Focus and determination

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It's not that I like ants. If you've ever been stung by a larger ant, you quickly come to realize that it's altogether wiser if you stay out of their path. So we've kind of made an unspoken pact, that if I stay out of their way, they'll stay out of mine. Of course I'll try and avoid stepping in their path, but sometimes one does it unwillingly - and that's when I got stung, ouch!!! That taught me a lesson as to not be so disrespectful as to step in their tracks. You'll probably laugh, but it did indeed teach me a lesson. Now, if I walk in a nature area, I make sure to observe my path!

Anyway, as with all animals I always find a quality which is admirable. For sure you could call ants focused and determined. As with these ants when they found a few scattered cat food pellets. On this photo they're trying to drag the pellets up the step. It took them a long while. They kept dropping the heavy load, but went back down and picked it up and started all over. The big ant just grabbed it with it's fangs and dragged it up whilst walking backwards. Pretty amazing if you look at the size of it. I hope they got to enjoy part of the meal after all the hard work!!

Comments

Cosmic said…
Amazing indeedy!
x
sunshine said…
Ants are pretty amazing insects. When I live in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, I lived in a very remote area surrounded by Mangroves, every now and then we would get this ant "stampedes" they were huge and would eat literally everything on their path. The noise was unbelievable and specially see other animals running to find shelter. First time I saw the whole deal it really freak me out, but when I run to get help a local Mayan just told me "stay out of they way" and they won't harm you, just make sure you have food put away and closed containers... Saw the same phenomenon a few times after and then realized with this platoons come some very specific birds that also benefit from the cleaning of these ants... I believe that if you were to pass out at the forest and one of these stampedes is going by, they might eat you alive, crazy!!!
Hi Sunshine

You're absolutely right - you don't wanna pass out where such platoons rule!! It's a wise piece of advice to stay out of their way. I once landed up in the middle of one in Thailand and thought my leg was on fire! A respectful distance comes natural when you've had a close encounter :-)
Anna E said…
Yes what a focus and determination! I wonder to what extend they would go in order to bring a delicious meal to their home!? Also, I had no idea, they liked cat food :-)
The picture makes med ponder - seems that animals (and humans) spend a lot of time collecting. Collecting food, experience, references - and then naturally wanting to share afterwards. Interesting... :-))
Hi Anna
I don't know if you read Sunshine's comment (above) but it seems they'll eat pretty much anything!! - so better stay out of their way :-)

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