#24It's possible they have figured out how to eat the creatures who feast in their cemeteries, essentially making them cannibals at one remove. In that case, all living things are cannibals at several removes: animals -> decomposing bacteria -> plants -> animals
Even though not cannibalistic, what pigs are typically fed makes a disturbingly tightly loop even.
Re: Ant colony discovered in an abandoned Polish nuclear weapons bunker
#25Entirely female population? This sounds somewhat familiar. Life finds a way.....
I thought ant workers were typically females, or am I thinking of bees...?
Re: Ant colony discovered in an abandoned Polish nuclear weapons bunker
#26Re: Ant colony discovered in an abandoned Polish nuclear weapons bunker
#27Reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Void_(Star_Trek:_Voyager)
Literally the first thought I had too. Talk about a void in the real world, but for ants.
Re: Ant colony discovered in an abandoned Polish nuclear weapons bunker
#28Re: Ant colony discovered in an abandoned Polish nuclear weapons bunker
#29I don't understand why they can't climb out? You would think after a few days one ant would find the ceiling and climb back up the shaft?
Re: Ant colony discovered in an abandoned Polish nuclear weapons bunker
#30Does anyone know why they can't climb back out? The fourth picture shows them crawling on the walls and ceiling around the pipe. The third picture shows that the pipe isn't smooth inside, so they could conceivably climb it. Zooming in on the fourth picture doesn't seem to show a gap between the ceiling and the pipe, but that is the only reason I can think of as to why they couldn't climb back out.