Humans have always considered themselves the most intelligent species on earth, but small ants can sometimes teach us valuable lessons.
Ants make up a quarter of the world's animals. Ants can teach us valuable lessons about health care, traffic, defense and solidarity.
1. Remarkable health
There is no tonic that can help humans match the strength of ants.
An ant species in the US can withstand a record weight of 5,000 times their body weight.
Thanks to their sticky feet, Asian weaver ants can carry objects up to 100 times their own weight while hanging upside down from a glass.
Ants can be so strong because they have a very light body, their muscles do not have to strain to support their body weight. Therefore, ants can easily lift other objects.
2. Traffic control
Ants do not have tunnels or highways like humans to solve traffic problems even when there are thousands of them moving together.
When the German researchers doubled the number of ants on the trail that the entire colony traveled (by increasing the amount of food at the end of the path), the ants moved at twice the speed.
Biologists in Edinburgh have shown that ants can even walk backwards and carry items while maintaining the same speed as above.
3. Solidarity
The largest ant community on record, over 6,000 square kilometers, is made up of Argentine ants on the Mediterranean coast. They are thought to have been reached here by cargo ships.
This super-giant community of ants consists of a billion ants that move in various nests bordering countries. The population of the European Union (EU) is only about half that of this community and clearly cannot have an efficient structure like them.
An ant's brain contains only 250,000 cells while bees have 960,000 cells and humans have 100 billion neurons. In general, however, ants are capable of creating highly developed social systems where thousands of individuals can function in synchrony. Ants are also the record holder for large fertility. After mating for a few days, a queen can lay 300,000 eggs.
The ant community is considered the largest equal community in the world. Research by Arizona State University, USA with the red ant Temnothorax shows that when an ant colony wants to move to a new place, worker ants will scout out potential locations in advance. If they feel like this new home, they will return and send a signal: "follow me" with a special substance on their body.
4. Health care, mutual support
Ants are among the species that self-produce antibiotics in response to disease outbreaks in their communities. Antibiotics from ants can fight the fungal disease andida albicans.
Meanwhile, a South American ant can build healthy cities. They build nests with tree sap that kills bacteria and fungi. Some of them even spontaneously leave the herd within 4 days of infection with fungal parasites.
German scientists discovered that the African Matabele ant also performs "rescue" operations, rescuing fellow species that have lost their antennae or legs while hunting.
If attacked by preys, ants will secrete a special substance to call on teammates for help. Injured ants are also brought back to the nest. Worker ants know how to take care of each other. You may see ants "kissing" but they are actually feeding each other.
Ants know how to take care of themselves, fire ants sometimes sleep for about a minute, 250 times a day.
(Collected and synthesized, for reference only)
