Wood ants survived for years in a Soviet bunker by eating their own
Ants trapped for years in Soviet bunker; survival by cannibalism
A colony of wood ants fell into a decommissioned Soviet nuclear bunker in western Poland and was sealed in with no way out. Researchers found the trapped workers had survived for years by cannibalizing their own dead, feeding on the corpses of nestmates that piled up on the bunker floor. The study documents how a social insect colony persists far beyond the limits of normal survival when cut off from its foraging territory.
The colony survived by consuming the bodies of dead nestmates that accumulated on the bunker floor.
- wowczarek
Well I'll be.
At least two of the authors are also avid chiropterologists, with an understood penchant for bunkers and other such spaces.
One summer in my late teens I sat with two of them in an urban park in NW Poland drinking beer, watching bats getting caught in a net half-submerged in water near a bridge and engaging in impromptu comedy with passers-by asking questions like "good catch? any fish?". Good times.
Engaging in field research is a wonderfully rewarding experience, a great way to spend time, meet people and do something meaningful at the same time. If you've never done it - do it. There are plenty of volunteering opportunities - you don't need to be a scientist. Birding, insects, marine life, whatever. Citizen science is also great, but if you get a chance to work alongside scientists, it gets even better. 10/10 good walk, unspoilt.
- ilamont
The amount of potential food in the bunker, suitable for wood ants, is not known, but the smaller arthropods living there could hardly be enough to allow the workers both temperature regulation of the mound and feeding of offspring.
Is cannibalism a possibility?
- gwbas1c
This article keeps coming to the front page every few years; and every few years I keep opening it to look at the pictures.
It's just that fascinating!
- alexey-salmin
> The ‘colony’ has evidently produced no offspring, which is due to low (though relatively stable) temperatures and scanty food in the bunker.
Isn't it due to the lack of the queen? Colony of worker ants is a dead end
- heikkilevanto
I wish the scientists had left a plank or a string leading to the ventilation hole, so the ants could get out, at least to forage for more food. But then again, it would have spoiled this "natural" experiment.