Woah, guys! What you’re about to see today is totally
crazy! Two ant colonies going to war! Now as an ant keeper, that loves all my pet
ant colonies, despite many, many requests to do so in the comments section, I personally
have never and would never deliberately put two ant colonies together with the intention
of them going to war with each other. I find it cruel, and a waste of all the time,
love, and effort it takes to grow the ant colonies into the magnificent kingdoms they
become over time. However, having said that, ant wars do happen
in the wild, all the time, and for years I’ve tried to keep my eye open so I could finally
film one up close with my 4K camera for all of you war-loving ant lovers who want to see
what actually happens when two armies of ants come together. And guess what, guys? I finally spotted one! This week, I successfully managed to locate
and film a gigantic ant war happening right in my yard, and you won’t believe what two
teams of ants were battling it out to the death! Welcome to the AntsCanada Ant Channel! Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel and hit the
BELL ICON. Welcome to the AC Family! Enjoy! So let’s start with how I discovered the
ant war! Welcome, everyone to Antopia, the name we’ve
given to the almost 3,000 square meter plot of tropical landscape that makes up my yard,
and the future location of our Ant House, a home I’m currently building to house all
our pet ant colonies and beasts on this channel. Speaking of which, I’m happy to report that
construction is coming along well and on schedule, and we should be moving in later this year. But during a visit to Antopia this week, the
things I saw truly astounded me! In case you’re new to the channel, here’s
a backgrounder on what we have come to call the Great Antopian War that is literally happening
right in my yard, in Antopia right now. Antopia happens to be a dynamic world, home
to dense and towering vegetation, insects, amphibians, and of course literal battalions
of a multitude of ant colonies, all striving to come out on top. These ant colonies are at a constant war with
each other, some have formed alliances and tolerate each other’s presence, and as we’ve
seen in previous videos on this channel, through meticulously following this Great Antopian
War, I’ve been able to map out the exact locations of all the ant colony encampments
I could find, and so far, I’ve discovered there are two main teams of ants: First, we
have Team Native Ants, and this is the official badge we’ve given them to mark their locations
in Antopia. So far, we’ve learned that Team Native ants
is composed of the following ant tribes... Ready for this, guys? Weaver Ants from the tree tops, Asian Marauder
ants with their huge supermajors, Big-headed Ants from the outer Bamboo Forests, the elusive
Odontoponera ants, Twig Ants inhabiting in stick hallows, Flower Ants living in Acacia
bark, and as we discovered in our last Antopian episode Asian Bullet Ants patrolling the grounds. All these native ants, have lived in Antopia
for millions of years in the land passed down to them from their ancient ancestors, but
today they fight a great war against their archenemies: Guys, meet Team Invasive Ants. This is their badge, and marking them on the
map of Antopia they are composed of the following aggressive ant tribes: Black Crazy Ants, Ghost
Ants, Pharaoh Ants, and the fearless Fire Ants. The ants of Team Invasive Ants, as their name
suggests are invasive ant newcomers, and have only recently been introduced to Antopia. They’re colonizers, with one sole intention:
to claim Antopia and all its resources from all other ants on the property. How did Team Invasive ants get here in the
first place? Well, by way of human activities over the
last few decades, and since have been mercilessly outcompeting, displacing, and killing Team
Native Ants for the abundance of food, resources, and space that exists here in Antopia. Now the winner of this great war is crucial
because if Team Invasive Ants wins and successfully drives out or eliminates Team Native Ants
from Antopia, it could mean disaster for Antopia’s delicate and precious local ecosystem. All the species of an area depend on each
other and are linked via the great food web which of course, takes millions of years to
establish, and all it takes is a few invasive species to completely change or ruin that
ecological balance. This is why we’ve all been rooting for Team
Natives to win the war. Now we’ve watched Team Invasives already
killing native wildlife, as you can see these fire ants devouring a native frog! Poor froggie! As well as Team Natives and Team Invasives
competing with each other for the local termite supply! This war is definitely heated! But AC Family, what I saw in Antopia this
week, was the ultimate plot twist of the century! First, check this out. It was gruesome scene. A black and yellow mosaic of reptilian scales
flung like a crumpled carpet across the earth. It was the rotting carcass of a dinosauric
beast. Huge flies gathered in a messy business to
feed and lay eggs on the exposed flesh. This was the carcass of a monitor lizard,
one of the many native creatures that roam Antopia. My guess was it was killed by a hawk or some
other larger predator then skinned, with its remains left to the scavengers of Antopia
to finish off. And it was no surprise that in the tangled
mess of lizard skin, I spotted ants. Ants are important decomposers in all ecosystems
of the world, so if an animal had died, surely ants would be among the first creatures on
the scene, but what I was most interested in was what ants were on the scene to consume
the native lizard, and more specifically whether the ants eating the lizard were Native or
Invasive. Nearby, I spotted the lizard’s skull and
stomach, and check out the incredible sight I saw. A huge swarm of ants, and to my delight, I
was pleased to discover they were the famous Marauder ants of Team Natives. Thank goodness! The Asian marauder ants celebrated festively
as they consumed the monitor lizard’s meat. This huge carcass would surely feed their
colony for the next few days, and help them grow to an even bigger population over the
next week. Finding this carcass and stripping it of its
meat could spell the difference between life or death, especially in light of this Antopian
War against the Invasive ants. The ants were ready to defend this carcass
from any thieves be they ants or otherwise. They weren’t even willing to share it with
the flies. Most of the flies had to settle for now with
eating the leftover scraps from the skin. I even saw some flimsy black crazy ants, of
Team Invasives, darting around the outskirts of the feeding frenzy, trying to get in closer,
but I knew they wouldn’t dare be stupid enough to advance in on an Asian Marauder
ant colony as big as this one protecting their meal. The black crazy ants, too had to wait for
the Asian Marauder ants to finish off and make due with their scraps if any. But just when I thought things were looking
up for Team Natives, not too far away, I also spotted this. Another swarm of ants, but this one was not
as promising. Fire ants, consuming another carcass of I
don’t even know what! It’s hard to tell if this was a bird, a
mammal, another reptile or amphibian. What do you guys think? The fire ants had already effectively buried
the carcass with huge grains of dirt in order to hide it from birds or other animals that
might want to take it. Through the protective layer of dirt, fire
ant workers were busy ripping the meat off the carcass and taking the pieces back to
their nest in chunks or predigested in their social stomachs. One thing’s for sure, I wasn’t too happy
about finding the fire ants consuming yet another native Antopian creature. These Invasives had an appetite for meat,
and it hurt me to know they, too, were consuming available food resources in Antopia, food
that should be for the native ants. The fire ants could also have possibly even
killed this native creature which is also not a good thing. Now, AC Family, brace yourselves, because
what I saw next while trying to locate the nest of these fire ants, so we could mark
them on our Antopian map, was something I was not at all prepared to see. Following the trail of ants from the carcass,
it led me to a strange commotion happening nearby. Here was an opening to the fire ant nest but
one thing I noticed was that the ants were a bit frantic in their movements. The ants seemed to be in emergency mode, a
sight I’m very familiar with. My own fire ants get like this whenever I
stick my hand in their territory. It’s a bit different from the feeding excitement
movements whenever I stick food into my fire ant terrarium. Something very serious was happening, and
so I continued to look around for what was causing this certain emergency response. And that’s when I saw it. Oh my g! This was an ant war! But what shocked me was that this was a war
between two fire ant colonies! I could see batches of ants grappling with
each other amidst the swarm of fire ants, and their motivation? A piece of chicken bone tossed on the ground
from one of the workers working on the Ant House. This was an epic war between two different
fire ant colonies over a piece of chicken bone! Wow! I watched wide-eyed as the fire ants battled
it out, seizing ants from the opposing colony at key areas of their body so they couldn’t
bend to use their deadly stingers against them. Check it out! I couldn’t believe the scenes I was watching
up close. I watched as a huge fire ant supermajor patrolled
the trenches of the battlegrounds to make sure her team was winning. Now you might be wondering why these fire
ants are attacking and killing their own kind. Well, fire ants by nature are not friends
with any other ants, not even their own species. They’re that ruthless, and not only will
they kill, attempt to outcompete, and/or displace other species of ants, but they’ll even
do this with other fire ant colonies. In the world of fire ants, if they’re not
from your colony, you kill them! I couldn’t believe what I was witnessing
here. Now the next thing you might be wondering
is how do these fire ants tell each other apart, like how can you tell if an ant beside
you is from your colony, considering everyone looks the same. Well, ants have special chemical markers on
their exoskeletons which give off a specific colony scent. It’s kind of like an official colony ID
badge which tells other ants that you are from the same colony. Every colony’s identifying scent is different,
and always changing, and so these ants can quite easily tell which of the ants are family,
and which are enemies. The grounds were already littered with injured
ants, dead ants, and ants which were being held hostage for killing later when they tired
out. While this was happening, more and more droves
of ants from each side were rushing to the scene in order to claim this huge chicken
bone piece. That is how important any source of food is
for these fire ants. They’re willing to sacrifice their lives
for the few days of nourishment, as even a bit of flesh and bone marrow could mean the
colony could grow even a bit larger to give them an upper hand in this Great Antopian
War. Amazingly, only an hour later, the scene had
died down. Both sides had retreated to their respective
nests, the chicken bone had been stripped of all edible bits, and both colonies were
nursing their wounded warriors. Dead ants were scattered across the battlefield
and the aftermath of it all was truly shocking. I couldn’t believe the bloody scene I had
just witnessed and caught on camera. It’s actually the first time I’d ever
seen anything like this up close. How about you guys? What shocked me about the fire ant war was
that fire ants, as members of Team Invasives were so invasive and built for invading, that
they were even willing to invade their own. Perhaps this could be a good thing to know
in our war against Team Invasives, because we can be sure that fire ants will not band
together like Crazy Ants, Ghost Ants, and Pharaoh Ants do to form supercolonies. I think if we continue to support the local
ant species of Antopia by feeding them near their nests, creating more habitat for them
by planting trees and shrubs at various places of the yard, and spot cleaning up any carcasses
or feeding sites we may see the fire ants claiming, we might help put the fire ant population
of Antopia at a disadvantage. What else do you guys think we could do to
naturally and ethically help out Team Native ants, and place Team Invasives at a situational
disadvantage? I did also notice that while a pathway for
a drainage pipe was being dug out by the workers in the yard, they had inadvertently upturned
several fire ant nests. This must have been destructive for their
colonies and there’s a good chance the one queen of each of the fire ant colonies within
the path of this pipe excavation was fatally injured, thereby killing these colonies. I’m still unsure how else we can help support
the native ants of the area, so they can have the upper hand at winning the war against
team invasives, but today, I believe we witnessed that this Antopian war is actually much more
complicated than we ever imagined. I’ll continue to document and uncover all
the secrets that Antopia has to reveal over time, as it seems with every legendary expedition
into Antopia, this Antopian War saga gets more and more mind blowing! And until we officially move our Antiverse
to these new untamed and savage lands, thank you all for watching, and supporting the ants. It’s ant love forever. Hope you can subscribe to the channel as we
upload every Saturday at 8AM EST. Please remember to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, and
SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this video to help us keep making more. Be sure to visit AntsCanada.com for all your
ant keeping and collecting gear shipped to you in a special package from our ant-loving
facility in the USA In this week’s AC Question of the Week we
ask: What was your favourite part of the Ant War
in today’s episode?
