Wood Antics

Dead leaves twitching, dry wood cracking, and the rustling of hundreds of thousands of tiny feet on the dusty earth. As we wandered through the forest, the delicate rustic sounds of the wood ants’ nest pattered through the air amongst the lofty conifers. Stumbling upon the sight of the mound, I was struck, as I am every time, by the sheer number of worker ants busily labouring together in pursuit of a common goal – to build their garrison against predators and the elements.

I have always been fascinated by the social structure of these intriguing ants. These clever little creatures belong to the genus Formica. A colony can have one or more queen ants who can live up to 20 years. Only queens and a relatively small number of workers survive the winter, deep underground where the environment is more stable. As spring spreads across the land and the ground grows warmer, the queens respond to the more amenable season and lay their eggs. On these tiny eggs, the future of the colony relies. With careful tending from the industrious female worker ants, these hatch into grubs in the nursery chambers of the nest. Next, through repeatedly moulting their exoskeletons, they grow larger until they are ready to create cocoons for themselves and emerge later as adult ants.

The queen and her males can be distinguished from the workers by their larger size and, during the mating period, the presence of their wings. The males are short-lived and die soon after they have completed their life purpose of mating with the queen. To some this may seem like a miserable existence but they play a crucial role in the continuation of the colony.

The captivating movement of the workers provided a perfect chance for me to practice my wildlife filming. The longer I watched, the more intricate their social interactions appeared. The best way to appreciate these brilliant creatures is to see them, so I decided to put together a short film of my footage with a few fun facts about them thrown in. This is my first attempt at editing my footage with a voiceover, so any feedback is welcome. I hope you enjoy it!