New Research Suggests Ants Perform Life-Saving Operations On Each Other, Such As Cleaning Wounds And Completing Amputations
Surprisingly, humans aren’t the only creatures on Earth with the ability to perform life-saving surgical operations. Scientists have discovered that ants in Florida clean wounds and perform amputations on each other. They are the second known animal in the world to do this, aside from humans.
A team of researchers from the University of Würzburg in Germany found that Florida carpenter ants (Camponotus floridanus) identify wounds on the limbs of their peers and treat them by cleaning or amputation.
“When we’re talking about amputation behavior, this is literally the only case in which a sophisticated and systematic amputation of an individual by another member of its species occurs in the animal kingdom,” said Erik Frank, the lead author of the study and a behavioral ecologist at the University of Würzburg.
In 2023, Frank and his team discovered that Megaponera analis, an African ant species, can treat their companions’ infected wounds with an antimicrobial substance they produce in their glands.
Florida carpenter ants do not have these particular glands, so the team wanted to find out how this species deals with injuries.
The researchers looked at two different types of leg wounds: injuries on the femur and tibia. Through experiments, they observed that the ants treated their peers’ femur wounds by using their mouths to clean the afflicted area.
Then, they would amputate the leg by biting it repeatedly. On the other hand, tibia wounds were just treated with cleaning.
The surgeries led to higher rates of survival in ant patients. When amputations were performed for femur injuries, survival rates improved from less than 40 percent to between 90 and 95 percent.
Meanwhile, the survival rates for tibia injuries improved from 15 percent to 75 percent after they were cleaned.
Antrey – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
It appears that ants only perform amputations on femur wounds due to speed limitations. An amputation takes at least 40 minutes for the ants to complete.
The researchers took micro-CT scans of the ants. After studying the scans, they determined that blood circulation slows down when blood-pumping muscles in the femur are damaged, so it takes longer for bacteria to enter the body. This gives the ants enough time to amputate the limb.
Infections spread faster with tibia injuries because ant tibias do not have much muscle tissue. The ants would be unable to perform the amputation before harmful bacteria entered the body, so they direct their focus on cleaning the wound instead.
“The ants are able to diagnose a wound, see if it’s infected or sterile, and treat it accordingly over long periods of time by other individuals—the only medical system that can rival that would be the human one,” Frank said.
This behavior is something that the ants naturally know. The scientists did not find evidence that it was learned.
Now, they are conducting further research on other ant species to see if they can perform surgeries as well.
The findings were published in the journal Current Biology.
Welcome to Billionaire Club Co LLC, your gateway to a brand-new social media experience! Sign up today and dive into over 10,000 fresh daily articles and videos curated just for your enjoyment. Enjoy the ad free experience, unlimited content interactions, and get that coveted blue check verification—all for just $1 a month!
Account Frozen
Your account is frozen. You can still view content but cannot interact with it.
Please go to your settings to update your account status.
Open Profile Settings