Animals

The March of the Red Crab
A Moth Find a New Home
Suicidal Birds
A leopard and A cheetah
The Spectacular Hornbill
The Antelope with an extraordinary nose
Masquerading Males
Tiny But Powerful
Electric Fishes
Paternal Care
Hairless Cat
Passionate Parrot
Calling Out To Mother
Hot Wheels
Discs On Their Wings
Two-humped Camels
Frozen Frog
Silken Chambers
Earth Pig
Swordsman of the Sea
The Ostrich Trick
Electrifying Meal
Bizarre Turtle
Grey Whales
The Flying Lemur
The Winged Fishing Creature
Llamas
A Different Sort of a Parrot
The Tailless Cat
The Ancestor Of The Rhino
Acquisitive Wood Rats
The Butterflyfish
The Amazing Jumper
The Largest Deer
The Devil’s Coach-Horse
The Porcupine With A Prehensile Tail
The Irritating Fencing
The Acrobatic Otter
The Busy Termite Colony
Superb Mimics
The Canary
Snow Monkey
Jumping Spiders
Glass Lizard
Beetle Rhino
The World’s Smallest Bear
Hygienic Ants
Flat as a Pancake
The Carpet Shark
The Centipede Walk

Go to page: 1  2 

Hygienic Ants

Research in Switzerland shows that European wood ants harvest resin to disinfect their nests. The ants gather grains of hardened sap from the coniferous trees that surround their nests. A large nest can contain up to 20 kilos of resin. Conifer resin contains antibiotic chemicals which protect the trees against infection.
The researchers created nests with and without resin. Those without had three times more fungus growing in them and contained many more disease-causing bacteria.
Ants’ nests are a good breeding ground for disease, being crowded, warm and damp. But their public-health systems keep infection at bay. They groom each other carefully, and dump corpses outside the nests.

One fungus-farming ant even carries antibiotic bacteria on its body to kill harmful fungi!
Bees also collect resin to repair their hives. Several animals including chimpanzees eat healing plants. Some birds weave herbs into their nests.

---

Last updated on :2/28/2005