On the day after Thanksgiving, NPR decided to strangely dump a fantastic piece of evergreen content on the internet. Why they would choose to do this on a day when more people weren’t paying attention I don’t know. It’s an animated video that humorously illustrates an experiment that was designed to find out if ants have internal pedometers– basically, if when they go back and forth to the nest they are counting their steps.
I particularly love the voices of the ants. It seems to me like a good representation of what they would actually sound like if they spoke.
As something of an aside, I’ve had ants on the brain a lot recently. Last summer ants invaded our apartment. Despite our constant efforts and many battles won, we never won the war. Now as the summer begins anew in Peru they are back for a sequel. Someone told us the best strategy was just to coexist with them. I’m not sure I agree but ants are definitely fun to watch and ponder.
One of our Peruvian friends is an expert on Amazon ants, and has told us that she keeps several pet colonies in her bedroom, much to the chagrin of her family. I think I need to write about her. Seems like it would be short story gold.
Levi Novey 