![]() When you blindly follow others, there are consequencesĪrmy ants are blind, relying on pheromones to track the ones in front, if one ant intersects with its old trail, it results in a circular death trap where they spiral until they die from exhaustion pic.twitter. Some of them consider it to be simply an interesting tidbit about the world around us but for others, it is unthinkable that such an advanced system could break down and fail. This network, however, consists of rather weak ties, as it is very possible for a cluster of ants to break off into one of these “ant mills” and be completely separated from the rest of the swarm.” Photo: fascinating piece of nature has gotten the interest of many people online where this video has been shared. “ are tied together through the pheromone trail each emits and an evolutionary compulsion. Photo: Cornell University blog post explains in this way: The ants are simply following the pheromones and they have no idea they are actually marching in a circle. This is a system that has worked for millions of years but unfortunately, it is also a system that can lead to one of these death traps. In other words, once one ant builds the path, the other ants blindly follow. ![]() Photo: to Science Direct, ants don’t have the best eyesight and they have to use pheromones in order to mark a path. ![]() You might be wondering why they do this and what lessons can be learned from it. In some cases, all of the ants in a group end up losing the pheromone trail and everybody starts following everybody else in a big confused spiral until they. It’s amazing when you see the video and how these ants end up in a circular trap that has no end. Photo: Wikimedia commonsĪlthough they may be busy getting from one place to another, there are times when those colonies of ants swirl in an endless circle and eventually, will tire themselves out and die. In the video that you see below, however, it is obvious that things are not quite going right. From Wikipedia’s Ant Mill article: 'An ant mill is an observed phenomenon in which a group of army ants are separated from the main foraging party, lose the pheromone track and begin to follow one another, forming a continuously rotating circle, commonly known as a 'death spiral' because the ants might eventually die of exhaustion. They also have a queen, and it seems as if they scurry about without ever running into each other. They have their own assigned place, and each worker does their job. If you’ve never had an opportunity to study the working structure of an ant colony, you will likely find it quite amazing.
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