NPR

No Ant Left Behind: Warrior Ants Carry Injured Comrades Home

Don't call it empathy, scientists say. These termite-eating ants only retrieve injured comrades on the way home from a hunt, not before. But the hurt ants do recover better at home — to fight again.
This wounded ant (<em>Megaponera analis)</em>, with two termites clinging to it, is alive but likely too exhausted after battle to get back to the nest without help.

Leave no man behind. That's an old idea in warfare — it's even part of the Soldier's Creed that Army recruits learn in basic training.

And never leaving a fallen comrade is also the rule for some warriors who are ants, according to a report published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.

These ants, , hunt and eat termites. Scouts will go out, find a group of termites, and then return

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