Thursday 15 February 2018

Ants Treat Injured Comrades, Defying Darwinian Expectations

Image courtesy of Dawidi, CC BY-SA 3.0.B.




Joel Kontinen


We would not expect animals to care for their wounded comrades in a Darwinian world, but in a created world it is no big deal, as God has given animals the intelligence they need for coping in a post-Fall environment.

A new paper published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B features African Matabele ants (Megaponera analis) that are known for waging wars against other ant colonies. Now, researchers found that they care for the injured, carry them home and even clean their wounds, perhaps with an antibiotic substance to “fend off infections,” as an article in The Guardian puts it.

Ants defy Darwinian expectations by harvesting seeds, creating elaborate farming systems, mastering basic mathematics, building impromptu bridges and living rafts.

Ants are living fossils that haven’t changed in aeons.

Source:

Sample, Ian. 2018. ‘Paramedic ants' observed treating injured comrades. The Guardian (14 February).