The study of animal behavior begins with understanding how an animal’s physiology and anatomy are integrated with its behavior.

 

Ants produce numerous different behavior, each with its own distinct purpose. Ants secrete behaviors to attract mates, to signal danger to the colony, or to give directions about a location. Other behaviors act as deterrents keeping out unwanted ants from foreign colonies or preying insectivores.

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How do ants find food?

When worker ants leave their nest to search for food, they leave behind a trail of pheromones (chemical scents) — like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs to help you find your way home. After an ant finds food, it turns around and follows a different pheromone trail back to the nest. While it travels home, it lays down more pheromone on the trail, reinforcing the trail. When other worker ants come across the pheromone trail, they may abandon their own random search for food to follow the pheromone trail directly to the food source.

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HOW DO ANTS PROTECT THEMSELVES?

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• Bodies Built for Defense

• Chemical Warnings

• Nest Defenses

• Army Ants, the Exception

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HOW ANT SLEEP:

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ants have a cyclical pattern of resting periods which each nest as a group observes, lasting around eight minutes in any 12-hour period. Although this means two such rest periods in any 24-hour period, only one of the rest periods bears any resemblance to what we would call sleep.

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