The most exotic ant species in the desert: Knowing trigonometry but forget the way back if you see food

This ant species has an extraordinary intelligence instinct, but is also extremely bizarre.

Most animals remember the smell of their nest so that they don't "get into the cage", but desert ants Cataglyphis fortis is different. Whenever attracted by the scent of delicious new dishes, it forgets its "home" smell.

The desert wilderness has a unique character, Cataglyphis fortis, living around salt lakes of Tunisia, a country in North Africa.

Desert Ants Cataglyphis fortis.

Best intelligence, solving both . trigonometry

Not only are people lost in the desert, but also animals. The vast sea of ​​sand is always standing by storms due to the hot temperature, just blinking one eye, the desert has erased both the footprints and the smell of markings.

But this harshness of the desert is nothing with ants Cataglyphis fortis. Even if the sandstorm erased all traces, it could still calculate the current position from the orbit, then return to the starting point.

This harshness of the desert is nothing to ant Cataglyphis fortis.

According to scientists, the fortification of C. fortis's way of redirecting is similar to the trigonometric rule in mathematics. Thanks to the nervous system of 250,000 cells, it can continuously update the measurements of the angles corresponding to the Sun's current position, thereby estimating the distance by the number of steps.

But whenever you see delicious food, you forget everything

Although very "good" in trigonometry, Cataglyphis fortis still has to rely on the smell so as not to mislead the other team. Above all, it is still an olfactory species to find food.

Research from Germany's Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (Institute of Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology) shows that C. fortis's ability to remember ants is especially strong. It can distinguish up to 14 different food odors.

Meeting food is the ant will forget all.

Only thing, when I have to memorize so much smell of attractive food, ant C. fortis will . forget the smell of the nest.

The conclusion came after researchers experimented with about 900 C. fortis organizations near Tunisia's Menzel Chaker village. They use small pieces of biscuits and tiny test tubes containing different food scents.

After contacting the smell of the first food, C. fortis immediately remembered it in his brain. It constantly remembers different delicious flavors but only reaches a maximum of 14 smells.

It's the same strategy

Although it is true that fortress C. fortis is fascinated by the smell of food and forgets the "home" smell, but everything has a kernels. Unlike the human brain with boundless memory ability, the brain of ants only consists of finite memory compartments. In order to remember the new scent, it was forced to erase the scents previously recorded.

Ant Cataglyphis fortis solved both trigonometry.

"During my short life, ants encountered many different foods," explained researcher Markus Knaden. "It needs to remember the scent of new food so that it can be found later.

The smell of the nest is not necessary, because they do not change. So, ants don't need to be particularly careful to find the entrance. "

In addition, temporarily forgetting the "home" smell with C. fortis is not a big deal. It just needs to recall the scent at the time of leaving the team is able to find it again.