Us and them

I was taught three attributes distinguish us from the “lesser” animals: language, tool use, agriculture. Anyone who occasionally looks at my ramblings knows I am a closet science nerd and drawn to studies (and there have been many) which show we are not the only species on Mother Earth who communicates with a complex language (some birds do it, bees do it, I don’t know if educated fleas do it) or who makes and/or uses tools (many primates, some fish). A recent article in Nature (Nov. 21, 2016) documents that we’re also not the only farmers, nor the first species to farm.

The article’s title is a mouthful (“Obligate plant farming by a specialized ant”) but the story is remarkable. Not only are ants successful picnic thieves, but at least one species of Fiji’s ants has been farming for 3 million years (Human farming goes back only 12,000 years). These ants live inside a hollow, lumpy plant up high where branches grow from tree trunks. Not only do they live in the plant, but they also sow its seeds in cracks of the tree bark, fertilize them with their own poop, harvest the ripe fruit when it’s ready, remove the seeds, and then start all over again. Farming.

Ants are critically important pollinators, dispersing seeds of much of north America’s plants. Many species of ant feed plants with their own feces. This, however, is the first known example of ants managing and harvesting plants which are necessary for the actual survival of that ant species (this ant is found only on this one type of plant).

By the way, some ant species also appear to domesticate other animals, herding wild aphids from leaf to leaf and then milking them. OK, “milking” might be a stretch for stroking with antenna rather than pumping with hands, but what else do you call it? It’s a fascinating world, both for the diversity and the commonality of its inhabitants.

Ken White is the president of the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA.