{"id":18701,"date":"2018-07-26T01:21:28","date_gmt":"2018-07-26T01:21:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.natgeokids.com\/?p=18701"},"modified":"2019-08-09T15:49:46","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T15:49:46","slug":"science-dr-karl-ants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.natgeokids.com\/nz\/discover\/science\/nature\/science-dr-karl-ants\/","title":{"rendered":"Science with Dr Karl: Ants are Strong AND Clever"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ants\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Did you know that ants can only lift or drag a heavy load? They don\u2019t do a lot of pushing… So how do they manage to manoeuvre a big piece of tasty food back to their nest so efficiently?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s consider an ant stumbling across a cat\u2019s dinner. It can\u2019t move all the food by itself, so it rushes back to its nest to get help, all the way squirting out a special chemical called a pheromone. This pheromone guides the other ants
\nto where the food is.<\/p>\n

The other ants sniff the pheromone carefully with their antennae, and head towards the cat food. Very soon there\u2019s a trail of individual ants carrying the small bits of food back to the nest. But what about the larger lumps?<\/p>\n

A group will work together, with their heads and antennae tightly pressed up against the food. Then they\u2019ll start lifting and dragging. At first, they\u2019ll have an idea of where the nest is \u2013 thanks to the pheromone trail. But the ants can\u2019t see because their sensing antennae are pushed up against the food. Without a leader guiding them, the ants will soon lose track of where they are going!<\/p>\n

Luckily, another ant close by will cross the pheromone trail and determine where the nest is. She will then join the group of ants and start lifting and dragging the lump of food in the direction of the nest. She is now the leader, or steerer. Because she is near the front end of the food, she is able to direct the ants towards the nest \u2013 but only for a while. After about 10-20 seconds, she won\u2019t know where the nest is anymore, because her antennae is now pressed against the food, and she can\u2019t see where she\u2019s going. So she is replaced by another ant that has just crossed the pheromone trail. This new ant will know where the nest is \u2013 and now she<\/em> will help steer the load. This process will repeat until the food is safely at the nest… for all the ants to enjoy! Go team!<\/p>\n

 <\/em>DID YOU KNOW?  Ants are famous for their amazing individual strength. The allegheny mound ants in North America are among the strongest in the  world. They can lift 1,000 times their own weight! That\u2019s equivalent to an 80kg person lifting a fully loaded Boeing 737! Impressive!<\/p>\n

DID YOU KNOW?  Ants are one of the few creatures (besides humans) that cooperate to both build things together and shift loads much heavier than they can lift single-handedly.<\/p>\n

DID YOU KNOW? The Asian weaver ant can carry more than 100 times its own body weight \u2013 whilst standing upside down on the bottom of a glass!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you know that ants can only lift or drag a heavy load? They don\u2019t do a lot of pushing… So how do they manage to manoeuvre a big piece of tasty food back to their nest so efficiently? Let\u2019s consider an ant stumbling across a cat\u2019s dinner. It can\u2019t move all the food by … Continue reading Science with Dr Karl: Ants are Strong AND Clever<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":18702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[2153,2346,734,733,1285,1922,246,947],"christmas-category":[],"class_list":["post-18701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nature","tag-animal","tag-animal-behaviour","tag-ant","tag-ants","tag-behaviour","tag-dr-karl","tag-insects","tag-science","countries-australia","countries-new-zealand"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nants and their behaviour | science with dr karl | national geographic kids<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ants are awesome! Did you know that ants can only lift or drag a heavy load? 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