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  • BBC Science Focus Magazine

    MEET THE ANIMAL ARCHITECTS

    Aug 17, 2022 5 minutes
    WORDS: BEN HOARE
    by
    BEN HOARE

    LIVING BRIDGES

    rmy ants in huge raiding columns will deploy their own bodies to form living bridges so fellow workers can cross gaps quickly. A bridge consists of up to 50 ants and a colony may have 40 or 50 bridges in use at any time. Myrmecologists (people who study ants) at the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Swarm Lab have worked out a simple rule governing this behaviour. Ants only stay in a bridge if they feel sufficient numbers of other ants scurrying over their backs. To justify investing that much labour, the shortcut has to be popular. If fewer ants cross, forming a bridge isn’t worth the effort – it’s better for the colony if these ants go around the obstacle the

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