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Ants That Can Count

Posted by samzenpus on from the ants-plus-math-equals-doom dept.

thisIsOdd writes "NPR had a recent report about scientists at the University of Ulm who suggest that ants in desert environments count to help them get to and from their homes. Because the desert's windiness and sandiness is not conducive the 'smell-trail' method, where ants squeeze certain glands that leave a chemical trail, scientists were puzzled by the fact that these desert ants were able to leave and successfully return to their nest. The theory is called the 'pedometer theory,' and the experiment used to test it involves manipulating the leg length of some of these ants. Ants with longer legs would pass the nest on the way home, and ones with shorter legs came up... well... short."

6 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. This is oooold news by TubeSteak · · Score: 3, Informative

    Science 30 June 2006:
    The Ant Odometer: Stepping on Stilts and Stumps
    http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/312/5782/1965

    And here's the original /. story from 2006
    http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/06/30/006245

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    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
    1. Re:This is oooold news by thePig · · Score: 4, Informative

      Thank you.
      The comments in the old /. article are worth a read.
      Esp.
      http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=189951&cid=15635693
      http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=189951&cid=15634139
      http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=189951&cid=15634257

      Makes an interesting read. Also, good to have a comparison between the average quality of comments from 06 and 09 in /.

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  2. Re:This doesn't prove ants can count by discbrain · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you would have read the article (I didn't read it, but I'm from uulm and am familiar with the corresponding research results) or the referenced research, you would know that all what you stated is obviously taken account for. For example your "they only have to remember a picture of all the puppies and notices the picture"-statement is wrong because of the following experiment: An ant is taken from its current location and moved to another location some meters away. So the ant has no way to tell where it is located at, but it still runs the straight way "home" (though ending not at the ant colony but somewhere else)...

  3. Re:that accounts for distance... by Vaphell · · Score: 2, Informative

    bees recognize directions by the light polarization - their eyes are able to differentiate polarization which is dependant on angle between the chosen direction and the sun position. Maybe these ants use similar technique.

  4. Re:This doesn't prove ants can count by 4D6963 · · Score: 4, Informative

    No, you misread, he said that when you move an ant, they act like they haven't been moved. They don't get home, they go where they think home is without taking into account the offset taken when they were moved, which means they're blindly walking back with no regard for environmental clues.

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  5. Re:god, that name! by smoker2 · · Score: 3, Informative

    That's why we spell it paedophile, and not fall into the lazy practice of spelling things the way they sound, which often results in conflicting definitions for similar words. And it's not even the same sounding word. Pedometer is pronounced ped-(rhymes with bed)-oh-meter. When you ride a bicycle, do you pedal or do you peedal ? And I think that pedes is latin, hence stampede, impede, millipede etc, whereas pod is greek, giving us arthropod, bipod, tripod, podiatrics. Paedo is greek for child, not feet, and is not confusing even if you switch ancient classical languages.