Ants are co-rulers of planet Earth. There are ten thousand trillion worldwide. Roughly. If you weighed all the humans on Earth today, we would weigh around the same as all the ants. They have been on Earth for 140 million years. They outlasted the dinosaurs.
In a typical colony, almost exclusively female, adults care for the young, a queen acts as the Head of State, and a regimented division of labour predetermines the chores that maintain the community. They can sew silk, garden, enslave other ants, and are one of the few species, other than humans, truly capable of altering their surroundings.
Just like humans, ants have their own unique way of communicating. They have mastered an odorous alphabet that allows for recognition, alarm, territoriality, and internal balance of the colony. The letters of their alphabet are called pheromones and they help spell out the immediate and long-term activities needed to govern the nest.
But in terms of ecology, we have a lot to learn from the humble ant.
In the process of going about their business, ants recycle the nutrients of the earth, turning more soil on a daily basis than the ubiquitous earthworm. Indeed, ants are the premier soil turners on Earth. They help the environment by consuming unwanted plants, enriching the soil when they process their food so nothing goes to waste. To them waste is food.
They have learnt to coexist with trees and plants so that all parties benefit. Some ants even help in the spreading of seeds. And they don’t have to run a huge advertising campaign to get ants recycling. It is instinctive.
And yet the ant can do all this with a brain that weighs less than one millionth as much as a human brain.
And there we were thinking that we were the smartest critters on the planet.
Nice little thought from Howies, with an ecologically-friendly tinge. Nice brand, nice t-shirts!
