Is robo-ant on his way to YOUR home?…´Radio receivers paste to thousand ants to look into their habitat!´
Radio receivers will be fitted to a thousand ants in world first experiment probing their habits and means of communication
One thousand ants are to be fitted with tiny radio receivers in a world first experiment to find out how they communicate and travel between their complex nests.
The three-year project by researchers from the University of York will take place on the National Trust’s Longshaw Estate, Derbyshire, a hotspot for the northern hairy wood ant.
The unique site contains more than a thousand nests and is home to up to 50million workers from Britain’s largest ant species, which are internationally protected.
Experts will carefully catch them and in a few seconds attach a 1mm radio receiver to each. The ants are the size of an adult thumbnail but researchers say the process will not interfere with or harm them in any way.
With the receivers attached, scientists will be able to examine how the ants communicate with each other in their colonies, which are housed in several nests connected by a network of ant highways, with multiple queens spread between them.