Ants know how to count

Actually, the fact that ants communicate with one another, it is known to science. But Siberian scientists have proved that ants can count - add and subtract simple numbers. Experiments on the "language" and intellectual abilities of ants Siberian scientists started back in the 80s.

The experiment is simple. In a special container placed labyrinth - a big "comb" with branching from the main trunk of the same 30 tracks. On some tracks left cotton wool soaked with water, and one - with a sugar syrup. After that, "comb" runs an ant-scout. He rushes through all tracks, provisions and is returned to the nest, located immediately - in a transparent slot, so you can watch all contacts ants together.

When he returned, scout, touching his mustache antennae interlocutor, "says" ants-foragers, whose task is to collect food for the entire family, where to find provisions. At this point, "comb" change that ants have not found a way to food by smell. By the way, the ants often leave a trail of pheromones to mark the way to the stern.

But in this case, the researchers do not allow them to do so, replacing the maze to the next.

- Fleece with syrup we left on different tracks: on the fifth, at the eleventh, then the third - by random choice - explained Boris Ryabko, Ph.D., Professor, Vice-Rector of the Siberian State University of Telecommunications and Information. - It turns out that ants are able to transmit data to each other with confidence, almost without errors, using numbers.

"Right on the highway past eight turns and then the path to the right" - so says a fellow scout. And formic squad rushes forward and - almost always correctly - is food. Ants resort where, according to intelligence, should be the food and enjoy the syrup. In order not to confuse the insects, scientists have tagged them back drops of paint.

Incidentally, the Siberian scientists are used for experiments only red wood ants call them "intellectual elite". In the forest, they encounter more obstacles, but the path to food difficult. Community forest ants may number up to a million individuals. Of course, to count all of their relatives ants can not but recognize his friends in the "face". There are ants and something like a radio when a suitable bear anthill, insects emit pheromones to signal "general alarm". And the ants are able to assess the level of threat, estimating the number of enemies to face.

Fact sent Vladislav Mashchenko

Source: nsk.kp.ru

via factroom.ru