How Ants Discovered Agriculture

[@AntsCanada]

Ants are underrated! Ant love forever!

[@realscience]

Hell ya

[@segundacontado_pixel]

I hate when people stomp on ants, you shouldnt stomp on them, usually only if they did something very bad to you, still love ants

[@ADRIFTHIPHOP]

squad!!! the fungal aspect I first learned about in the new amazon series, made me realize humans are actually the exact same. we're all loaded with forgein bacteria. our proximity to others, handshakes and kissing ect shares bacteria. we're all just tiny ecosystems

[@thehairyhominid9972]

​@@realscienceAnts are SO amazing and fascinating!!!

[@WorldbreakerHulk1390]

I declare a war. Ants vs Spiders.

[@antares2953]

Shout out to the scientist who tracked the queen ant amongst the millions. Like how

[@WhyWorldWet]

Queen Ants are lowkey Pernstars lol. 8 Baby daddies gangbang?! danggggg. 8 million babies?? dangggg

[@mr.loonatic4666]

@@WhyWorldWetlmao hahahaha

[@mrsheldon9134]

@@WhyWorldWet 8 million is peanuts, termite queens can lay 30,000 eggs per day, and live for 50 years max. And they do this with only 1 mate per queen.

[@UniDocs_Mahapushpa_Cyavana]

Just find their chamber while the colony is small. Then wait for it to grow.

[@Floedekage]

My guess is capture, kill, dissect, analyse. Pretty easy after she lands.

[@natalieeuley1734]

I know this was about leaf cutter ants and not other ant species, but also remember that ants did animal husbandry before us too, in the form of raising aphids

[@Cecilia-ky3uw]

Yeah

[@thatpuertoricanguy93]

Aside from the internet, combustion tools, and electricity they beat us to everything else lol. The real world conquerors.

[@adrianmetzler2523]

Plus they treat their live stock better than we do, going as far as to even sacrifice themselves to save their live stock knowing the colony relies on them.

[@celestialtimesquid]

Matabele Ants also evolved simple medical care as well, and Wood Ants have evolved amputations.

[@placer7412]

@@adrianmetzler2523 Suffering-based economys are based

[@loganwatt7375]

like the 10th video about ants ive seen from different science youtubers. Its super impressive to me that there's so little overlap despite them all being decently long, usually well written, and about ants.

[@ramuk1933]

That's because there's just so much about ants. They're incredible!

[@pikel7]

I noticed that too! So much information about ants.

[@andyjones7121]

Ants Canada is a good channel. Sometimes I think we're wrong treating ants as individuals, and it might more appropriate considering the entire group as a single organism. They're so awesome and different from us. Just as different parts of our bodies do different things, the group of ants has different ants with different purposes.

[@lars3509]

Be advised: "It's called obligate multiple mating and it is natural" will not save your marriage.

[@realscience]

correct lol unless you are an Atta queen

[@pulverizedpeanuts]

​@@realscienceyeah, ig you'll have to call ur wife atta queen (instead of atta girl), and that should do it

[@Michael-e6d1i]

Yeah. But it's worth giving it a shot 😄

[@finaltheory778]

You are not ants. You are human. Your spouse would get angry if you cheat.

[@jesseshort8]

​@@finaltheory778good thing you reminded them, you might've saved a few relationships.😶

[@alpine9214]

This has got to be the best video from Real Science. It shakes up our "place" in the world regarding agriculture.

[@CountJeffula]

I mean, if they’ve been doing it 60 million years and don’t have tractors or the internet yet, I wouldn’t call it a resounding success.

[@gggggggggg-ms8lm]

​@@CountJeffulaand they only cultivate one species

[@knightwolf5006]

next thing you know they are going to be farming weed

[@bugjams]

​@@CountJeffula Yeah, as impressive as it is, humans are still on top. This doesn't really "shake up" anything, and I've never understood these types of comments.

[@jurajsintaj6644]

An ant species has evolved a symbiotic relationship. Humans learned to do agriculture. I would say theres a difference.

[@areamusicale]

Why do ants follow the money? They're attracted to the cents. Ba dum, tzz

[@bobby9192]

Get out

[@keisuketakahashi3597]

😂

[@ADRIFTHIPHOP]

how does the queen make so many new ants?? she gets antseminated boom chicka wow wow

[@SMJSmoK]

So these ants have have working agriculture, roads, specialized workforce, communication networks, rooms with heating and a damn air conditioning. We should take notes.

[@vanleeuwenhoek]

Much of what you describe is analogy. They're not compressing a gas in a coil made from forged metal, developing concrete, or launching COM-SATs. Some moderation is required.

[@neilok17847]

@@vanleeuwenhoek Its not analogy. They literally do those things mentioned. You're just limiting the scope of those words to exactly how humans in the west in the 21st century do them.

[@lucianonoodle8190]

@@vanleeuwenhoek They also perform amputations and long term health care. They also know how to treat wounds of their hurt sisters. They have free healthcare

[@rairaur2234]

Surely we as humans have achieved enough to not be insecure about insects being developed too. Let's just celebrate another intelligent species and nature in general. Not like ants threaten our place (I hope).

[@braincell4536]

This complexity makes me feel like they are really intelligent. But not the form of intelligence that we would view as Sapience. They are more like what we were probably during the Primal Age. I yearn for the day when we discover a specie of ant using metal..

[@Cyrathil]

5:45 The video cuts right before the ant Wil E. Coyote's itself after cutting the leaf off which it was standing on. I need the next portion of that video.

[@danielvincent5043]

Lol

[@tosehoed123]

They just fall with the leaf as a sort of parachute

[@upanishaderna]

I'm pretty sure that's intentional on the ant's part. That way it can just start walking home with the piece of leaf after it hits the ground. The ant is not going to take any damage from falling no matter the height.

[@borisrath8002]

Even if it seems as if they have no grip after that! They hold on to the rest of the leaf and do not fall to the ground with their leaves! They take the leaf and run home

[@metal_pipe9764]

That's called minimizing transport time.

[@martindavis9826]

Ive been fascinated by leaf cutter ants since the first encounter in my teens, but this video is an amazing explanation of their social organization that is mindblowing. Who would have thought that they would figure out how to create heating and ventilation systems for their nests? Among other things...

[@PurpleArmadillo]

I had seen a video about why you don't spend the night in the middle of the Rainforest, and what he showed in the video was his tent getting dismantled by leaf cutter ants.😬💀

[@ATBatmanMALS31]

That would be a really cool experience, if it wasn't for the ants🙃

[@Nuggets-99]

I wonder if the material still did the job

[@reggie18b]

@@Nuggets-99 Maybe they were just removing it from their trail.

[@srgtjyn2765]

@Nuggets-99, the guy in the tent YTshort that @PurpleArmadillo mentioned claimed it was made of Nylon. I personally think it could be nylon, rip-stop nylon, or less likely, Gore-Tex.

[@srgtjyn2765]

​@@Nuggets-99 Oh it did! Just as tiny pieces! 🤣🤣

[@radovanminic7219]

By causing vibrations, the ants also communicate and stimulate the "nerves" of the tree, which converts the stimuli into "meat". The tree reacts quickly to sunlight, temperature, nodule invasion, moisture, rain, etc. which means that it has locally developed nerve centers that are interconnected. Mushrooms, trees and ants usually live in symbiosis

[@RNAxRibose]

Im doing a mycology class rn and we had a seminar presentation about leafcutter ants. Nice!

[@Timmycoo]

I love when things align like that. That's awesome.

[@Rastafa469]

​@@Timmycoo That's not a coincidence

[@counterflow5719]

Does anyone know what their fungus tastes like. Does anyone study the pharmalogical effects?

[@adrianmetzler2523]

I found one of these massive colonies off trail in some random jungle in Guatemala. Was just enjoying the scenery when I noticed a trail, I fallowed it to another and then to the “main highway”. I then fallowed that (by fallowing the ants with leaves) to the “nation”. The opening reminded me of star wars or some sci fi style mega structure. The main highway was coming from a hole almost the size of a tennis ball but sort of oval. I kept fallowing the main highway (from the hole in the mega nation) and studying the different branches that would jet off the highway to different sights I’d then have to double back and got lost a few times due to how long and windy the branches were. I started using land marks like a Boulder, or one part with a stick bridging over the road and would picture being an ant and seeing the Boulder as a missive butte style land mark. These smaller (but still wide) roads must’ve run 20 or more yards from the “nation”. The nation itsel was hard to determine the size of. If I remember correctly, it was wider in circumference than like a 2 bed bedroom and mounded up somewhere from 4-5 maybe 6 feet off the jungle floor. I put a tiny piece of gum I was chewing at the entrance and watched a few curious ones get stuck and some bigger ants came out to investigate, I didn’t want to interact too much (for my own sake lol). I must’ve spent hours excitedly getting my mind blown studying these guys and this incredible structur and road system they built. I sort of knew about them being amazing but not like this and or seeing it in person randomly. I grabbed my twin and some friends we were with to come check it out. I’m glad I didn’t accidentally step on their road (for my sake). Different parts we travelled around sound and Central America we’d see some lines of leaf cutters (in like a town or park) but they were all more boring than the one I discovered in the wild.😂

[@MyMusics101]

13:20 I'm sorry they STIFFEN THE LEAVES with SOUND?!!!!!!! This is absolutely incredible

[@kindlin]

Yeah, I'm not even sure how that works. Maybe some kind of cellular mechanism? I don't think this is simple materials science here.

[@jdkingsley6543]

Its mindblowing that sound is being produced at such a small scale. Which means sound is probably being produced at even a small scale

[@Zilch.0]

1:35 Minor point completely besides the subject of the video: It's kind if weird how the internet is shaping the use of English. The term 'absolute unit' originated from a post on the Scottish side of Twitter some time in the mid 2010's. And now it so widely known that an American biology youtube channel will just use it as common parlance. Probably unaware of the origin of the phrase.

[@Biscuich0]

Wdym by saying that? 😅

[@Zilch.0]

@crisarts999 I just had a moment about how some memes make it in to everyday language I guess

[@MsCoffee5775]

Ah yes, the study of how linguistics evolves over time.​@@Zilch.0

[@Zilch.0]

@@MsCoffee5775 Yes. In new ways and at ever increasing rates of speed.

[@rust412iop]

@@Zilch.0Globalization, what a concept.

[@MAYBEMAYNOTBE2]

Hearing "baby daddies" in a science video makes me laugh 🤣

[@OsirisLord]

What about absolute unit?

[@mdl1689]

I found it irksome

[@guesswhat-chickenbutt]

I hate it so much. It's trashy to say the least

[@landonfolken03]

And absolutely yoked lol

[@Jack_Redview]

@@guesswhat-chickenbuttlmao ironic your channels name yet, you seem to be the snowflake 😂😂

[@painmt651]

What is so incredible is that nobody teaches them, they are just born knowing what they have to do to tend the queen, the brood, and the fungus.

[@bobby9192]

Praise god 🙏

[@DM-zi2up]

@@bobby9192 Dumb take to have on a Science channel.

[@bobby9192]

@@DM-zi2up the one and only god all mighty allows us to study his work through science

[@DM-zi2up]

@@bobby9192 and yet you 1 upped yourself in your stupidity.

[@DM-zi2up]

@@bobby9192 and sorry to be clear, which of the only mighty god who claims to be the only mighty god do you follow? there are like 5 gods who match the criteria.

[@michaelwoodby5261]

"but this was no ant Moses" You have no way of knowing that.

[@ramuk1933]

They're all trying to recreate the great feats of Ant Moses.

[@myrmepropagandist]

Huge amateur ant nerd here. Love the video and the visuals. I have a minor quibble. OK I'm a little confused when she suggests queen alates may need multiple mating in order to have different castes of workers. It's my understanding what determines if a worker is a major or minor is mostly how much they are fed by their older sisters as larvae. And not all ants with polymorphism practice multiple mating. The first reason she mentions, that it protects from disease is more likely. However this is a notoriously difficult question in myrmecology so I will be hitting the books!

[@KingZetsubou]

Polymorphic species produce different castes as needed, and is often dependant on how much food they have currently. Typically a queen will only start to produce majors and super majors if there is enough food to feed them and the rest of the colony. I don't believe mating with multiple males, has any effect on caste diversity. Bonus fact, some ant species use their majors as giant food banks, nearly bursting with nutrition to then feed to the rest of the colony via trophallaxis.

[@OfficialSamuelC]

It is confusing as she does later say the queen changes what is fed/nutrients to change the type.

[@yukionna9195]

How I understand it is that she's saying the biodiversity that comes from multiple mates is what allows for the physical diversity. with little knowledge on the subject its most likely a mix of genetics and resources that can impact how the ants develop.

[@mattk6101]

I agree. I think that it is food related as opposed to gene related. Imo

[@realscience]

its probably a bit of both. I don't think we fully know how much each influences it

[@eclipseslayer98]

It'd also be interesting to see if the plants they harvest from specifically grow some leaves to have higher sugar content from the rest as a sort of sacrifice. If a leafcutter colony goes after a plant, and each leaf equally recieves damage from the ants, this should hypothetically be worse for the plant than 50% of the leaves remaining undamaged, and the other 50% being harvested. It's like how a human that has both their arms cut off at the elbow is worse off compared to a human that has one arm cut off at the shoulder, and the remaining arm is undamaged.

[@Jk-ko6tc]

You did the ants justice by the quality of your video. Kudos. Keep up the marvelous efforts.

[@ATBatmanMALS31]

I plan on incorporating "Spermatheca" into a "your mom" joke tomorrow at work. Thanks Science!

[@ScreamingWall-vc5kp]

I have always felt that we have a lot in common with ants, and I need to say that this whole video is mind-blowing.

[@citrusquill7609]

I got bitten by one these when i visited a friend in Mexico, these little guys mandibles can easily cut through skin like scissors

[@DDieDDes]

The explanation around 6:20 is wrong. The difference in size is regulated by epigenetics, not by genetics.

[@Benson_aka_devils_advocate_88]

This makes me think of the channel AntsCanada and the video series with his giant rainforest vivarium. A pretty fun watch if you like nature shows!!

[@jamiessecretlaboratory]

That guy puts out some of the highest quality content on KZbin.

[@_BL4CKB1RD_]

Same!

[@Iris_and_or_George]

He's amazing. Way too high production quality!

[@evilgaming0077]

He's very disliked in the ant keeping community though. Mostly because of the clickbait, tone and disregard for his actual pets, in favor of views. He's the one who got me into antkeeping, but most people in the community feel like they've outgrown that style of content.

[@Benson_aka_devils_advocate_88]

@@evilgaming0077 fair opinion. I agree that clickbait titles are annoying AF and I also question some of his choices. But he seems to genuinely care for his charges, imo. It's not like he's intentionally adding different critters with the hopes of some excellent "cage match" type footage.

[@naturezavidaes]

Their teamwork, division of labor, and ability to maintain their tiny ecosystems are truly inspiring lessons in unity and innovation from nature. Thank you for sharing this fascinating knowledge! 🐜🌱

[@Ooooooooeheu]

They stole my joint 1 time i let them have it

[@apokatastasian2831]

they grew mushrooms with it, thats pretty funny

[@theunprofessionals5065]

Those ants gotta be high😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫

[@protoney8122]

They've just passed it through the entire nest, should have waited and they would brought it back. Just much shorter...

[@PieRatKings]

22:58 When the ants were carrying flowers 🪷 That move with the concrete, utterly diabolical

[@FridoBiggins]

This video deserves more views it's so informative and interesting!

[@freddyP300]

Currently doing my PhD research on Leafcutter ants 🐜 so I will be watching very closely lol

[@lusciouslucius]

give us some fun fact about them

[@SaptakDatta]

Hey could you tell that what aspect of them you are studying about??? Is it about their mandibles or something like biochemistry??? Just a little curious 😅

[@freddyP300]

@@lusciouslucius Sure one thing not mentioned in the video (and not a spolier about something were gonna publish in the future lol) is their colonies are actually a triple symbiosis as the ants also have a relationship with bacteria that live on their exoskeleton that they also deposit on the fungus to stop it from getting sick.

[@Warwipf]

@@AlbequerqueJoe Use every tool at your disposal. I don't have a PhD, but I did my bachelor's thesis the same way. I watched a couple of videos on the topic before reading actual research papers because even though YT might be surface-level or partially incorrect it's still a good way to ease yourself into a new topic. If I ever did a PhD I'd do it the same way.

[@samo6401]

​@@AlbequerqueJoe this comment proves you have zero idea what the process is to get a doctorate

[@solangel8002]

this is so cool im so happy u made this thank u ❤❤❤

[@robertwalker-smith2739]

If you consider the colony as a colonial organism, the emergence of the winged reproductive ants is like it's broadcasting gametes to the wider world.

[@michaeljohnson1576]

No way! I literally just watched your Insane Biology of ants video from 3 years ago last night while going to bed and I get treated to this gem today! Thank you so much!

[@malfaro3l]

I saying it, this is THE best series ever. I just about trip over myself in excitement when I see the words “The Insane Biology of:” ion my feed!

[@tylerrossmeowfactor]

The lifetime deal thing is really cool for nebula. We're too tight for it right now but should the offer arise again when we're better off I hope I catch it!

[@scrapeape]

Cool, gunna hop over to Nebula and watch that series. This was great!

[@ratatouille2129]

“They’re fucking farmers” oh my god that’s insane

[@MrHotBagel]

Did these farmers give permission? 😢

[@280SE]

That appears to have been edited out already :(

[@kevinthibodeau]

21:40 Let's just pray that when the aliens come to study us they aren't as cruel to "lesser beings" as we are.

[@lapiswolf2780]

2:45 What was that cut?

[@_cajun_baby_]

It's probably just a really bad punch in.

[@TacticalGuy572]

@@_cajun_baby_no, it was an accidental cut

[@TacticalGuy572]

@@_cajun_baby_the ants twitched forward meaning 1 second was cut

[@yowza234]

Refreshing to have your face pop in the video steph :) Good work as usual

[@brunor7931]

I love observing and casually studying ants since my late childhood. And the fact that my favorite science channel made a video about leafcutter ants made me gasp and click in it so fast! Thanks for yet again another brilliant video and superb research and narration. Long live science researchers

[@MrHusang23]

Those small guys on the leaves who fight off the flies are really cool, not to mention the huge soldiers. This is a great example of individuals doing what they're supposed to do and accepting their roles in society.

[@DustinHaning]

It's truly mind blowing to think that insects figured out farming long before humans even existed.

[@JustSomeGuyLV]

The intelligence of all sorts of life forms is so amazing. If only most people were intellectually capable of understanding this, rather than seeing ''lesser animals'' as mindless creatures simply because ''human is crown of nature'' belief.

[@patherek7914]

These ants are also fascinating from a pest control standpoint when they start attacking flowering plants in suburban neighborhoods.

[@crazywileycoyote]

Currently taking a class in pest control and never thought about that I guess they don't come to Canada

[@patherek7914]

@crazywileycoyote It's too cold for too long and it doesn't produce the type of vegetation or a good environment for the fungus they like. They LOVE the southeastern US along the gulf.

[@lenarianmelon4634]

Thinking about how ecologically devastating an Atta species would be if it became invasive

[@Grassrope123]

@@crazywileycoyote They don’t come to Canada? Man what about Ant Canada

[@LilithG-zl1gs]

This is so cool, thorough, and interesting. Well done! Also I love how it's a serious video while still throwing things like "absolutely yoked bodyguards" in there😂

[@ScoriacTears]

3:07 It's not agriculture it's fungiculture.

[@kidyomu89]

Fungiculture is a type of agriculture silly

[@yousufhossain9768]

Props to the KZbin algorithm its shows my love for ant .. i always fascinated by their intellectual and functional society..

[@mrjoe332]

Leaf ants need a 4X game. I can already see myself throwing 70 hours on it and forgetting to tend to my social life.

[@tomarmadiyer2698]

call it L I F T

[@segfault-]

There's Empires Of The Undergrowth, a top-down indie ant strategy game with different castes and scenarios. It's nice. Tho admittedly not as polished or fully realized as I would like.

[@LastAphelion]

Sim Ant 1991 always had me imagining growing up a next gen Sim Ant/Insect game with way more features like playing as different species, and possibly choosing evolutionary quirks kinda like playing the Star Craft Zerg, IE choosing acid spitters, fungal farming, prisoner taking with enforced labor/soldering using other species, ability to plant spies in enemy nests etc. The different combinations would lead to so many possible playstyles. So many wonderful ideas from nature that almost seem sci fi.

[@coolchrisable]

​@@LastAphelion there also use to be a rts game back in the day called ant war use to love playing as the leaf cutter ants cause they had the best eco

[@braincell4536]

I present you: Empire of the Ants

[@IrishRepoMan]

I could've sworn that I've seen the reasoning for different ant classes is based on what/how much protein they're fed as larvae, not because of mating with multiple males. It's the colony that decides it needs more of a certain type and feeds the larvae accordingly.

[@Watermelon43564]

Several baby daddies, 3 to 8 sperm donations at once?? 😳 Call it what you want but the Queen Ant belongs to the streets 😂

[@mattk6101]

Prostitution is the oldest profession.

[@patrickmorrey8722]

Well, they do build roads. Maybe the workers know it too.

[@jenniferholich9592]

Haha!

[@gigisan9533]

Nah bro for real, and she keep making babies for 20 years

[@realBokidwell]

"Bitch, you were made for the playground..."

[@anonperson3972]

When I was six years old and had read about soldier ants being used to stitch wounds in a book. So, when I came across a trail of them on holiday I practiced and managed to stitch up some cuts (from throns) on my hands and arm by picking up the ants, getting them to bite me, then beheading them, using the heads to stitch myself. My parents were, as you would expect, horrified and impressed

[@rtt1961]

Tremendous research and presentation. Thanks.

[@1234j]

Excellent video, shows our human place in the world. Thank you to the researchers, scientists and production team, from England.

[@Iris_and_or_George]

8:52 attaquate!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻10/10

[@Insanelac]

I never thought I would hear ants described as "absolutely yoked" lol Great work!

[@User0000000000000004]

So leafcutter ants are a mindless foliage carrying conveyer belt? I never considered that before! Thanks for your efforts! I learned something new today!

[@mushuwu]

I just realized that Julia Louis Dreyfuss' character in A Bug's Life was named Princess Atta. Makes so much more sense now.

[@AI-Life-123]

Ants are hard working, a good example to learn from. I hope there will be more videos with content like this.

[@hiatusxhiatus]

Recommendation: the thumbnails should've been an ant holding a leaf

[@ThalerMan92]

Easily one of my favorite species. Imagine if they combined with Herder ants

[@jrzreg2154]

the queen ant of a leafcutter is called tanajura in Brazil and its delicious. In the northeast part of Brazil this is a cultural dish, very healthy and tastes like beans. They fall from the sky in a rain that occurs in february, like hundreds of them.

[@Jayprakash-v9p]

Love Your Vids. Thank you for such amazing content

[@SeeDIfRiT]

Love this, Started pest control as a career choice, so learning more and more about ants is just fascinating, Also, i thought the role of ants was determined by how the larva is fed which determines the individual ant, not the varied sperm collection thats been stored.

[@rbach2]

2:44 "these little guys are F-ing farmers" Instantly subscribed FOREVER. SPEAKING LIKE A HUMAN IS MUCH APPRECIATED! Wait they edited, now it sucks, UNSUSCRIBE

[@alp6502]

You should watch the Mola video😂

[@MasterPleeb]

Was there an edit? For me it just says "These little guys are farmers"

[@poetryflynn3712]

@@MasterPleeb There's clearly a really bad cut there. I didn't notice it the first time through

[@radovanminic7219]

The chemical trails that the ants draw behind them chemically act like gasoline when ignited, only that the chemical chain reactions take place in a much less intense and exothermic manner at a regulated, slightly higher temperature than the outside, which does not inhibit the speed of the chemical reaction. Ants that detect messages generally only know the direction from which the messages come, but not the exact distance from the source

[@brutalusgaming8809]

Immediately goes and plays Empires of the Undergrowth.

[@Misto_deVito6009]

AY MY MAN!

[@lenarianmelon4634]

Leafcutters used to be broken man I can't believe they got nerfed (and will get another)

[@DarioSerrasd]

searching for this, I wasn't disappointed

[@radovanminic7219]

ants and trees always successfully negotiate with each other. The tree will feed the ants, regularly producing just the right leaves for them just to keep them around because they provide the tree with defense against other bugs and regular pruning of earlier mature leaves that save the ants some nourishment before they would otherwise fall off.

[@rdhrtj3943]

We need more ant videos

[@TobeyFairre7861]

You telling me an ant cut this leaf?

[@CordovaMage]

To plants this video is a horror film. These ants are not collecting leaves. They are dismembering them.

[@SuperFusioX]

I love this. No Make up. No drama. Just Science. Subscribed!

[@BurgerurgerFPV]

The part about them vibrating their organ to stiffen the leaf to help with cutting blew my mind. Evolution was lucky with them.

[@denisl2760]

Just a few points: "concrete" has rocks in it, probably not the best material to pour into tiny passages. What was used is probably cement. And carbon dioxide is not "toxic", the reason it is dangerous is because it displaces oxygen.

[@deltaeins1580]

Nah, CO2 is toxic and its not just the air/oxygen displacement

[@dustinstanley9134]

I've always been interested in the natural world. This year i have built a terrarium and am watching it become a thriving ecosystem. Its been incredibly exciting so far. So far the water and nitrogen cycles are working well and everything is breeding so its full of babies including isopods and snails. The largest animal is an eastern ringneck snake and a couple eastern giant millipedes. It started off as a barren waste land but in 3 months it looks like a jungle floor.

[@cyphatechie5459]

"but scientists think" 14:20 it's funny how you use that word ignoring the fact that you are a scientist yourself...i mean this is one of the best science channels on this platform so no one deserves a "scientist" title more than you do...

[@torappuda]

Did you want them to say "we scientists" every time?

[@Pun_Of_A_Kind]

That statement doesn’t ignore one’s own status as a scientist at all. It’s usually a distinction to emphasize that the idea or hypothesis being discussed is not their own idea, but that of other scientists, often referencing those that research in a different field. But similarly, compiling the research of others to present in a public facing format such as this video doesn’t automatically make someone a “scientist” as much as it makes them a science communicator, but one can also have both of those titles as well

[@aurelijapluke]

great and very well explained video, thanks!

[@Monkey_D_Luffy56]

I just wish that I can direct or teach house ants to find the damn Queen termite somewhere beneath our house and eat it

[@kit0134]

i always knew that leafcutter ants farm fungus, but I had no idea they built actual highways to and from the colony. that's amazing

[@OvertakeGT]

Leafcutter Ants and Leafcutter bees should team up!

[@huss03]

I once trained an ant to understand simple verbal commands. It took a long time and a lot of patience. In retrospect, I think I was unsuccessful.

[@nicholaslogan6840]

I remember back in the nineties we were afraid of being ruled by giant bugs. These guys have balanced defense, infrastructure, environmentalism, agriculture and communal integrity. Can we get a leafcutter ant to run a country sometime if they're ever not busy?

[@DerekShinglesCoops]

Mind boggling and brilliant! Thank you.

[@Antymatters]

woooohooooo :D got 2 colonies of these and am huge fans :D cant wait to learn some stuff about em

[@Paulj327C]

I love nature documentaries. Fireant mounds in the southeast are everywhere, the ones you step on with a boot and step back. It's like an invasion.

[@benkelly1325]

I love ants

[@bjarke7886]

Me 2

[@titaniumfire3957]

me 3

[@keithmetcalf5548]

Brilliant they are. Me 4.

[@ChrisIndellicati]

It's the ants world we just live in it.

[@MrHotBagel]

23:40 i wonder if this is how "a million ants" from rick and morty got his name

[@katrinaratzlaff3183]

Such a great video!

[@Gift-fh4qw]

15:08 Are you telling me that Aunt Moses is so fat that she leaves a cleared trail behind her on the forest floor.

[@drprabhatrdasnewjersey9030]

I am a physician in USA, interested in nature and science. Very nice, organized and informative documentary.

[@shinigamiryuku2869]

Finally! I have been wating for you to do a deep dive in to leafcutter ants, It did not disappoint! How about continuing the trend with a video on weaver ants?

[@OgienChomik]

Theres another ant genus that grows fungus that's worth mentioning: Trachymyrmex. It's all over north America and it's far less studied, it has much smaller colonies and almost no class diversification. I believe these colonies grow through budding rather than taking flight and trying to found their own colony.

[@CountCocofang]

Watching this documentary was like watching a work of fiction where the author hypes up some character or creature through monumentally overblown feats that defy sense or reason. All while being cognisant of the fact that this is all real and these ants really are that insanely incredible. So incredible in fact that we have yet to even understand how they achieve some of the things they do. One of my favorite videos of you that just makes you go "No way." over and over.

[@TheTboy007]

Imagine going to the forest and harvesting leaves for the ants near the anthill and piling them next their home. And see how fast they try to take it all underground

[@derekfrost8991]

Why do ants never get sick? It's because of the anty bodies.. 😂

[@wintermath3173]

The agriculture section was interesting. Do ants ever experience crop failures? Human farmers are loathe to rely on a single crop, because if something goes wrong then it's a serious threat to their food source and livelihood. Are there species of ants that cultivate more than one crop? Are there pests (e.g. diseases) that go after their fungus?

[@asokt4931]

The more we study and understand - the better we can become at material engineering etc and using organic mechanisms too.

[@GreenMonkeySam]

If you like organic mechanisms, you should watch Scavengers Reign