We Just Learned How 'Crazy Ants' Ever Get Anything Done
There is reason behind the zigzag paths of longhorn crazy ants when carrying heavy loads—it is the give and take of cooperation, a new study finds.
Four years ago, Ehud Fonio watched as pieces of his cat's dinner spontaneously floated from the feline's bowl. On closer inspection, he spotted an ant brigade: With the massive prize hoisted over their heads, they charged back to the nest.
The answer? A lot of cooperation and a bit of help from the ant version of an air traffic controller, according to a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications.
Researchers filmed groups of crazy ants zigging and zagging as they carried different-size loads nearly 100 times, tracking individual and collective motions. The scientists also added obstacles to the ants' path to test how well the group could navigate.
The "romantic view" of ants, explains Ofer Feinerman, an author of the study,
