Facts about ants!

Do you know that the common ant has some very uncommon capabilities? Possibly it is because ants have been there on our Earth, from more than a hundred million years back when mankind was non-existent! Our original predecessors that we know about were the wild cave dwelling human beings, who come into initial civilized existence from updated and less wild monkeys, only around one hundred thousand years back on Earth! Population wise we are also a very small minority! Compared to our human population of over seven billion today; there are more than ten quadrillion ants populating our earth! The number in digits would be an interesting mathematical exercise to meet your curiosity; if you so desire to solve it arithmetically in number of digits! After all, ants have been there far longer than mankind, and have matured and modified themselves in comparison to human beings, who are new-born babies; in overall experience and knowledge that still remains to be mastered! Maybe we should learn more from the common and tiny ants!
Ants are well organized and highly developed creatures; and they have various classes of trades among them, living together in what we call 'ant colonies'. Each specialized group carry out different tasks. There are farmer ants, that grow a special kind of food; a special mushroom like fungus in their gardens below our soil! Then there are worker ants; which carry out the various jobs needed to organize their colonies, keeping everything in shape. Even a small ant 'colony' as we call these are more populated; with many times more ants than the number of people that we have been living in our largest cities in the world! Given their long experience in social interactions, ants are excellent trouble shooters and problem solvers; far more capable than people in overcoming all feasible obstacles that may come up! As an example, ants can swim as such; but they have taken advantage of their hairy water repellent skin that traps and forms a cushion of air around them, that help them float on water! For carrying any useful things or food, a number of ants come together and form a floating raft to carry it across water obstacles on their way!
Ants can also contribute positively to carbon dioxide removal from our atmosphere; the main culprit of environment pollution in the atmosphere. In test sites in USA, scientists found that the presence of ants accelerates certain rocks to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as high as 335 times compared to areas free from ants! This can be a boon for mankind; to help in removing environment pollution, as excess carbon dioxide is now recognized as a key source for environment degradation!
There are many types of ants. The largest known ant (the queen driver ant of Africa) can be around two inches long! Common red ants, that we often see, may be about one to two millimetres in length. Ant bites are irritating and slightly painful, but they are not poisonous, as ants generally have no venom, except for the 'fire ants' whose bites has venom! Another type of ant (Cataglophic ants), found commonly in Sahara desert, are excellent on track navigation! Researchers in USA are trying to identify the reason behind this ability; so that it can be fitted to resupply robotic rockets to space exploration missions to space and far beyond; that can home in by this natural, but till date unknown navigational capabilities! Another interesting capability that the common field ants have is that they can withstand pressures that can be five hundred times the weight of the ant! This unique feature, if developed, can help man in undersea exploration that is today limited to the pressure limitation for the human diver! Such development when possible can help us to unlock many mysteries of the deep!
*This is sourced from an article on 'Ants' in 'The Rotarian' of December 2014 by SW Swanson.
Email: sam@dhakacom.com