A group of longhorn crazy ants cooperate to transfer an item too heavy for each of them to move alone. (Photo credit: Ehud Fonio and Ofer Feinerman)
It takes a lot of coordination for a group to carry a large load together. It’s a rare ability in the animal world, but one shared by ants and humans.
Like humans, longhorn crazy ants (Paratrechina longicornis) use individuals for steering the direction of the group. This collective movement appears to arise by the action of freely moving ants, well informed of the correct direction, that periodically attach to the load and steer it.
The research team used video analysis to track the motion of individual ants.
Original research paper published in Nature Communications on July 28, 2015.
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