Quick-thinking ants trim foliage to fit

[SuperFlukester]

That's very interesting, But Ant's have always been know for there intellect :P

[grendelee]

Did the decision come from each individual ant or was it crowdsourced?

[iliteritmonkey]

dear god, they're learning. It's only a matter of time...

[studio41698]

very good ol chaps

[tjdrummer13]

I don't know about you but i'm watching these videos for the music at the end.

[poweredfish]

How the fuck did i get here

[derman077]

Then I was right! The pyramids really were landing sites for interplanetary starships that enslaved primitive populations by posing as their gods.

[d240786]

They probably have a safety officer duh....

[vitruvian8807]

now let's see them pass across a narrow corridor with fire at each side, then we'll see how smart they are.

[aztectroy]

they use an ant-ruler to measure how much they need to cut in order to get  perfect size leaves that can go through it, :-)

[mastercheeok]

this proves just cause you got a small brain you arnt stupid i mean fly respond alot faster than us infact if they watch a tv they would be able to see the picture flash( tv work by switching picture thing very hard to explain)

[ShallowThoughts]

Muuuh I never new dat.. I always thot TV work with litle psychic coordinating ants

[Master3Sap]

Mastercheeok, you have a small brain.

[mastercheeok]

just cause you got a small brain doesnt mean your stupid if you do think that then you are stupid

einstein have a smaller brain than average

[Master3Sap]

There! You got it! Now you think i'm saying you're stupid! Yes! Good job moron.

[Master3Sap]

There! You got it! Now you think that i'm saying that you're stupid! Yes! Good job moron.

[Stabacs]

No, he has a bigger one.

[jeffzahnd]

yeah, he had the biggest hair in science!

[jeffzahnd]

yeah! now go cut something smaller you dipshit.

[nanophreak]

I think what our ineloquent friend here is trying to say is that a fly would be able to process each frame in a motion picture played at normal speed. Whereas a human would not be able to notice each individual frame, only the animation caused by the frames.

[McConsumer]

That's cool. If they were humans, I would say that they had a production manager inside measuring the rate of leaves arriving in the storage area. When the manager noticed the number drop, that person requisitioned more workers. Since they are ants, I wonder how they knew

[Gothicwiz91]

Because unlike humans they need no governing hand. Every single ant is in truth just one mind. That is how they are able to coordinate themselves.

[stuffiscoolandstuff]

its called hive-mind its the word for any collective inteligence alot of animals have it (bees, some birds(not sure witch), etc)

[benoitcsirois]

This is very interesting... How do the ants all know that they must cut the leaf pieces less than 1cm high? Do they communicate with each other? How so? This experiment raises many questions! Please provide answers!

[djsuperstar717]

the ants must be psychic

[crookedtool]

I believe one of the main modes of communication is smell. Like pheromones, for example.

[stuffiscoolandstuff]

one theary is hive-mind, collective-inteligence or shared concience witch in other words mean that all the ants from one nest have one mind

[orlyf00l]

@stuffiscoolandstuff how can you understand the concept of hivemind, yet have such disgraceful spelling?

[stuffiscoolandstuff]

@orlyf00l i have no idea what so ever.

[djsuperstar717]

lol;

ants are smart

[chulk607]

unlike some people.

[chrisbell1987]

Ants rule

[xcaptain93]

oh yeah.becuase humans wouldn't be able to do that? i don't see whats so interresting about this. ? monkeys use tools for crist sake.!

[GoombaDaddy]

cuz monkeys and humans have brains that are more than just a small bundle of neurons

[OnskedromStudios]

I apologise to GoombaDaddy for pressing "Spam" on his post as opposed to "reply" by mistake. Sorry Goomba.

Original Comment: agreed Goomba. the brain of a human is trillions of times larger than that of an ant. It is thus then much more amazing to see this behavior.

[matieman77]

ants work together, so a million ants together is sort of like one big animal, so collectively, ants are capable of a lot

[artizak]

Now if only the workplace could be that efficient

[shadedside]

ants are quite smart :D (Y)

[babyblue255]

I do think it's kool.

BUT AGAIN can we get another narator!!!

[Boomerius]

that is amazing, not only collectively decided to cut smaller leafs but also they decided to compensate by sending more workers... Unbelievable, that is real work management how do they communicate, how do they calculate, how do they plan all this stuff?

[WirbleWind5]

It is rather interesting , many people did not think that insects are intelligent , this proves them wrong.

Even plants can be smarter than humans think.

[rcpmac]

We do the same thing here in America. When the sofa is too big to fit through the front door, we gnaw at the edges until that sucker goes in.

[Peoplesuuck]

lmfao

[sikorski]

@ rcpmac Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!

ROFL!!

[NoelLozano]

wow that IS amazing

[DXHBKHHHDX123]

that was a message to rhoula

[TehLdawg]

dat is kewl

[ryanfenimore]

aren't we all just a bunch of ants?

[rcpmac]

No the residents in the white house are rats

[ryanfenimore]

wow thats amazing

[xXpezcoolXx]

Hey that's in french! Lundi 13! Oct :p

[matieman77]

isnt lundi a week day? i think its monday...

but you probably know better than me

[xXpezcoolXx]

yeah ^_^

[drftjgoj]

lundi is monday. mardi is tuesday.

[benoitcsirois]

Janvier is Friday

[feerof]

wow thats pretty amazing.

[rhoula]

Wo that is interesting. I should have thaught of that when i bough that huge refrigirator that wouldn't fit thru my kitchen door.

Great videos

[yubbles09]

haha

[DXHBKHHHDX123]

try cuting it. make it smaller and rounder. :P

[hartnell114]

thank god there isnt a tiny roof when i go foraging!

[drzendoom]

now if only my company could manage that.

[teemuruskeepaa]

Hire me ;)

[unobb]

house ants is even smarter.. they found ways today to get into one of my ziplock bag with dry squid in it :( they are annoying!!!

[Jmcenanly]

The ants are either smart, or just persistent. The ants probably worked over the bag until they found or created a weak point. They then left a scent trail through the opening.

[intigfx]

I'd say they simply adapted to a new condition. The ants that cut their leaves shorter got the advantage on other ants. Pretty much like how evolution works.

[fizika1]

it looks much like a collective mind. Don't mess with ants they have bigger brain then you (all together) lol ^)

[NicNasty1981]

That cant be all ants can it? I wonder how many years of evolution had to happen for the ants to adopt that attribute into their geno

[Jape1990]

Operant conditioning power!

[Neoxym]

So they send out more ants to compensate? Interesting. How do they communicate about this?

[n3wby001]

They have telepathic powers, duh...

[adrastea99]

LOL

[catchyphrase92]

Pheromones and smelly trails they leave behind then, as well as antennae touching.

[dafttool]

Nice experiment, though I had problems with the last line of narration, "according to researchers, it's rare for insects to find intelligent solutions when their foraging environment changes." That contradicts the results of the study, and presumes the results of a host of studies that have yet to be done. If you really want to say that sentence, then it probably should have said something on the order of "it has rarely been observed that..." [sorry for being a nitpicker]

[uberenkai]

You are incorrect. There is nothing wrong with the last sentence. The researchers have obviously already done many experiments on insects where they did not find solutions to problems like these but the leaf cutter ants were different. There is also no presumption about future experiements, why is this neccessary?

[1337eXtreme]

Want to know more. o.o

Thanks for all these informations. ;)

[amaz12]

very cool i love ants.

[newscientistvideo]

Dear all you lovely New Scientist readers, apologies for the occasional outbreaks of tedious comments along the lines of "first!"

Such comments are automatically deleted on the grounds that they're boring and no better than trolling. Persistent firsters will be blocked.

[SubZeroOneProduction]

@newscientistvideo i second that......*giggle*

[4rtic3]

amazing! :o