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"Death spiral", the massacre of its heroes, ants... the strangest scene in the animal world

"Death spiral", the massacre of its heroes, ants

"Death spiral", the massacre of its heroes, ants... the strangest scene in the animal world

The world of ants..one of the wonders of nature whose secrets science is still discovering, especially the death spiral, which is the strangest scene in the animal kingdom.

Ants spiral or ant mill or death spiral It is a strange phenomenon that occurs to a certain type of ant called “military ants.” Most of the ant species use their sense of sight to see their way and move from one place to another, but military ants cannot see, and they replace their sense of sight with a chemical substance they secrete called “pheromones.”  And through which each ant can follow the other through that article.

  • When does the death spiral happen?

According to some scientific sources, this phenomenon is a vivid example of "failed leadership", where the wrong direction causes the loss of an entire swarm.

Military ants (includes about 200 species) follow each other by smell, that is, each one follows the ant before it, but the rotation of the leader (the ant that leads the team) around itself may cause this phenomenon to occur and the ants stay and rotate in circular rings, until they die from  Fatigue, according to "The Ant Room".

"Death spiral", the massacre of its heroes, ants... the strangest scene in the animal world

  • Why don't the ants try to change their course?

The reason why ants do not change their path is that they live in colonies, and do not like individual work.  

The largest ant death spiral ever observed was 300 meters in diameter, where each took two and a half hours to complete one complete turn.

one of the scientists said

Commenting on the death spiral, one of the scientists said, "I have never before in my life seen a more astonishing exhibition of the limits of strange instinct. For two whole days, these blind creatures, which depend on the sense of contact with the smell of antennae, continued to follow their trail and the smell of the bodies of the advanced ants that immediately preceded them,  Without realizing that she wasn't making any progress but just wasting their energies, the spell was finally broken by some adventurous colony member."

  • Creel University

According to the study issued by the University of "Kreel" published on "arxiv", this strange biological movement, also known as the "Death Spiral", occurs as a result of a mixture of false memory reinforced between individuals.

The ants lose the pheromone path of their swarm and start following each other, forming a circular path resembling whirlpools, in which groups continue to rotate, which may last for days without stopping, until the group perishes as a result of hunger and exhaustion.



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