Ants Rip Queen's Legs Off | Empire Of The Desert Ants | BBC Earth

by late summer the corral tanks contained the only standing water the kilometers around [Music] the canyons more mobile insects are drawn to this one last oasis for those able to travel this water is a lifesaver [Music] [Music] bees and wasps can carry the water back to their distant nests but this tiny pool of water lives just beyond the boundary of the corral colonies territory but no end in sight such desperate times call for desperate measures as the search widens a small group of Corral workers head towards the trough this is unfamiliar ground for them they are heading toward disaster near the trough they stumble across other honey ants and then a nest entrance it's only 40 meters from the corral colony that that's been enough to keep these two nests in mutual ignorance for all these years these new honey ants are unlike any the Corral workers have encountered before they are big and aggressive instead of backing down they meet the challenge head-on and the encounter begins to escalate for the first time in its history the Corral colony may have met its match sensing the worst the Corral workers begin to fall back towards their own nest the trough workers go on the offensive the retreat quickly turns into a rout stragglers picked off the fight is carried right to the entrance of the corral colony even here on their own doorstep they can't hold their ground the attacking trough workers drive on into the nest as news of the attack reaches the corral Queen she withdraws to the deepest chambers her entourage of nurses in tow carrying the valuable brood the battle spreads down into the tunnels slowly inexorably it spreads down through the shafts towards the deeper part of the nest [Music] the repeats are slaughtered or dragged away to be eaten later some dead workers are carried off for processing the invaders take everything from eggs to newborns [Music] many are eaten where they fall they empty chamber after chamber [Music] finally the invaders overcome the last resistance and break through into the Royal bunker the Corral Queen and her broods are trapped and completely helpless held by each leg the queen is on the rack first stretched then dismembered it is a gruesome and ignominious end for this once great ruler [Music] in just a few hours that chorale colony has been annihilated the nest emptied too late for the corral colony the drought finally breaks a great storm heralded the start of the corral Queens story and now eight years later another marks its brutal end but somewhere out in the desert the Queen's royal daughters are fighting their own battles continuing her dynasty the Queen may be dead but her empire lives on [Music]

Channel: BBC Earth

Views: 8,518,322

Rating: 4.9001436 out of 5

Keywords: bbc documentary, bbc, bbcearth, bbc earth, natural world, empire of the desert ants, arizona, insects, desert honey ant, ant colony, ant nest, natural history, bbc ants, ant queen, Invaders Rip Queen's Legs Off

Id: wGEIfh2t_Jw

Length: 7min 54sec (474 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 28 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/SplitFigure]

This is actually a really awesome documentary that spans the rise of an ant colony from the very beginning. It literally starts with the queen looking/fighting for a spot to begin a colony. OP's vid is the end of the colony, after 8 years.

Natural World visits the Arizona desert, where a new honey ant queen wages an intense battle for survival as she attempts to build and defend her empire. Eliminating rivals with ruthless efficiency, sacrificing thousands in her quest for domination, murder, cannibalism, genocide - she will do anything to keep her crown. Empire of the Ants is the epic story of one honey ant queen's dramatic rise to power - her brutal fall from grace.

[u/kamesetti]

How the hell do they get that footage?

[u/FTC_Publik]

Should've followed the Cole Protocol, it's there for a reason.

[u/FakeNewses]

This actually happened because the corral colony children became too involved with social networking and became complacent.

[u/CamelCicada]

Teams need different jersey colors or it gets too confusing to tell them apart

[u/The_dog_says]

I seriously hate when they add weird sound effects

[u/r_u_ferserious]

How much of this is true vs bullshit though? If a film maker put a camera into an ant hill, is he really recording that which he narrates? Sequentially, the film maker got a camera into each chamber and the royal bunker just in time to see the queen dismembered? I would have to think there's a lot of difficult filming that takes place, a lot of set ups, then script writers craft a story line.

[u/HowRememberAll]

I wish I didn't watch that. Gross!