« If the world is full of opportunity ... | Main | Stars are born early - with the support of parents »
January 15, 2006
Never look at ants the same way again
Ants are small and amazing animals. When I was a kid, I always observed them. Their business, the way how they organised themselves, defended themselves as well (I admit, I killed plenty of them as a boy - and wow, was I bitten and attacked).
Now, a study has found out that they teach each other how to find food by using "a technique known as tandem running -- one ant led another ant from the nest to a food source.
It was a genuine case of teaching as ant leaders slowed down if the follower got too far behind. If the gap got smaller, they then speeded up.
Tandem leaders also paid a penalty, because they would have reached the food four times faster if they had gone alone. But teaching had its advantages -- the follower ant then learnt much more quickly where the food source was.
Information then flows through the ant colony when followers are promoted to leaders and the teaching process starts all over again."
I liked the comment that the professor, who let the story, said in the end:
"What's nice about this demonstration is that the ant is an animal with a small brain. The human brain is a million times larger and yet the ant is very good at teaching and learning."
Then, how come we know so little about ourselve?
Posted by Andreas at January 15, 2006 10:45 AM
Comments
I did watch a National Geographic program, I think, on the Astro payTV about the elephant. You're absolutely correct, they were talking about the elephant's remarkable memory. They were also talking about the elephant's behaviour which may become very aggressive if a relative was killed by humans. The elephant is able to remember this for a long time. They were investigating why some elephants become so aggressive and may suddenly turn against their trainer and attack him viciously.
They also said something about the elephant being able to hear through it's feet or detect vibrations along the ground. How amazing.
Posted by: James at January 18, 2006 08:57 PM
I think the human brain often tricks itself into overlooking truths about humanness and humanity. We're too scared to swallow the truth?
Posted by: Marita Paige at January 17, 2006 01:47 PM
JC
I agree with you - but may be it is our big brain that comes into the way? Our attitudes and selfishness?
James:
Thanks for the enlightening comment, but not sure if you are right with regard to the elephant. Have you heard that an elephant does not forget anything? That if you hurt the animal once, for example, and come back years later, that they still remember you? May be this is also just a myth, but may be true?
Posted by: Andreas at January 17, 2006 07:29 AM
But the elephant has a huge brain, much bigger than a human's. But yet the elephant doesn't talk. The cat has a brain much smaller than the
elephant and the human, but it seems to be smarter than the elephant. A chimp has a brain smaller than the elephant and it's definitely smarter than the elephant.
Posted by: James at January 17, 2006 07:27 AM
erm..eventhough human brain is bigger than an ant, but human being is too selfish to share knowledge among themselves... what to do? besides that many factors to lead that why human being unable to do a good job if compare to a mini ant...cynically, tat's life.
Posted by: JC at January 15, 2006 01:43 PM