[Wild Fragaria]

I started to like the tiny creature more.  They are amazing 


http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/01/11/ants.teching.reut/index.html


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Study: Ants can teach each other

Thursday, January 12, 2006; Posted: 5:30 a.m. EST (10:30 GMT)


LONDON, England (Reuters) -- British researchers said on Wednesday they had uncovered the first proof of teaching in non-human animals -- ants showing each other the way to food.

The ants studied over two years by scientists from Bristol University used a technique known as tandem running -- one ant led another ant from the nest to a food source.

It was a genuine case of teaching as ant leaders observed by Professor Nigel Franks and Tom Richardson slowed down if the follower got too far behind. If the gap got smaller, they then speeded up.

Tandem leaders also paid a penalty, because they would have reached the food four times faster if they had gone alone. But teaching had its advantages -- the follower ant then learnt much more quickly where the food source was.

Information then flows through the ant colony when followers are promoted to leaders and the teaching process starts all over again.

"Teaching isn't merely mimicry. It involves the teacher modifying its behavior in the presence of a naive observer at some initial cost to itself," said Franks, who reported the findings in the journal Nature.

"We think real teaching involves a lot of feedback. This is to our knowledge the first example of formal teaching in non-human animals," he told Reuters.

"What's nice about this demonstration is that the ant is an animal with a small brain. The human brain is a million times larger and yet the ant is very good at teaching and learning."

[Ford Prefect]

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28444

I like watching the ants in my driveway. They're like the fascists of the animal kingdom. Although it's my understanding that invertebrates, except for squid and octopuses, don't have centralized brains at all.

[karajorma]

Certainly interesting but I don't see how it's supposed to be the first instance of teaching? For instance killer whale pods  that beach themselves to catch sealions are supposed to display taught behaviour because not all killer whales show this behaviour, only those who learn it from their parents.

[aldo_14]

Certainly interesting but I don't see how it's supposed to be the first instance of teaching? For instance killer whale pods that beach themselves to catch sealions are supposed to display taught behaviour because not all killer whales show this behaviour, only those who learn it from their parents.

I think it's (cited as) the first instance of reactive teaching, i.e of the teacher animal actively responding to the actions of the 'pupil' to reinforce or better teach the lesson; in this case the teacher ant being aware of the following ant and keeping it at a set distance (keeping pace).  What is interesting, it seems, is whether this is actual intelligent behaviour with knowledge of the consequences of a teaching process, or some inbuilt response action that (due to improved survival from improved food-finding) has simply evolved to make teaching - or more specifically the pacing - become a 'programmed' instinct (i.e. do the ants know this is a teaching process?).

[Kosh]

Ants actually are fairly intelligent. Their brains are kind of large compared to their body size.


I heard somewhere that the animal with the largest brain in relation to the size of it's body is a queen ant.

[Marauder]

When my friends and I were little, we'd play with them.  (No!  We wouldn't kill them, just...pick them up a lot...)

Ants truly are intriguing. 

[castor]

What's nice about this demonstration is that the ant is an animal with a small brain. The human brain is a million times larger and yet the ant is very good at teaching and learning.

I was reading this site that stated there exists about one million ants per each human, so i guess we're about even there.
But they is better organized.. surely planning to take over the world any time now!!

[Ford Prefect]

Ants actually are fairly intelligent. Their brains are kind of large compared to their body size.


I heard somewhere that the animal with the largest brain in relation to the size of it's body is a queen ant.

I don't see how that ratio affects intelligence, though. There are lots of animals with proportionally larger heads than humans, for instance.

[aldo_14]

A curious little reference (http://www.highnorth.no/Library/Myths/br-si-bo.htm);

Code: [Select]

Species           Brain weight   Body weight   Brain weight
                     (gram)        (tonn)        as % of
                                               body weight


Man                 1500           0,07           2,1
Bottlenose dolphin  1600           0,17           0,94
Dolphin              840           0,11           0,74
Asian elephant      7500           5,0            0,15
Killer whale        5620           6,0            0,094
Cow                  500           0,5            0,1
Pilot whale         2670           3,5            0,076
Sperm whale         7820           37,0           0,021
Fin whale           6930           90,0           0,008
Mouse                0,4           0,000,012      3,2
(hopefully the formatting will be ok).  There is presumably an evolutionary medium between brain size, proportionate brain size, and probably external factors (like the type of animal, environment etc, and presumably physical stuff like metabolism) that leads to intelligence being an advantage in survival.  But because brain functions relate to stuff other than intelligence (within the context of not really being able to exactly define or measure intelligence in absolute terms; say rational reasoning and plan-goal forming as an example), there may not be a direct correlation even possible between the two.

[karajorma]

See. Douglas Adams was right after all!

[Rictor]

And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.  I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves.