Study: Ants Can Teach Each Other
From an Unknown CubicleAnts studied over two years by scientists from
Bristol University used a technique known as tandem running -- one ant
led another ant from the nest to a food source usually located in a
scientist's lunchbox. Why it took the scientists two years to learn this
is uncertain, but it appears that they could learn a thing or two from
those ants. It was a genuine case of teaching as ant leaders slowed down
if the follower got too far behind. If the gap got smaller, they then
speeded up.Information then flows through the ant colony when followers
are promoted to leaders and the teaching process starts all over again.
The ability of ants to teach other ants has been independently confirmed
by scientists in the United States, who claim that carpenter ants were
able to teach a learning-challenged group of piss ants to construct tiny
condos into their anthill.
However, only a single photo exists of the American piss ants' condos,
because fire ants later taught some of them how to be arsonists. "It was
an awful sight," recounted one of the scientists, "fire and smoke from
all of those piss ants trying to extinguish the flames."
