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Ants can carry out life-saving amputations on injured nest mates, study shows

theguardian.com

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Re: Ants can carry out life-saving amputations on injured nest mates, study shows

#31

Post by shrimp_emoji »

zombiemama wrote: post #22

I once saw a spider amputate its own leg. It was severely crippled, only able to move in small circles. Then it suspended itself from a small shelf and started biting off the one leg that was immobile. After it was done it lowered itself on the ground and walked away totally fine. Since the behaviour seemed very innate I figured that it must be something that happens frequently and is a known phenomenon. Or maybe ant…

That's a common adaptation to escaping predators that many long-limbed arthropods have: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autotomy

Re: Ants can carry out life-saving amputations on injured nest mates, study shows

#32

Post by shrimp_emoji »

firtoz wrote: post #17
Sporktacular wrote: post #11

Another week, another story about how we aren't as unique as we like to think. Each discovery points to more intelligence, more skills, more capacity for emotion or pain. One day I think we'll regret how we treated animals so poorly while the evidence was there all along. All that was needed was the precautionary principle.

Buddhists had discovered this ages ago. They could see more or less intuitively how consciousness evolved and that potential descendants of every living thing are capable of it and that each living thing is somewhere on the line. Caveat: this is my personal interpretation which deviates a bit from the teachings

But not as much as the Jains who walk with their heads down to make sure they're not stepping on anything.

Re: Ants can carry out life-saving amputations on injured nest mates, study shows

#34

Post by emporas »

snarf21 wrote: post #18
emporas wrote: post #6

Stunning! They are also the only other animal on the planet to manipulate it's environment to grow food, apart from humans, by protecting aphids. Sometimes they even wage war to neighboring nests, and kidnap larvae which subsequently grow as workers. Ottomans were very fond of this practice. Ant's face photographed on an electron microscope shows an animal with a very high level of intelligence.

They don't just protect them as a food source. Some wood ants will literally farm them. If a they expand or a tree isn't producing enough sap, they will move aphids to new trees putting them on a new sap source so that they can "milk" them for honeydew (aphid excreted sugar which is a major food source for wood ants).

Yes, i have seen with my own eyes, ants protecting aphids in certain varieties of lentils. Aphids are called in Greek something akin to honeydew, "μελίγκρα" which translates roughly to "honeygra".

I didn't know they were actively moving them around, i thought ants were just protecting them.

Re: Ants can carry out life-saving amputations on injured nest mates, study shows

#35

Post by meowface »

emporas wrote: post #9
viraptor wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ant's face photographed on an electron microscope shows an animal with a very high level of intelligence. What? I can't tell if I'm missing something, or is this some meme.

I am talking about this photo [1], even though it's not after all taken by an electron microscope. Pretty scary, but intelligent face, is it not? [1] https://factcheck.afp.com/macro-photograph-ant-taken-stacked...

One can't determine the intelligence of a being by looking at its face.

Re: Ants can carry out life-saving amputations on injured nest mates, study shows

#36

Post by brutal_chaos_ »

sitkack wrote: post #27

If you are into ant behavior have I got a treat for you, https://www.youtube.com/@AntsCanada

I have watched many hours of that channel. I'm no ant expert, nor do I have much interest in ants in general, but that channel made understanding ant behavior sensational! Big props to the creator

Re: Ants can carry out life-saving amputations on injured nest mates, study shows

#37

Post by knodi123 »

emporas wrote: post #6

Stunning! They are also the only other animal on the planet to manipulate it's environment to grow food, apart from humans, by protecting aphids. Sometimes they even wage war to neighboring nests, and kidnap larvae which subsequently grow as workers. Ottomans were very fond of this practice. Ant's face photographed on an electron microscope shows an animal with a very high level of intelligence.

> manipulate it's environment to grow food, apart from humans, by protecting aphids

And of course the ones that literally garden fungus.

Re: Ants can carry out life-saving amputations on injured nest mates, study shows

#38

Post by moomoo11 »

Sporktacular wrote: post #11

Another week, another story about how we aren't as unique as we like to think. Each discovery points to more intelligence, more skills, more capacity for emotion or pain. One day I think we'll regret how we treated animals so poorly while the evidence was there all along. All that was needed was the precautionary principle.

That’s why I’m vegan

Re: Ants can carry out life-saving amputations on injured nest mates, study shows

#39

Post by throwup238 »

sitkack wrote: post #27

If you are into ant behavior have I got a treat for you, https://www.youtube.com/@AntsCanada

Turns out that although the author is born in Toronto, he lives in Southeast Asia now, and just kept the AntsCanada name since he had already registered the domain.

The tropical vivarium videos make a lot more sense now!

Re: Ants can carry out life-saving amputations on injured nest mates, study shows

#40

Post by quacksilver »

ThunderSizzle wrote: post #26
pram wrote: post #16

I also recently learned that ants remove deceased workers from their nest, and dump their corpses somewhere else. Source: my office carpet

I went down a YT ant rabbit hole years ago. On top of that, most garbage collection ants seem to be ants that are close to death, so that when they die, they are near the garbage/disposal area anyway, and might not even need to be carried there when they die.

I think it also helps if the dead ants are diseased / poisoned / covered in deadly fungus too. An ant near death anyway is less value to the colony, and it doesn't matter as much if it gets sick from moving the dead body
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