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Some species appear to also count steps. A researcher glued stilts to ants legs after leaving the anthill and they would go past it in their return and get lost
by vinchuco 10y ago
Some species appear to also count steps. A researcher glued stilts to ants legs after leaving the anthill and they would go past it in their return and get lost (or so I remember reading in "the math book").
- nitrogen 10y agoCould it also be possible that the stilt-wearing ant was too far off the ground to smell its colony, or maybe it deemed itself defective and quarantined itself?
- nickff 10y agoIt also seems possible that the stilts would frustrate effort measurement.
- Someone 10y agoThey also shortened legs, with the reverse effect. Desert ants cannot use scent because scents evaporate too fast in deserts (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060629-ants-stilts_2.html http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060629-ants-..., http://inspiringscience.net/2012/11/09/do-ants-really-count-their-steps/ http://inspiringscience.net/2012/11/09/do-ants-really-count-...)
- vinchuco 10y agoPossibly. I didn't read the linked paper, just the little article about it in this pop-sci book. Regardless, the point is that humans are not the only beings who measure quantitatively. Reminds me of a silly story: http://jokes.cc.com/funny-doctor/fj9nmq/the-scientist-and-the-frog http://jokes.cc.com/funny-doctor/fj9nmq/the-scientist-and-th...