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  • 4/13/2025
Entomologist and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Edward O. Wilson shows who's boss on this planet: ants. The professor's infectious fascination for ant civilization wins over even the most confirmed "formicophobe" (ant hater).

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00:00Tonight on NOVA, humans may think they run the world, but there's another superpower who is really on top.
00:08They outnumber us a million to one, and little can stand in their way.
00:12Their engineers breach wide gaps in a single bound.
00:15Their workers lift weight twice their size.
00:18Their soldiers are studied by U.S. defense analysts.
00:21Who is this superpower, and what makes them so successful?
00:25NOVA gets up close and personal with the little creatures who run the world.
00:30We humans like to think that we run the world, but even in the heart of our great cities, a rival superpower thrives, the ants.
00:52These tiny creatures live all around us in vast numbers, though we hardly even notice them.
01:00But in many ways, it is they who really run the show.
01:04When ants march together, little can stand in their way.
01:08Some 10,000 types are known.
01:14They outnumber us a million to one, and the total weight of ants matches that of the entire human race.
01:22But could these insect societies really have the edge on us?
01:35One man believes that they might.
01:38Professor Edward Wilson of Harvard University.
01:40His provocative insights on the social nature of both ants and humans provide a new understanding of what leads to biological success.
01:52And it's the insect societies that impress him the most.
01:57I've spent most of my life working on tiny insects like these leafcutter ants.
02:13Each one is only about a millionth the size of a human being.
02:17And over the years, I've become convinced that the key to their success is, quite simply, the way they work together.
02:25To see why that's true, we can go almost anywhere in the world on the land, or back to almost any point in time.
02:34So let's go way back to the beginnings of this success story.
02:40The first insects emerged during the Age of Coal, some 300 million years ago, long before the dinosaurs appeared.
02:55The ancient swamps were their kingdom.
03:03With no birds to compete with, dragonflies ruled the air.
03:08A few were giants with three-foot wingspans, but only smaller forms survived.
03:17Other insects were to succeed them as the premier force.
03:23On land, cockroaches thrived.
03:27Their line was to persist and multiply.
03:29Around a hundred million years later, dinosaurs stalked the land, and a new insect power was emerging.
03:43The first wasps worked alone to dig simple nests, but for them, a social revolution was looming.
04:04They captured other insects to feed their young.
04:07These family bonds gave their line an edge, and the wasps gave rise to the prolific ants.
04:16But rival forces were gathering, hidden away in rotting wood.
04:26Simple societies of cockroaches began to multiply.
04:30Living in family groups was the key to their success.
04:40They feasted on decaying wood, but could only digest it with an internal soup of microscopic organisms.
04:48Youngsters inherited these vital organisms by feeding directly from their parents.
04:52The termites, or so-called white ants, rose from the same stalk as the social roaches,
05:00and they would become the only rivals of the true ants for numbers and living space.
05:09By 30 million years ago, the dinosaurs were long gone.
05:15Birds were on the scene, alongside the surviving reptiles.
05:18And on land, the greatest insect force of all time was well established, the fearsome ants.
05:35Descendants of the early wasps, they had shed their wings, but retained the powerful jaws and stings
05:42to become a major predatory force, outnumbering the remaining wasps by far.
05:49Their strength came not just from weaponry, but from working together.
06:01Living in close-knit colonies, the ants soon became the most abundant of all insects.
06:12Evidence for this ancient success story has come to light through a remarkable process.
06:31Sticky sap oozing over tree bark proved a fatal attraction and many insects became trapped.
06:42Sticky sap oozing over tree bark still makes the tastier, but more efficiently,
07:01armyland is still so many things that work with fibers.
07:05§ And asestra in community, it's even more delicate and matter Eunice.
07:08over millions of years some of the sap became fossilized as amber along with its prisoners
07:20the earliest and most wasp-like of all known ants was suspended in sap a hundred million
07:29years ago with every detail preserved so the ants have been around a very long time this is an actual
07:41specimen trapped in plant sap about 30 million years ago turned into a beautiful fossil and this
07:49is an ant that i just collected last year in costa rica the two are so close together that they might
07:57as well be put in the same species so the ant way of life is very ancient and very successful
08:05as far as human beings are concerned who've been around for only one million years too soon to be
08:13sure what is it about the ant way of life that has stood the test of time so well
08:20all ants belong to extended families and carry their prey home to share unselfishness is the rule
08:30everything they do is for their colonies good
08:33close relationships are the basis for their society for all the active workers are sisters
08:41spawned by a single queen a larger ant who rules her subjects throughout her life
08:47some queens live for decades and lay millions of eggs workers rarely get to breed and devote
08:56themselves like robot slaves to the colony tending their youngest sisters the helpless white grubs
09:02workers don't calculate the pros and cons of this life their behavior is programmed but raising lots of
09:12close sisters rather than struggling to breed alone ensures success both for the colony and themselves
09:19workers clean the grubs obsessively and fight off infections in their underground kingdoms with
09:27antiseptics from special glands
09:29an ants nest is like a swiss watch complexity comes from many intricate parts doing separate simple jobs
09:40all with a clean and humming precision collecting food and tending eggs grubs and the cocoons of
09:50unhatched sisters are all vital chores in the colonies efficient production line but the only products that count
09:59towards long-term continuity are the wing males and future queens the colony rears because the founding of new
10:07colonies depends on them thousands of young queens and males pour out of harvester ant nests in Arizona each
10:17year on just a few evenings following the summer rains all the colonies for miles around erupt at exactly the same time
10:26as if at a given signal they start to take off encouraged by the workers
10:38tens of thousands gather carpeting areas the size of football fields with their bodies
10:44the males fan chemicals into the air to attract queens and as each one arrives a cluster of males scrambles to mate with her
10:54for this is an ant orgy and each male competes to pass on his colonies genes
11:04mated queens fly off to start new families while exhausted males expire in drifts on the desert floor
11:12but they've ensured the continuation of a line that goes back for millions of years
11:24the ants are not only long-lived but they occur around the world in a tremendous variety of habitats
11:34even in the frozen forest of the north there are ants
11:38nests mounds as high as six feet dominate the landscape
11:42and each one is home to a million or more wood ants
11:46these ancestral piles pass from one generation to the next
11:49and some may date as far back as the 19th century
11:53in winter it can drop to minus 40 degrees outside
11:59but the ants survive huddled together inside
12:03toward the spring the ants produce body heat
12:07which warms their homes and helps to melt the snow off the mounds
12:11when the thaw is complete the ants pour out to sunbathe before setting off to raid the forest like a hungry army
12:33their winter huddling gives them a head start on other insects
12:47and force of numbers ensures few competitors get in their way
13:03the shifting sands of the sahara desert
13:07where surface temperatures reach 140 degrees fahrenheit or more
13:11are also home to ants
13:14desert ants are the only animals to brave the midday sun
13:18and they hunt for other creatures that have died from the heat
13:22they are known to navigate through this featureless landscape
13:27by scanning the sky at regular intervals to check the sun's position
13:32they endure higher temperatures than any other land animal
13:39but even they escape the burning surface when they can
13:45these ants are suicidal
13:48they die within a few days in this heat
13:51but their missions are crucial
13:53when they find food they run straight home
13:57their colonies persist in one of the harshest places on earth
14:01through navigational skill and heat tolerance
14:04but above all through the selfless devotion of the workers
14:08but in ed wilson's view tropical rainforests are the true kingdom of the ants
14:17more kinds of plants and animals flourish in these cathedrals of life than anywhere else on earth
14:24but even here social insects especially the ants rise above all the competition
14:31and are by far the commonest creatures thriving in mind boggling numbers
14:37these forests have been a well of inspiration and discovery to ed wilson
14:41and year after year he is drawn back to untangle further mysteries
14:48a lot of people think that the forest is teeming with big animals
14:52jaguars monkeys snakes so forth
14:56they are there and they certainly are appealing
14:59they're exciting when you run across them but you don't see them very often
15:02they're very scarce
15:04by far the dominant creatures are the little animals
15:07the insects the spiders and the other arthropods
15:10that abound at every level in the forest
15:12they're not easy to see
15:14if you just stand and look around
15:17but when you probe a little
15:19you see that they are there in the greatest array of diversity
15:22that I think has ever evolved on the planet
15:25in the three and a half billion years of life's history
15:28much of this teeming life is concentrated high in the roof of the jungle
15:35scientists who've probed this high rise world
15:38believe that over five million kinds of insects live here
15:42but of all these creatures the ants are the most prolific
15:46they make up half the insects in the canopy
15:49and a single tree may be home to nearly 50 types
15:53the jungle floor too is crawling with life
15:57and that one handful of litter and soil
16:11there's more order and richness and history
16:14than in all the planets and the solar system put together
16:18if you dig down into the tangle of rootlets
16:21and bits of vegetable matter
16:23you'll see a few ants and a termite or two
16:26you'll see a whole host of springtails and little beetles
16:31and a lot of other creatures
16:33the miniature wilderness
16:35they would take lifetimes to completely explore
16:39and if you magnify it still more
16:42you'll come to microscopic mites
16:45and little fang creatures
16:47and tufts of millions of strands of fungi
16:51in just one gram of this material
16:55you can find somewhere in the order of ten billion bacteria
16:58belonging to several thousand species
17:01almost all of which are still unknown to science
17:10among the animals that are visible to the naked eye
17:12the social insects completely dominate
17:15if we were to take all the animals in this forest
17:19from birds and snakes down to little insects and roundworms
17:24we'd find that the ants and the termites
17:27make up about one third of the total weight
17:31and I'd say that within ten yards of where I'm sitting
17:36we could expect to find a hundred or more species of ants and termites alone
17:43so on almost every count
17:45success through geologic time, geographic range
17:48and sheer weight of numbers
17:50ants and other social insects come out ahead
17:53but what gives them the edge over insects that go it alone?
17:58Ed Wilson has clearly shown that much of the answer lies
18:01in the way they coordinate their behavior
18:04through efficient communication
18:06the amazing thing is that they communicate mostly with chemicals
18:10with substances that they pass back and forth and taste and smell
18:15I can communicate directly with the ants myself
18:19these fire ants on the table
18:21simply by taking an extract of the bodies of several of the workers
18:25dipping the sharpened stick in
18:28and laying a trail on the table for them to follow
18:32and they'll go wherever I tell them
18:49and they'll go wherever I tell them
18:53each one of these fire ants has only a billionth of a gram
19:04that's ten billionths of an ounce of that substance in its body
19:09and yet the material is so powerful
19:12that a milligram of it is theoretically enough to lead a column of the ants three times around the world
19:19ants generally use between ten and twenty chemical signals of this kind
19:28to alert nest mates to danger
19:30to lead them from one place to another
19:33to identify the cast of their nest mates
19:36and so on through the whole bizarre vocabulary
19:40to keep the colony well organized and efficient
19:44the only insect superpowers to rival ants for numbers are the termites
19:50and they too rely almost entirely on chemicals for communication
19:55descendants of wood-eating cockroaches rather than wasps
19:58they've developed a complex family life much like the ants
20:02with a huge queen tended by slave-like offspring
20:05who devote their lives to looking after her and her young
20:14ants and termites have been deadly enemies for a hundred million years
20:18and much of their rivalry has been over living space
20:22Ed Wilson considers that for both groups togetherness is their greatest strength
20:28here in the Trinidad rain forest this strange looking object is home to maybe a hundred thousand termites
20:35it was built by a remarkable team effort
20:38and the termites used the sheer strength of their numbers to defend it against their enemies
20:43when I break into the nest like this
20:56the first wave out
20:59are the soldiers
21:01each one of them has a nozzle shaped head
21:04from which it squirts a stream of noxious chemicals
21:08in a glue like substance
21:10now that stops most enemies cold
21:13if I back off
21:15after a while the soldiers will go back in
21:17and then the next cast comes out
21:20the soft white workers
21:23they bring up building material from inside the nest
21:26and use it to patch over the hole
21:40colonies can survive heavy assaults on their nest because they're able to bring out large numbers of individuals who work cooperatively and very efficiently
21:59social insects like this generally do better than solitary insects also because the individuals can afford to risk their lives
22:08even give their lives away
22:10if some of them die in the attack no matter they'll soon be replaced by newborn brothers and sisters inside the nest
22:19simple homes protect termites in the humid forests of the tropics
22:25but they build huge fortresses in the harsher conditions of the Australian outback and the African bush
22:32termites build perhaps the most impressive homes of all animals
22:38in some places their mounds cover nearly a third of the land surface
22:43and the total weight of termites can equal that of all the mammals in the area
22:50vast teams of tiny workers build twenty foot skyscrapers
22:54that's two miles high in human terms
22:57but termites have their limitations
22:59they eat only dead wood and other plant matter although in huge amounts
23:04but when it comes to killing they are no match for the fearsome ants
23:09who combine a harmonious home life with a ruthless approach to their enemies
23:17columns of Kenyan raid ants set off in pursuit of termites following a chemical trail laid down by scouts
23:25the ants bunched together as they approach the termites nest before pouring into their underground chambers
23:36the raiders dump each victim on the surface before returning for more while others begin to gather up the corpses
23:51at the height of the raid the surface is littered with dead turbines
24:05the raid ends as suddenly as it began
24:19and the ants collect their booty and head home
24:22each ant carries up to ten termites in its jaws
24:38they've killed over three thousand in the space of ten minutes
24:42not enough to destroy the colony for they'll need to come back another day
24:47by combining force of numbers with organized aggression
24:55ants have become the greatest insect killers on earth
25:06but all creatures have reason to fear one particular African ant
25:10who's cavernous shafts descend six feet or more into the ground
25:20these ants live in the biggest single colonies of any animal on earth
25:25with up to twenty million sisters operating like a huge monster with a monstrous appetite to match
25:32these are driver ants
25:38when they march nothing in their path is safe
25:41they've been known to kill tethered horses
25:44human babies and have even been used to execute criminals
25:49soldier ants stand guard over the marching column
26:06the river of ants divides spreading out over the forest floor
26:11few victims escape once the ants get a grip
26:35millions act like a fearsome super organism
26:47emerging from its lair sending out long tentacles of marching workers to engulf its prey
26:53a giant slug seems an unlikely target
27:12its thick slime a sticky trap
27:15but the persistent ants overwhelm the slug
27:36they have a neat trick to soak up the slime
27:42sticking tiny fragments of leaf and soil all over the slug
27:46the soldiers now get to work
27:50slicing it up like a beached whale with their powerful jaws
28:02the ants then release their trapped sisters
28:05it's all for one and one for all
28:07the relentless army marches on
28:12those that can leap for safety
28:16while others watch from above
28:18as hordes of cockroaches and other insects
28:20are driven ahead of the raid
28:22many that escape the ants
28:26run right into the path of shrikes
28:29and other birds that feast on fleeing insects
28:32there's no safety in fleeing upwards
28:46for the ants follow
28:47a praying mantis is more than a match for just a few ants
29:08but with so many attackers it can't eat them fast enough
29:12they carry the mantis off piece by piece
29:36several ants share the heaviest loads
29:43workers labor to keep the trail clear
29:57soldiers form living archways over the columns
30:00and hold back twigs and leaves
30:03it's a genuine team effort
30:05the ants return home carrying their spoils deep underground
30:06where millions of developing grubs are waiting to be fed
30:10the ants return home carrying their spoils deep underground
30:15where millions of developing grubs are waiting to be fed
30:17the ants return home carrying their spoils deep underground
30:31where millions of developing grubs are waiting to be fed
30:35in ant society no job is left undone for long
30:44and back outside yet another task force throws out the remains of past victims
30:49driver ants kill almost everything within range of their nests
30:55and relocate from time to time to find enough food
30:58with no fixed abode wars between colonies are rare
31:03but in the deserts of arizona warfare between ant superpowers is waged non-stop
31:10where these ants have permanent homes and their sellers are full of treasure
31:15these grotesquely swollen creatures are honeypot ants
31:20and they devote themselves to the colony as living storage pots
31:24in times of plenty their sisters fill them to bursting with nectar from desert blooms
31:31and demand it back during lean dry spells
31:36the colony can live on these stores for weeks
31:39but when the weather allows they venture forth in search of prey
31:43they check out hidden entrances and savage any juicy termites they find
31:52such a find is best kept in the family and a scout on meeting a stranger
32:08runs back to its own nest
32:11reinforcements pour out to confront the opposition while others continue to gather termites
32:17while others continue to gather termites
32:30instead of launching straight into battle
32:32these ants limit their losses by aggressive posturing
32:36they square up to rivals standing on tiptoe to seem as large as possible
32:42while checking the other's size with their feelers
32:46they recognize their sisters by odor and separate immediately on meeting
32:57they often climb up onto stones perhaps to appear larger still
33:06for one colony seems to judge another's strength by how many large workers show up
33:12colonies appear to remember how they fared in recent conflicts
33:17and back off where they've lost before
33:19but if they sense an advantage
33:22they'll send all available forces into battle
33:25to drive their opponents back to their nests
33:28as in human warfare
33:33the worst routes occur when one side fails to assess the other's strength accurately
33:39and when forces are poorly matched
33:45posturing soon gives way to fighting
33:47and the smaller colony is overrun
33:57tactical ant warfare has even attracted interest from defense analysts
34:01trying to sharpen up their methods of assessing enemy strength
34:04the victorious ants raid their opponents nest for the spoils of war
34:12dragging off the struggling honeypots
34:16damaged honeypots are eaten
34:26the rest forced into bondage feeding their new masters on demand
34:32a system uncomfortably reminiscent of human slavery
34:36wise use of military strength pays off for ants
34:40but is force the only way?
34:44not all ants use violence to dominate their world
34:49some use more subtle methods to get their way
34:52these particular ants are dairy farmers
34:55they're gently looking after a group of tiny treehoppers
34:59which is a kind of bug that sucks the juice of forest trees
35:03these little creatures living together in a bunch
35:06offer the ants the excess they get in the form of honeydew droplets
35:10a sweet tasting liquid that's rich in sugar and amino acids
35:16this kind of relationship has existed for millions of years
35:20long before human beings ever started tending cattle
35:23and some of the connections have become intimately close
35:27as close and ingenious as anything ever devised by human culture
35:32take for example the true herdsman ants of the Malaysian rainforest
35:37these ants get all their food as honeydew from vast herds of tiny bugs
35:49the bugs rely entirely on the ants to care for them
35:53while they busily suck juices from young leaves or unburst flowers
36:01when the plants start to age
36:03the bugs stop feeding and the herdsmen move in
36:07they tenderly gather up every single bug
36:10both young and adult
36:12completely clearing the plant within an hour or two
36:27the herdsmen now head off
36:29taking their precious livestock with them
36:31following a chemical trail laid down by scouts
36:32the bugs are carried up toward the luscious growing tip
36:36the herders now release them to begin feeding in their new
36:40plants
36:42the bugs are carried up toward the luscious growing tips
36:47the herders now release them to begin feeding in their new pastures
36:54the herders now release them to begin feeding in their new pastures
37:00the secret of these ants long-term success lies hidden high in a bamboo thicket
37:15their nest deep in an old bamboo log is the heart of an operation that only a complex society could run
37:30thousands of ants link legs to form a living cradle to support a new generation of herdsmen
37:45these roofs and walls of living ants also shelter expectant mother bugs whose tiny yellow young are born here and then taken out to feed
38:04after a few weeks in one place the living scaffold begins to untangle the most pivotal event in their farming calendar is imminent
38:19for these herdsmen are nomads and regularly move the entire operation taking all their own young and their breeding stock of bugs with them
38:30they take the jungle obstacle course in their stride linking together to form living bridges over awkward gaps
38:53the colony settles into a new home selected by scouts for easy access to their new pastures
38:59partnerships between ants and other creatures have evolved over a hundred million years
39:04so the fact that they work so well is no surprise to ed wilson
39:09but ants go far beyond just animal husbandry
39:13they've also become gardeners and agriculturist
39:17and in so doing they run a good part of the plant world
39:21in a far more intimate and harmonious way than human beings have ever achieved
39:25the south american plant
39:28the south american plant
39:29cecropia
39:30has one of the closest relationships of all with ants
39:34its hollow stem
39:35gives them a home
39:36and it provides a daily crop of little white nodules to feed them
39:44the ants harvest this crop rapidly
39:46and carry it back into the nest
39:56the starchy nodules are produced exclusively for the ants
39:59who eat very little else
40:05inside the stem the huge queen lives in safety
40:09surrounded by piles of grubs
40:11no home could be better
40:14but why should the plant be so hospitable
40:17when it's threatened
40:19the reason becomes clear
40:28these tiny ants which are pouring off the tree onto my hand
40:32are the cecropia plant's private army
40:35scientists have very appropriately given the name azteca
40:38after the indian warrior nation
40:41even though they're only a millionth my size
40:45they're able to drive me off pretty quickly with their sharp little jaws
40:48but the real importance is the protection they give
40:52against the plant's natural enemies
40:55many insects like this beetle feast on cecropia leaves
40:59unless they meet resistance
41:00but a plant with an army of ants to defend it is safe
41:12buying protection with ant food pays off in a big way
41:16cecropia with a lot of guards thrive
41:19and the ants affect the plant world in even more spectacular ways
41:24teams of tiny gardeners shape entire landscapes
41:27up to half the wildflowers in american woodlands are planted by ants
41:33spring beauties
41:38violets
41:40trillium and many others encourage ants
41:43not birds or mammals
41:45to sow their seeds
41:47some produce pods which fall and burst open
41:51while others lay their seeds directly on the ground for the ants to distribute
42:01but this is no free service
42:05the ants are enticed by the white flesh on the seeds whose taste they find irresistible
42:10unselfish as ever the ants carry these treats back home to share
42:27their nest is just below ground where the ants tend their hordes of hungry young
42:32these tasty prizes attract workers chained to underground duties for their flesh is a delicious kind of fruit
42:42the strawberries apples and melons of the ants
42:46chewed seeds are dumped in compost heaps inside the nest
43:02they look damaged but are perfectly healthy
43:06and are ideally placed to germinate
43:08ants are now known to disperse thousands of different plants around the world for such bribes
43:25in amazonia ant horticulture goes even further
43:29ants grow hanging gardens here rooted in nests of chewed plant fiber
43:35right on the doorsteps all sorts of flowers bloom
43:51and this floral display is more than just for show
43:55the blossoms produce nectar on demand
44:06when the ants take the seeds inside the nest to germinate
44:10the garden is maintained and new growth ensured
44:19the hanging gardens of amazonia are a natural wonder created entirely by ants
44:24and the clearest evidence that ants control their world has just been discovered in the steamy jungles of Peru
44:43thousands of different plants grow side by side here more than anywhere else on earth
44:48and yet amidst this rampant foliage are mysterious clearings known as gardens of the devil
45:01hemmed in by dense jungle areas the size of tennis courts contain just two kinds of plant
45:08with bare leaf litter below
45:10the peruvian indians believe black magic is at work and leave the fruits well alone
45:18but the gardens really belong to ants
45:27although these ants are particularly small and feeble
45:30they live in enormous extended families in the hollow stems of the two plants that grow in the clearings
45:36each day thousands of ants pour down onto the forest floor
45:53they're waging a long-term war against the encroaching jungle
45:57every alien seedling is attacked with slashing jaws and herbicide
46:07they spread formic acid from poison glands onto the young shoots
46:14and chew away persistently at leaf stalks to cut off the life-giving sap
46:18although each ant is tiny
46:32so many attack that every seedling is killed
46:35by weeding out invading plants
46:38they remove potential homes for fiercer ants
46:40and keep areas in ant terms the size of New York City to themselves
46:48but the most famous tropical ants are not so much weeders as plunderers of plants
46:56leaf cutter ants remove more greenery than any other animal from South American forests
47:03and they devastate human crops
47:05they use powerful jaws to slice the thickest leaves
47:08they use powerful jaws to slice the thickest leaves
47:19each segment is the equivalent of a 500 pound weight
47:23but ants have tremendous strength
47:25their labors continue day and night
47:36in a complex process involving many ants of all sizes
47:40doing different jobs with great efficiency
47:43the scale of the operation is vast
47:45the operation is vast
47:46the operation is vast
48:15and they don't know
48:18returning to their nest
48:20leaf cutters run the ant equivalent of a marathon
48:23at a four minute mile pace all the way
48:26in Ed Wilson's eyes
48:28theirs is the most impressive of all ant societies
48:32this is the surface of the nest of just one colony of leaf cutter ants
48:36a colony this size can hold as many as two or even three million workers
48:40all the daughters of a single queen that they keep deep down inside the nest
48:45as the foragers go into the nest they proceed on downward
48:54or as much as 15-20 feet that's in human terms equivalent of about a mile
49:01in its lifespan the colony can move as much as 40,000 pounds of soil
49:07that's the ant equivalent of the Great Wall of China
49:10that means that the leaf cutters are pretty vital elements
49:12of the rainforest ecosystem
49:14they move, they aerate, they fertilize
49:17more soil than earthworms
49:22a colony like this has the appetite of a full grown cow
49:25and the colonies all around
49:28consume almost a fifth of the vegetation growth every year
49:33it's an onslaught that the forest keeps flourishing
49:38how is that possible?
49:42long-term studies show that leaf cutters have favorite targets
49:46and go to great lengths to reach the tender new leaves high in the canopy
49:55they soon move on to strip other trees along trails they've cut in the forest
49:59in time the same trees are attacked again but not before they've recovered fully
50:07we humans are much less careful
50:14people often have a harmful impact on the planet
50:18while the social ants run their world in a more stable way
50:22they've had far longer to get things right
50:24and it shows
50:27social existence has paid off in a very big way in evolution
50:32ants and other social insects are by a long margin
50:37the most social small animals
50:39and they're also the most abundant
50:42and of course human beings
50:44are by a wide margin the most social big animals of any kind
50:48the question I guess I'm most often asked is what are the similarities
50:55between ants and human beings particularly in their social behavior
50:59and my answer has to be not many at all
51:02but there are some very important differences
51:05and when you look at those closely then you do illuminate the human condition somewhat
51:11I guess that the real difference lies in reproductive rights
51:17and expectations
51:20essentially a worker ant or a bee, wasp, termite doesn't have any
51:26they are bound to the colony in a way that makes them meaningful
51:32only as members of the colony
51:34they are little robots programmed to do work for the colony to survive
51:41the exact opposite is the case of human beings
51:45we join societies and we work to make them succeed
51:50primarily for ourselves
51:53we've learned how to cooperate to an extreme degree
51:57we are capable of altruism
51:58we do it by the unique genius of human behavior
52:04which is the ability to form long-term binding social contracts
52:09but in doing it
52:12in building up a society that is so enormously successful
52:19we have entered into an eternal paradox
52:23a tension between individuality and self-serving
52:26and self-serving on the one side
52:29and the needs of the society on the other
52:31that makes individual success guaranteed
52:35and that is, I'm afraid, inherent in the human condition
52:40we'll always suffer that tension and walk the fine line
52:46the question inevitably comes to mind
52:54that if these inherent weaknesses in human society ever prove fatal
52:59and if we ruin the planet for ourselves and disappeared
53:03how would our own extinction affect the world we left behind
53:06I believe that ants and other social insects would hold on somewhere
53:19and life would pretty much come back to what it was before we arrived on the scene
53:23then the ecosystems would return to a balance
53:27and the ants and the other social insects would be right there with them
53:30filling the environment as before
53:33and going on as before
53:35probably for tens of millions of years into the future
53:37the future
54:37A production of WGBH Boston.

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