Thursday 28 April 2011

Ants Build Living Rafts to Stay Alive



Fire ants. Image courtesy of Stephen Ausmus, Wikipedia.



Joel Kontinen

Fire ants (Solenopsis invicta) are surprisingly innovative animals. Working as a team, they can build living rafts in order to survive floods.

They construct their ark from ants, i.e. themselves and others. What is even more remarkable is that they don’t get wet although they would have to be long in the water – not even those that are at the bottom of the raft.

Recently, the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published research examining the raft-building capacity of these ants.

Promoters of Darwinian evolution have often failed to notice that many other animals are cleverer than chimpanzees.

The Bible describes ants as very industrious animals: “Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!” Proverbs 6:6 exhorts us.


Source:

Buchen, Lizzie. 2011. Ants team up to stay dry. Nature News. (26 April).