Ants Choose Habitats Based on Their Individual Personalities

[FamTimes reporter Park Joo-hye] Researchers have discovered that ants’ individual personalities influence how they choose habitats.

Scientists at the University of Bristol’s Ant Lab in the United Kingdom observed rock ants to determine how individual ants’ personalities affect their choice of habitat.

Researcher Thomas O’Shea-Wheller said rock ants are particularly discerning when choosing a nest.

O’Shea-Wheller and his team created several nests with different conditions and collected 160 ants from 10 different habitats to study how they adapted to new nests.

The researchers found that individual ants differed in how long they stayed in nests with varying conditions.

“Some ants are picky, while others are more easygoing and adapt well to nests under any conditions. They are just like people. Not everyone wants to live in a luxury mansion,” O’Shea-Wheller said.

Some ants also appeared unable to tolerate boredom and ready to leave in search of another home. O’Shea-Wheller called them “the imagination of the colony.”

“Having a few picky ants in a habitat can be very useful,” said Anna Dornhaus of the University of Arizona in the United States.

The researchers found that ants that solved nearly everything were the most helpful when the ants were deciding where to settle.

In particular, when choosing between two low-quality nests, these ants that solved everything helped the group reach a decision more quickly.

The researchers said they still do not know what lies behind these individual differences among ants.

Reporter Park Joo-hye, fam1@pcss.co.kr