0:00:20 > 0:00:23This is Planet Ant, a giant,
0:00:23 > 0:00:25man-made ant home,
0:00:25 > 0:00:29built especially above ground to allow us
0:00:29 > 0:00:33to investigate the incredible lives of these tiny creatures.
0:00:33 > 0:00:36These glass boxes and tubes have been built to replicate
0:00:36 > 0:00:41the underground tunnels and chambers of an ant colony in the wild,
0:00:41 > 0:00:44and they're full of busy, leafcutter ants.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47This is the first time that a man-made
0:00:47 > 0:00:50ant colony has been built on this scale.
0:00:50 > 0:00:53I've brought some young scientists along to Planet Ant, to see
0:00:53 > 0:00:55what we can discover about one of the world's
0:00:55 > 0:00:58most fascinating insects.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02And like all good scientists, they have lots of questions.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07- Where did you get the ants from? - Where did they come from?
0:01:07 > 0:01:09Well, we dug these up underground in a place called Trinidad,
0:01:09 > 0:01:12and Trinidad is just off the coast of South America.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19Because we needed such an enormous number of ants for Planet Ant,
0:01:19 > 0:01:22I was sent on a special mission to Trinidad to find them.
0:01:24 > 0:01:26Leafcutters are native here.
0:01:26 > 0:01:28That means they belong in Trinidad,
0:01:28 > 0:01:30but farmers think they're a serious pest
0:01:30 > 0:01:32because they damage their crops.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37This colony was about to be destroyed by a farmer.
0:01:37 > 0:01:40We wanted to rescue it and take it back to the UK.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46The tricky bit about this mission is to make sure that we find
0:01:46 > 0:01:48the queen, as she's the only
0:01:48 > 0:01:52ant that lays eggs that will hatch into the next generation of ants.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56So without her, the colony won't survive back in the UK.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04When I see ants in my garden, they go under the, like, mud.
0:02:04 > 0:02:06How come they're not going, like, under the mud now?
0:02:06 > 0:02:08Well, that's a great question.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11They're not going underneath the ground here for two reasons.
0:02:11 > 0:02:13The first one is that, actually, it's quite shallow,
0:02:13 > 0:02:15so there's nowhere for them to go.
0:02:15 > 0:02:18But the second and most interesting answer is that they don't think of
0:02:18 > 0:02:20this area out here as being somewhere
0:02:20 > 0:02:22that they want to make a nest.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24Their nest is over there.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32Ants are very particular about where they build their nests.
0:02:32 > 0:02:36Back in Trinidad, this is our first close-up look at the ant's
0:02:36 > 0:02:38nest that we found in the wild.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41The outside of one of these ant nests really doesn't look like much.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44It's usually a load of spoil, a load of earth. You can see a few holes.
0:02:44 > 0:02:47And you'll see those ants coming in if you go out at night.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50If you come during the day, you'll see nothing.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53As we dig, what we see is a maze of chambers,
0:02:53 > 0:02:55connected by a system of tunnels.
0:02:58 > 0:02:59This is what we've tried to copy
0:02:59 > 0:03:02when designing and building Planet Ant...
0:03:04 > 0:03:07..with glass boxes and tubes replacing the chambers and tunnels.
0:03:10 > 0:03:12By copying a real-world design,
0:03:12 > 0:03:16we hope to encourage the ants to behave like they would in the wild.
0:03:24 > 0:03:25Do they eat each other?
0:03:25 > 0:03:27They're very friendly to each other
0:03:27 > 0:03:30because they're all part of the same family.
0:03:30 > 0:03:33The soldier ants are big ants who defend the colony.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36And here, you can see they're attacking us.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40This is pretty much the first blow of the spade.
0:03:40 > 0:03:42We've been digging for about a minute.
0:03:42 > 0:03:43And already, on the surface here,
0:03:43 > 0:03:47I can count at least 20 or 30 of these big soldiers.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50It's sort of made our life a bit more difficult, in a way,
0:03:50 > 0:03:52because we're going to be now under attack, digging this trench.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58And it's not just ants we needed to rescue from this nest.
0:03:58 > 0:04:02The underground chambers are packed full of vital fungus,
0:04:02 > 0:04:03which is what the ants eat.
0:04:05 > 0:04:10So far, we've recovered thousands of ants and a large quantity of fungus.
0:04:10 > 0:04:14But we've still to find the most vital ant of all, the queen.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20The queen is huge compared to the other ants,
0:04:20 > 0:04:23and she'll be covered in smaller ants who look after her.
0:04:25 > 0:04:27There's something really smart here.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32- Oh, yeah.- OK?- Yeah, yeah.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35We're all hoping that this is the queen.
0:04:35 > 0:04:37This looks very promising.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42- So this could be the queen in the middle.- Think we're in here.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47- There she is.- Oh, yes!- Excellent.
0:04:47 > 0:04:49One ant in two million, we found her!
0:04:49 > 0:04:52Through tons of earth, we've managed to find the most important
0:04:52 > 0:04:56ant of all. It's a great relief to the whole team.
0:04:57 > 0:05:00- Well done, Malio. Well done.- Nice.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06Our young scientists have been very excited by the large-scale
0:05:06 > 0:05:09Planet Ant, and they decide to have a go at building
0:05:09 > 0:05:11their own mini version.
0:05:11 > 0:05:14Just as I had to go on a mission to find a colony for Planet Ant,
0:05:14 > 0:05:19the first thing the team have to do is to find some ants of their own.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22Oh, there we go, look! Yeah.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25- Can you see them carrying their eggs?- Yeah.
0:05:25 > 0:05:29- That's, like, wee white ones. - That's the eggs and the larvae.
0:05:29 > 0:05:32- That's the young eggs. - That's amazing!- That's really cool.
0:05:32 > 0:05:35So we've got special permission to collect this nest.
0:05:35 > 0:05:36And we'll take them back with us.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44So the first stage of building an ant colony is complete,
0:05:44 > 0:05:46finding the ants.
0:05:46 > 0:05:50Already, we've learnt that ants live together in colonies,
0:05:50 > 0:05:51a bit like families.
0:05:51 > 0:05:54And they build underground chambers, like rooms,
0:05:54 > 0:05:56which are connected by tunnels.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01We also know that they can be found in other parts of the world,
0:06:01 > 0:06:02not just the UK.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10We're going to be studying the ants in Planet Ant in more detail,
0:06:10 > 0:06:12as well as building our own mini version,
0:06:12 > 0:06:15the kind you could make at school or at home.
0:06:15 > 0:06:18And with my team of young scientists, we'll be discovering
0:06:18 > 0:06:21more about the fascinating lives of these tiny creatures.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26Adam, what are they doing before they go in the mud?
0:06:26 > 0:06:29That's a really good question. When they're out here,
0:06:29 > 0:06:31they're treating this area like it's a place to go and feed.
0:06:31 > 0:06:33So they're probably just getting a bit hungry
0:06:33 > 0:06:35and trying to carry anything they can find back.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38One thing they're not doing is digging down into it to find
0:06:38 > 0:06:42any new nest space, cos that all happens back up there at the colony.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44So out here, it's all about feeding.
0:06:46 > 0:06:48The leafcutter ants on Planet Ant
0:06:48 > 0:06:51were collected from South America and carefully transported
0:06:51 > 0:06:54thousands of miles to the UK,
0:06:54 > 0:06:56where they began organising their new home.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59The young scientists wanted to find out more about the ants'
0:06:59 > 0:07:03habitat for themselves, so they collected some ants of their own,
0:07:03 > 0:07:05and now, they're ready to build their own
0:07:05 > 0:07:07mini version of Planet Ant.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14- What sort of things do you think ants need to be able to live?- Water.
0:07:14 > 0:07:17Yeah, water's important. They certainly need a bit of water.
0:07:17 > 0:07:22- Food.- Food. Yeah, food's really important. We all need food.- Air.
0:07:22 > 0:07:25Ants need air, just like we do. What you think the soil's for?
0:07:25 > 0:07:26It keeps them warm.
0:07:26 > 0:07:28Yeah, it keeps them warm and it protects them,
0:07:28 > 0:07:30so it's a little bit like living in a house.
0:07:30 > 0:07:33It protects you from the weather, it keeps you nice and warm and cosy.
0:07:33 > 0:07:36So what we're going to try and do is make a nice, warm,
0:07:36 > 0:07:38cosy nest for these ants.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42First, we're using three large see-through plastic cups with
0:07:42 > 0:07:44a little plaster in the bottom.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47This will hold a bit of water and weight the cups down.
0:07:48 > 0:07:52Next, we're putting a smaller plastic cup inside the big one.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55We're going to build up a layer of soil around the cup
0:07:55 > 0:07:57that's in the middle, but it will also mean
0:07:57 > 0:08:01that we'll be able to see them through the outside of the cup.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04Billy has the fiddly job of putting the soil in the gap
0:08:04 > 0:08:05between the two cups.
0:08:05 > 0:08:08What would happen if you try and pick them up with your fingers?
0:08:08 > 0:08:13- Squish them.- Yeah, you might squash them. What we can use is this.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16And this is called a Pooter. And you can make one really easily.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19It's just a couple of tubes going into a little jar.
0:08:19 > 0:08:21And one of the tubes... Can you see?
0:08:21 > 0:08:23One of the tubes has got that filter over the end of it.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25What you're going to do is suck on one tube,
0:08:25 > 0:08:28and it's going to suck the ants up through the other tube.
0:08:28 > 0:08:30So it's like a little vacuum cleaner.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33It's a really, really good way to collect delicate things like ants.
0:08:33 > 0:08:37So shall we have a go at collecting as many as we can from one
0:08:37 > 0:08:40of these colonies here, so that we can put them into our nests?
0:08:47 > 0:08:49You need to get Pootering now.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53We surround the big cups with water to stop the ants escaping,
0:08:53 > 0:08:55like a moat around a castle.
0:08:55 > 0:08:57So we've got our nest set up.
0:08:57 > 0:08:59The ants can't escape cos we've got a moat.
0:08:59 > 0:09:01What's the next thing we're going to do?
0:09:01 > 0:09:03Take the ants out and put them in.
0:09:03 > 0:09:05Yeah. Put the ants in. So one at a time.
0:09:08 > 0:09:10There we go. You've got a few on the lid.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18Once the leafcutter ants have been collected from the wild,
0:09:18 > 0:09:21they were introduced to their new, man-made home.
0:09:21 > 0:09:25We put the ants and some fresh soil onto the top of the nest.
0:09:25 > 0:09:27This is our ground level.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30From here, they made their own way down into the nest boxes,
0:09:30 > 0:09:33which are like the chambers they build in the wild.
0:09:35 > 0:09:37The queen ant is the only ant that lays eggs,
0:09:37 > 0:09:39so she's vital to the colony.
0:09:39 > 0:09:40Excellent!
0:09:40 > 0:09:42She's put safely in the nest.
0:09:44 > 0:09:46Yep, she's in.
0:09:46 > 0:09:50Planet Ant has two main areas, the nest boxes and the foraging table.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53Our young scientists are going to replicate this with their own
0:09:53 > 0:09:54mini Planet Ant.
0:09:58 > 0:10:03- What else do you think they need? - Air.- Food.- Yeah, food.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05They've got lots of air, the soil's quite moist,
0:10:05 > 0:10:09so they've got a bit of water, but we need to give them some food.
0:10:09 > 0:10:10Smell. What does that smell like?
0:10:10 > 0:10:14We're giving these ants water with some honey in it.
0:10:14 > 0:10:16- Is that enough?- Yeah, that's enough.
0:10:16 > 0:10:18We can check on them every day, just to give them
0:10:18 > 0:10:19a little bit more food if they need.
0:10:19 > 0:10:22But we've got ants in here, and we've got food in there.
0:10:22 > 0:10:25- So what's our problem? - How they're going to get it.
0:10:25 > 0:10:27Yeah, how they're going to get from one to the other.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30- So how do you think we might solve that?- We might need some tubes.
0:10:30 > 0:10:33Yeah, we can put some tubes in, we can build some bridges.
0:10:35 > 0:10:39Once the ants had settled into the nest boxes in the big Planet Ant,
0:10:39 > 0:10:42it was time to let them loose on the wider world we'd built for them.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49This was our first chance to see how they organised their
0:10:49 > 0:10:50leaf cutting together.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57Zoologist George McGavin was there to give me a hand.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00What we want to do now is to allow them
0:11:00 > 0:11:04to forage in a natural way they would do in the real environment.
0:11:04 > 0:11:08And to do that, we need to join up the colony with the virgin
0:11:08 > 0:11:10foraging lands beyond.
0:11:13 > 0:11:16For the ants, it's finally time to explore.
0:11:19 > 0:11:21Well, we've only just put the bridge in,
0:11:21 > 0:11:26and already, we've got workers swarming up as far as here.
0:11:26 > 0:11:28So I don't think it'll take very long for them
0:11:28 > 0:11:30to find the other end of this bridge.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38Tentatively, the ants start to make their way down the bridge,
0:11:38 > 0:11:41although it's not exactly a massive trail just yet.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49In the wild, you see them foraging all over the ground.
0:11:49 > 0:11:52But how far will they forage from their main nest?
0:11:52 > 0:11:54Up to 100 metres, sometimes more.
0:11:54 > 0:11:56So you can follow these trails deep into the forest.
0:11:56 > 0:11:59And, in fact, this colony was foraging deep into a citrus grove,
0:11:59 > 0:12:02and you could follow them back for 100 metres or more.
0:12:03 > 0:12:06Our time-lapse cameras reveal that
0:12:06 > 0:12:10the trickle of ants across the bridge quickly becomes a flood.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14More and more ants head out to explore the foraging areas beyond.
0:12:14 > 0:12:17Now we'll have to wait to see how quickly they discover the plants
0:12:17 > 0:12:20and get their leaf-cutting operation underway.
0:12:20 > 0:12:22Back at the mini Planet Ant,
0:12:22 > 0:12:26the young scientists need to help their ants find their food.
0:12:26 > 0:12:30- OK, shall we try and connect these ants up to their food?- Yeah.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32So there's a stick there.
0:12:32 > 0:12:34If you want to connect that side up and lay that one down.
0:12:34 > 0:12:37So do you want to just plonk that in? There we go.
0:12:41 > 0:12:44And, yeah. We've already got an ant crawling up here.
0:12:44 > 0:12:45So they're already exploring.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47We've only made this up for a couple of minutes,
0:12:47 > 0:12:49and we've got ants moving along these bridges.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52They're really, really good at finding new places,
0:12:52 > 0:12:53finding nests and finding food.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00The ants on Planet Ant and the ants in our mini ant colony
0:13:00 > 0:13:02now start exploring their new homes.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08For our mini ant homes, we used three large plastic cups with
0:13:08 > 0:13:12a bit of plaster in the bottom to hold water and weight them down.
0:13:12 > 0:13:16We put smaller plastic cups inside two of the bigger ones,
0:13:16 > 0:13:20and filled the gap with soil. These are our mini nest boxes.
0:13:21 > 0:13:23We used Pooters to collect the ants.
0:13:23 > 0:13:27In the third cup, we put some honeyed water to feed the ants.
0:13:27 > 0:13:30This is our mini foraging table.
0:13:30 > 0:13:34Lastly, we connected all the cups up with some twigs.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36Both these colonies have been given the food,
0:13:36 > 0:13:38water and shelter that they need to survive.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45How come some ants are big and some ants are small?
0:13:45 > 0:13:48It's really, really useful for this ant colony to have ants of these
0:13:48 > 0:13:52different sizes cos it's like having a really complicated toolkit.
0:13:52 > 0:13:54It means that you can do lots of different things.
0:13:54 > 0:13:56So the ants that are very small are very good at doing gentle
0:13:56 > 0:13:59little delicate jobs, whereas the bigger ants are really good
0:13:59 > 0:14:03at doing things like defending the nest and carrying big objects.
0:14:03 > 0:14:05So it's about having lots of different ants of different sizes
0:14:05 > 0:14:07to do lots of different jobs.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11Now, the first thing that's really obvious when you look at an
0:14:11 > 0:14:15ant colony is that the adult ants seem to be of different sizes.
0:14:15 > 0:14:18Now, it's not because they're not fully grown.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21It's because there are different castes of ants, and under here,
0:14:21 > 0:14:24I've got three different castes of worker ants.
0:14:25 > 0:14:29In the insect world, a caste system means there are lots of body types
0:14:29 > 0:14:34of different shapes and sizes within a single species or group of animal.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39And they're different sizes for a good reason.
0:14:39 > 0:14:42Each of these castes of ants have a different job to do.
0:14:44 > 0:14:47Soldier ants are bigger than the other castes.
0:14:48 > 0:14:50That head isn't filled with a large brain
0:14:50 > 0:14:54but a massive set of muscles to power a fearsome pair of jaws
0:14:54 > 0:14:57or mandibles, strong enough to cut through leather.
0:14:57 > 0:15:00Going down the size scale, this smaller ant
0:15:00 > 0:15:02is called a media worker.
0:15:02 > 0:15:06These are the ants that collect and bring leaves back to the nest.
0:15:06 > 0:15:08Its serrated jaws are just the right shape
0:15:08 > 0:15:10for cutting into tough plant material.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19At the very bottom of the scale are the minima,
0:15:19 > 0:15:21the most numerous ants of all.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24They use the leaves to grow fungus to feed the colony
0:15:24 > 0:15:26and they look after the young.
0:15:27 > 0:15:29The work is divided between all the ants.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34Each cast of ant has a role to play.
0:15:36 > 0:15:40Our young scientists are examining some ants more closely.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43All right, we had a nice chance to look at these ants.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46I reckon we should try and draw them.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49Drawing the ants is a really good way of focusing
0:15:49 > 0:15:51on the detail of them.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55Make a nice, big, clear sketch so that we can see all
0:15:55 > 0:15:58the structures and all the way that these animals are put together.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02These ants are insects and you can tell they're insects
0:16:02 > 0:16:04because they've got these three body sections.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07At the front you've got the head, just like we do.
0:16:07 > 0:16:10- You've got the middle section. What do we call that?- The thorax?
0:16:10 > 0:16:11Yeah, the thorax.
0:16:11 > 0:16:14The thorax has got three pairs of legs, so six legs coming out of it.
0:16:14 > 0:16:16That's all about moving around.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18And then we've got this big, chunky bit at the back.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22- Do you know what we call that? - The abdomen?- Yeah, the abdomen.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24Now, this is OUR abdomen. What are we doing here? What's this?
0:16:24 > 0:16:27- We put our food in there. - Yeah, this is our tummy.
0:16:27 > 0:16:29So you've got the head,
0:16:29 > 0:16:33the thorax and then you've got that big third body segment at the back.
0:16:34 > 0:16:37The hundreds and thousands of ants on Planet Ant
0:16:37 > 0:16:40are organised in a very special way.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46Inside are different castes or kinds of ant, from the minima to
0:16:46 > 0:16:49the soldiers, and they each have a job to do for the colony.
0:16:49 > 0:16:52But although there are different castes,
0:16:52 > 0:16:56there's something that's the same. They're all insects.
0:16:56 > 0:17:01That means they have six legs and three body parts,
0:17:01 > 0:17:03a head, a thorax and abdomen.
0:17:04 > 0:17:07Just like in our world, on Planet Ant
0:17:07 > 0:17:09there are jobs that need to be done, and having all the different
0:17:09 > 0:17:13castes means that each job can be done effectively.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18- How would an ant be born? - How would an ant be born?
0:17:18 > 0:17:19Inside the colony, there's a queen.
0:17:19 > 0:17:23She's a really big ant and she lays all the eggs that produce
0:17:23 > 0:17:25all of the ants in the colony.
0:17:25 > 0:17:26Where is the queen?
0:17:26 > 0:17:29Well, we don't know exactly where the Queen is
0:17:29 > 0:17:31because she might move around a little bit
0:17:31 > 0:17:33but she's definitely in one of those boxes over there.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37We can't see the queen on Planet Ant
0:17:37 > 0:17:41as she's hidden deep inside the nest, but I can show the young
0:17:41 > 0:17:45scientists a leafcutter queen just like here from another colony.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53ALL: Eh!
0:17:53 > 0:17:55- What can you see?- Ants.- Fungus.
0:17:55 > 0:17:57You can see the fungus.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00- You can smell the fungus a little bit.- Beetles.
0:18:00 > 0:18:02What are you pointing out that's a beetle?
0:18:02 > 0:18:05- No, that's not a beetle. - Mushrooms.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08- What do you think she might be?- The queen ant.- That's the queen, yeah.
0:18:08 > 0:18:12That's the queen ant, so leafcutting ants have this really big queen.
0:18:15 > 0:18:19Our ant colony will only ever have one queen living in it.
0:18:19 > 0:18:21She is huge compared to the other ants
0:18:21 > 0:18:24and is cared for round-the-clock by smaller ants.
0:18:26 > 0:18:30They tend to her every need, because she's the most important
0:18:30 > 0:18:34ant in the colony. She's the mother of all the ants.
0:18:34 > 0:18:39That means she lays the eggs that hatch into the larvae which in turn
0:18:39 > 0:18:40become the adult ants.
0:18:41 > 0:18:44The ants in the colony are not all the same.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47There are different types of ant and each have a different job to do,
0:18:47 > 0:18:51from the queen that lays the eggs to the soldiers that defend the nest.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57All the eggs the queen lays are almost identical.
0:18:57 > 0:19:00So how can they become all the different kinds of ant
0:19:00 > 0:19:01that make up the colony?
0:19:04 > 0:19:06The workers are in control of this.
0:19:06 > 0:19:09What they feed the larvae and how much they feed them
0:19:09 > 0:19:12determines the kind of ant that they will become.
0:19:14 > 0:19:16They tend to respond to the world around them.
0:19:16 > 0:19:20If the colony comes under attack, they will need more soldiers
0:19:20 > 0:19:23so the workers will ensure the larvae become soldiers.
0:19:23 > 0:19:25If they need to gather more leaves,
0:19:25 > 0:19:28then they will feed more larvae to grow into foragers.
0:19:31 > 0:19:34It's amazing to think that the queen is the mother
0:19:34 > 0:19:38to every one of the hundreds and thousands of ants in Planet Ant.
0:19:43 > 0:19:44Wow!
0:19:45 > 0:19:48So there's the queen.
0:19:48 > 0:19:49Look at her abdomen.
0:19:49 > 0:19:52- Why do you think her abdomen is so big?- Because she is laying eggs.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54Yeah, she's laying lots of eggs
0:19:54 > 0:19:57so there are lots of ovaries in here that are making all those eggs.
0:19:57 > 0:19:59What would happen if she dies?
0:19:59 > 0:20:01If you killed the queen in this colony,
0:20:01 > 0:20:03they're not going to get any more eggs.
0:20:03 > 0:20:05So what's going to happen is the workers that are there
0:20:05 > 0:20:08are going to live their lives but there's going to be
0:20:08 > 0:20:12no-one to replace them, so the colony will come to an end.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17There are lots of different types of ants in our colony
0:20:17 > 0:20:21but the most important one of all is the queen.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24This is because she is the ant that reproduces.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27She lays the eggs that hatch into the larvae
0:20:27 > 0:20:30that become the adult ants.
0:20:30 > 0:20:33Without her, the colony would die.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38- Are they friendly? - They're friendly to each other.
0:20:38 > 0:20:40It's like a big city and they want to defend themselves
0:20:40 > 0:20:43so they're really friendly in the city.
0:20:43 > 0:20:45But they're really aggressive to anything that's not
0:20:45 > 0:20:47part of their city.
0:20:47 > 0:20:50Our young scientists are investigating how ants
0:20:50 > 0:20:52communicate with one another.
0:20:55 > 0:20:57Can you hear anything?
0:20:57 > 0:20:59Actually, some ants can use very, very small sounds.
0:20:59 > 0:21:02Our ants in Planet Ant are producing very tiny sounds.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05Using a special piece of equipment called a microphone,
0:21:05 > 0:21:08we discover the ants are communicating
0:21:08 > 0:21:09with each other using sound.
0:21:09 > 0:21:13Not only can we hear the sounds of footsteps and leaves being cut,
0:21:13 > 0:21:16we can also hear a special chirping sound.
0:21:18 > 0:21:20This is called stridulation,
0:21:20 > 0:21:22a sound the ants make by rubbing two sections
0:21:22 > 0:21:24of their abdomen together.
0:21:24 > 0:21:27They make this noise to call other ants to the best
0:21:27 > 0:21:28leaves on the plant.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32Ants also use stridulation if they're in trouble,
0:21:32 > 0:21:34to call to other ants for help.
0:21:37 > 0:21:41What would happen if we plug up Jack's ears?
0:21:44 > 0:21:46- What's going to happen now? - He can't hear us.
0:21:46 > 0:21:49Yeah, he can't hear us so it's more difficult to communicate with him.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52- But how could we communicate with him?- Sign language?
0:21:52 > 0:21:55Yeah, we could use our hands, couldn't we? So how about...
0:21:56 > 0:21:57..if we blindfold Jack, as well?
0:22:01 > 0:22:04- How can we communicate with him now? - His sense...of smell.
0:22:04 > 0:22:08Let's say we went to Jack to move around, just using these lemons.
0:22:08 > 0:22:10How could we do that?
0:22:10 > 0:22:14Put them to his nose and then tell him where to walk
0:22:14 > 0:22:17and then he could follow the smell of the lemon.
0:22:18 > 0:22:20Let's see what we can do.
0:22:20 > 0:22:22He's picked it up, look.
0:22:22 > 0:22:26First that way... Can we move him back the other way?
0:22:28 > 0:22:31An ant's sense of smell is vital to them
0:22:31 > 0:22:33but they don't use noses like us.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36They use their antennae to detect special chemicals that they
0:22:36 > 0:22:39lay on the ground, called pheromones.
0:22:40 > 0:22:42To find out more about how this works,
0:22:42 > 0:22:46I'm setting our ants on Planet Ant a challenge.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48I've given them a Y-shaped trail.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52At one end of that Y is food and at the other is nothing.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57They have to decide whether to go left or right.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00After just 20 minutes, virtually all of them
0:23:00 > 0:23:04are heading down the path that leads to the food. Leafcutter ants
0:23:04 > 0:23:07don't have very good eyesight, so how do they know where to go?
0:23:12 > 0:23:16When an ant goes out looking for food, she leaves a pheromone trail
0:23:16 > 0:23:19on the ground behind her that her sisters are able to follow.
0:23:19 > 0:23:24If she finds food, she'll then lay down even more pheromone
0:23:24 > 0:23:28on her way back to the nest, making the original trail even stronger.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32If she doesn't find food, she won't lay any more pheromone
0:23:32 > 0:23:35and the trail simply evaporates away.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38The stronger the pheromone trail, the more likely an ant is
0:23:38 > 0:23:43to follow it and in turn, add her own pheromone to the route.
0:23:43 > 0:23:45When hundreds and thousands of ants are doing this,
0:23:45 > 0:23:51very strong trails are produced that link the nest directly to food.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55The way that ants communicate with one another allows them
0:23:55 > 0:23:57to be a highly organised group of insects.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02They use chemicals called pheromones to lay trails to food
0:24:02 > 0:24:05that other ants can detect using their antennae.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08This is why we often see lines of ants marching backwards
0:24:08 > 0:24:09and forwards to food.
0:24:10 > 0:24:12They also use stridulation,
0:24:12 > 0:24:16a noise made by rubbing two parts of their abdomen together, to call
0:24:16 > 0:24:21other ants to the tastiest leaves or to help them if they're in trouble.
0:24:21 > 0:24:25So to us, Planet Ant might seem to be a quiet and peaceful world
0:24:25 > 0:24:27but in reality, it's full of the sounds of ants,
0:24:27 > 0:24:30constantly communicating with one another.
0:24:35 > 0:24:39- Why do they cut the leaves? - Yeah, they're leaf-cutting ants.
0:24:39 > 0:24:40They're not leaf-eating ants.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43What they're actually doing is taking these leaves
0:24:43 > 0:24:45back into the nest and once they're there,
0:24:45 > 0:24:47they use the leaves to grow a fungus.
0:24:51 > 0:24:55Leafcutter ants, despite their name, don't eat leaves.
0:24:55 > 0:24:59They bring them into the nest as a food supply for the fungus
0:24:59 > 0:25:01they're growing inside.
0:25:01 > 0:25:03And it's the fungus that they eat.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08Our ants are farmers and the fungus is their crop.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14The fungus contains just the right balance of nutrients to feed
0:25:14 > 0:25:16the colony and its developing young.
0:25:20 > 0:25:23This crop alone, grown in just a few weeks since the ants
0:25:23 > 0:25:26arrived from Trinidad, will feed thousands of new ants.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35Oh, look at that. They're not happy about this.
0:25:35 > 0:25:40We can really see the structure of the fungus garden.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43I mean, this is their very reason for being, isn't it?
0:25:43 > 0:25:45That is the major resource.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48It's a bit like a mushroom on toast. It's very fragile.
0:25:48 > 0:25:49It's more like a sponge.
0:25:49 > 0:25:53There's a huge surface area in here so there's lots of little
0:25:53 > 0:25:56- chambers and cavities and places for them to feed.- It's unbelievable.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59- It's a really beautiful structure. - Really soft.- Yeah.
0:25:59 > 0:26:01Why do they have spots on them?
0:26:01 > 0:26:04Well, those spots you can see aren't actually spots.
0:26:04 > 0:26:06What they are is spikes that come out of the middle of them
0:26:06 > 0:26:10so they're really spiny. That stops them from eating them.
0:26:11 > 0:26:14Our ants eat fungus but some animals eat ants.
0:26:16 > 0:26:18I set our young scientists a challenge,
0:26:18 > 0:26:23to find out which animals ants eat and which animals eat ants.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26That will definitely eat the spider.
0:26:26 > 0:26:29The ant can eat him and...
0:26:29 > 0:26:31THEY TALK AT THE SAME TIME
0:26:38 > 0:26:39..down to there.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43OK, so what we've got here is a big tangle of interactions, haven't we?
0:26:43 > 0:26:45We've got lots of animals eating lots of other animals
0:26:45 > 0:26:48and being eaten by them. What do we call that?
0:26:48 > 0:26:50Food chain?
0:26:50 > 0:26:52Well, a food chain is one animal eating another,
0:26:52 > 0:26:55eating another but we've got something more competitive.
0:26:55 > 0:27:00We call this a food web because everything is interconnected
0:27:00 > 0:27:02and the ant might have been eaten by some things
0:27:02 > 0:27:06and eat some other things, but we've got all these complicated
0:27:06 > 0:27:09relationships around the outside, so everything is linked up.
0:27:14 > 0:27:17Studies have shown that ant colonies can increase the variety
0:27:17 > 0:27:20or diversity of animal life around them.
0:27:23 > 0:27:27Nutrients released from their underground nests fertilise
0:27:27 > 0:27:30the surrounding soil, which in turn helps the growth of plant life
0:27:30 > 0:27:32on the surface.
0:27:35 > 0:27:37And more plants mean more animals.
0:27:38 > 0:27:42For this reason, ants have been called ecosystem engineers.
0:27:46 > 0:27:50On Planet Ant, the colony is thriving.
0:27:50 > 0:27:52They've devastated plant after plant,
0:27:52 > 0:27:55cutting leaves to use to feed the fungus.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59And it's this fungus that's used to feed the colony.
0:27:59 > 0:28:00They are fungus farmers.
0:28:01 > 0:28:06Ants, like other animals, have their own part to play in the ecosystem.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09They depend on the leaves and in turn,
0:28:09 > 0:28:12nutrients from the ants' nest are released back
0:28:12 > 0:28:13into the surrounding soil,
0:28:13 > 0:28:19which encourages plant life to grow, which helps other animals to thrive.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd