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Discovery: Tooth and Claw: Army ant

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Tooth and Claw: Army ant

08/03/2022 GMT

BBC World Service - Discovery, Tooth and Claw: Army ant

Adam Hart explores the villain of many a jungle horror movie - the army ant.

Adam Hart explores the villain of the many a jungle horror movie - the army ant. When they club together they’re a force to be reckoned with, tearing down everything in their path

The army ant might be small enough to squash under foot but, make no mistake, it’s a formidable predator. When they club together in their thousands they are a force to be reckoned with.  Picture a tiger, comprised of hundreds of thousands of tiny ant-sized units, prowling through the forest and you start to get the idea. They’ll take down anything in their path, from spiders and scorpions to chickens that can’t escape them. There are even grisly stories of African army ants attacking people. But this predator has its uses too - they can be used to stitch wounds and offer a house cleaning service too.

Dr Dino Martins, Executive Director of the Mpala Research Centre in Kenya, and Lecturer at Princeton University, and Daniel Kronauer, Associate Professor studying complex social evolution and behaviour at the Rockefeller University in New York.

Producer: Beth Eastwood 
Presenter: Professor Adam Hart

Photo credit: Daniel Kronauer

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