For David Attenborough, the world of Ants has been a lifelong passion. He has explored and examined this strange, fascinating little creatures since his youth. His famous documentary on a colony in South America won an excellent reputation worldwide, with the original version featuring commentary on-screen in the language of each country where it was shown. The nature documentary television programme Attenborough’s Life on Earth broadcast an hour-long special entitled “The Private Life of Ants” in the United Kingdom in January 1993. Presenter David Attenborough observed that ants are, in popular perception, drab and dreary insects, relegated to a place in the list of nature’s most unspectacular creatures. The hour-long film was intended to be an examination of this assumption by exploring various aspects of the secret life of ants. Creative Commons (Public Domain)Attenborough has examined a variety of animals, including chimpanzees (Gorillas​​, 1997), orangutans (Orangutans, 2001), meerkats (Meerkats – The World’s Cutest Animals, 2011) and spiders (Spiders, 2016). In March 2011, he was the subject of an hour-long Discovery Channel special in the UK called David Attenborough’s Natural Curiosities: Greatest Moments.

David Attenborough Ants

Introduction

David Attenborough is one of the world’s most well-known naturalists and documentarians. He has narrated and presented countless programs about animals, plants, birds, insects, and more. However, you might be surprised to learn that he credits ants with starting his life-long passion for the natural world. In this article we’ll explore some of David Attenborough’s favorite ant facts. First up: leafcutter ants!

Attenborough’s life-long passion for insects began with the ants in his garden when he was a boy

• David Attenborough’s life-long passion for insects began with the ants in his garden when he was a boy.
• He has been studying ants for over 60 years and has written books on them
• He is a patron of the British Ants Survey and the Royal Entomological Society

A century ago, there were far more species of ants than humans estimated

The ants of the world are far more numerous and successful than humans, and for good reason: they have been around for 100 million years. Ants, along with other insects such as bees and termites, are a part of an order called Hymenoptera. Because these insects have existed for so long (with most species surviving for millions of years), they have developed some impressive adaptations that make them so successful at finding food.

Ants can be found almost anywhere on earth except Antarctica; there is no place on Earth where you won’t find ants living in it somewhere! They’re found in forests, deserts, grasslands and even oceans—in fact there’s an ant species that lives entirely underwater!

Ants are one of the most widespread animals on earth, found in every environment on the planet except Antarctica

Ants are one of the most widespread animals on earth, found in every environment on the planet except Antarctica. Ants thrive in deserts, rainforests and even under water. They can be found in every continent except Antarctica and even live inside the Arctic Circle.

Ants have adapted to almost any climate you can imagine: tropical or temperate; wet or dry; hot or cold. They have evolved to survive even in extreme environments such as volcanoes, glaciers and deserts. Ants live everywhere from tropical rainforests to arid deserts to tundra regions at high altitude above sea level (more than 2 miles) – each with very different temperatures year round!

Leafcutter ants carry bits of leaves and grass to underground nests, where they make compost and grow fungus to eat

Leafcutter ants carry bits of leaves and grass to underground nests, where they make compost and grow fungus to eat. The leaf pieces are also used as building material for their nests.

The ants use their bodies to carry the leaves (or sometimes even small twigs) back to the nest. They don’t use their mouths because that would be too wasteful: they have very short tongues!

When they get to the nest, they chew up the leaves with their jaws, then spit them out into little piles called “mulch”. These piles will eventually become food for the ant colony’s fungus garden.

Leafcutter ants have been farming for 50 million years

>The leafcutter ants have been farming for 50 million years. The ants cultivate their fungus, on which they feed and which grows only in the dark and humid underground chambers that they excavate, by carrying fresh leaves down into these subterranean rooms, where they are chewed into a paste with their powerful jaws. In this way the fungus is inoculated with new nutrients from the leaves, providing it with essential minerals and vitamins that would be missing from its diet of decaying wood. The ants are also careful to replace each cutting with others so that the fungi do not run out of food.

Leafcutter ant colonies can contain several million individual ants

The leafcutter ant is a type of social insect that lives in huge colonies. That means they live in groups and have workers, queens and males.

The leafcutter ants are not the only social insects. The term “social” refers to a group of organisms living together for their benefit. In other words, these animals work together for the good of all members in their colony. Most people think that ants live alone but if you have ever seen an ant working hard to carry something back to its colony, then you know this is not true! Ants live in large colonies with many members working together for their mutual benefit and survival as a colony or superorganism (something bigger than the sum of its parts).

Males have wings, queens do not – but male leafcutter ants only live for a few days after hatching, so they never leave their nest

Leafcutter ants are gendered. There are male leafcutter ants and female leafcutter ants, which you can tell by looking at their body size: males are tiny and have wings, while queens are large and wingless. Male leafcutter ants do not live for very long after they hatch out of their eggs, so they never leave the nest. They don’t need to—there’s plenty for them to eat in there!

Female gyne colonies have many queens who act as mothers for the colony’s offspring (workers). Every day these women collect pieces of leaves from nearby trees and shrubs and bring them back home to feed their babies, who live inside large communal chambers in underground tunnels called galleries. The young larvae grow up eating these scraps until they become pupae; when they emerge from this stage as adults, they spend most of their time doing chores around the colony like cleaning or collecting more leaves before eventually becoming workers themselves.

In colonies that are under attack from other species of ants, different individuals will use their bodies as shields to protect the leafcutters

The leafcutters in particular seem to have this identification with their queen. In colonies that are under attack from other species of ants, different individuals will use their bodies as shields to protect the leafcutters.

The workers are also able to differentiate between friend and foe. They’ll only go after dangerous predators like army ants if they can identify them as such—if they can’t tell whether an ant is friend or foe, they’ll ignore it completely.

Like termites, some species of ant tend to blind soldiers

Like termites and other social insects, ants are eusocial. They live in colonies with a rigid caste system. Certain members of the colony, such as queens and drones, have specialized roles that keep the colony functioning properly. However, unlike termites and bees which have a blind queen (or at least one that lacks eyes), ant queens all have eyes that function normally.

The reason for this difference lies in their respective diets: all female ants are carnivorous; they eat insects or other small animals to get their nutrients. Termites are herbivores who feed on woody plant material instead; thus they don’t need eyesight as much since they live above ground where light is plentiful during most hours of day or night.

A bullet ant is the world’s largest ant species and boasts the most painful sting of any animal on Earth

Bullet ants are the world’s largest ant species, measuring more than an inch (2.5cm) long. They are most commonly found in Central and South America.

Bullet ants are not the most dangerous ants in the world, but their sting is considered to be more painful than a bee, wasp or hornet bite by many people who’ve experienced it firsthand. According to reports from those who have been stung before, a bullet ant sting feels like being shot with a gun that shoots bullets made of fire and broken glass for about two minutes straight—but only lasts for about half an hour after it first hits you!

In fact, this insect’s name comes from its painful sting which feels like getting shot with something that feels like being shot with something made out of lava heated to over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (about 572 Celsius). Bullets aren’t usually anywhere near that hot though so they don’t quite match up either…

Many people underestimate the remarkable lives that are happening under their feet.

You may think that ants are small and insignificant, but in reality they are one of the most successful species on the planet. They have been around for millions of years, and have adapted to almost every environment on earth. Ants are social animals that live in colonies with thousands of other ants working together for their survival; this allows them to produce complex structures like bridges or underground cities. Ants also play a very important role in both plant and animal ecosystems by pollinating plants and eating other insects such as aphids which would otherwise destroy crops.

Ants are fascinating creatures because they can communicate through smell, touch and taste – something we humans can only do through language! Additionally, ants use tools like leaves or twigs to build shelters against predators (like us) or raindrops falling from the sky – again something we cannot do ourselves due to our larger brain size compared to theirs!

Conclusion

When we look at the leafcutter ant, it’s obvious that a lot of intelligence has gone into their survival. They have created self-governing states with armies capable of defending their borders and they have developed sophisticated farming techniques that rival our own. I think it would be a mistake to say we are superior to them, because in many ways we’re not.