Hard Labor: Study Deciphers How Ants Cooperate to Carry Heavy Loads

In experiments, researchers showed how a dozen or more ants working in unison to haul, say, a large insect can adjust their course based on intelligence provided by a single ant joining the effort.

Ants are one of the very few animals that are capable of managing things jointly in order to carry loads much heavier than an individual of their species.

Researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel watched groups of longhorn mad ants as they attempted to navigate bits of food toward their nests.

Rather than resisting, the others fell into line. The leader’s idea can not be implemented lest the group is there to amplify it with strength.

Feinerman noticed that experiments did not suggest the scout had any extra or different abilities than the common ants.

According to Feinerman, it can be said that the scout is not different from the other ants and no one selects the leader and no one designates herself for the reason that she is having current knowledge regarding the right direction. One of the challenges posed by this characteristic, though, is to strike a balance between conformity and flexibility, that is, there is a need to adhere to synchronised actions and simultaneously make room for the need to adapt as required.

Animals that live in groups such as sheep, fish etc. have evolved the ability to act in concert, a quality that is essential for coordinated movement. Feinerman explained that this is what keeps the ants together instead of them growing apart when pulling loads. But, there are times when this “behavior conformism” works as a drawback, and that is when scouts with updated information come in.

“While all the ants “row” in the same direction that the boat is moving, the leader rows in the direction she knows to be correct”.

The researchers carefully took note of the position of each ant and found that most ants, regardless how their vision and antennae were blocked by the food item they carried, did not attempt to steer away the motion to any direction. In summer, they typically transport large – at least compared to their three-millimetre bodies – insects to their nests for consumption.