Kidnapper Ants Steal Other Ants' Babies and Brainwash Them
From Deep Look
5 min3rd4th5th6thScience
Summary
Some ants raid other ant colonies and carry off the young to raise as workers in their own nest. Deep Look reveals this strange behavior and how it shapes life in an ant colony.
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Talk about it
These ants form groups that raid neighboring nests and bring back young ants, which grow up doing the raiders' work. Living and acting as a colony lets ants do things -- like raiding -- no single ant could do alone.
- What do these ants do to other ant colonies?
- How does working as a group help the raiders succeed?
- Why can a colony do things a single ant could not?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: colony, group, behavior, survive.
Try it: List three jobs that are easier with a team than alone. Write how ants use a group to raid another nest.