Ants live in massive colonies with up to millions
of members, but ever wonder what would happen if we separated an ant from its colony? Well,
this week, I decided to find out. Welcome to the AntsCanada Ant Channel. Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel, and hit the
BELL icon. Welcome to the AC Family! Enjoy! Guys, the results of this experiment were
very surprising and also quite moving, so keep on watching until the end, to see what
happens to an ant that is separated from its colony, as well as the big reunion afterwards,
and just a heads up: grab some tissues. So the first thing I needed to do was design
this ant isolation experiment, but I wanted to make sure my methods were ethical. I didn’t
want this experiment to be cruel. I think the thing I was most concerned about was isolating
an ant and the ant really suffering during our experiment, feeling excessively depressed,
or worse case scenario, even dying if it were separated from its colony for too long. However,
for the longest time, after years of ant keeping, I’ve wondered what would happen if an ant
was separated from its colony. Perhaps getting lost sometimes happens to ants in nature.
What happens to the ant then? So to be as non-cruel as possible, I set the
duration of this ant isolation experiment to just 12 hours. That was plenty of time
for us to see any changes in the ant after separation. I also would be providing the
ant with all it needed to survive while in isolation. But before we go ahead and separate an ant
from its colony, let’s have a look at the ant colony from which we’ll be extracting
a worker. This is the Phoenix Empire, my massive pet fire ant colony. They’re composed of
tens of thousands of members now and are a fully functioning, well-oiled ant machine,
designed to hunt, collect food, build nest tunnels, and care for their queen and all
the babies she amasses every day. They’re always working cooperatively together, and
look. How cute! They’re cooperatively chewing through the connector tube in attempts to
escape their setup. Welcome to the fire ant hive mind! So in this experiment I will be taking one
worker ant from this massive ant colony and isolating it into this setup, I’ve prepared
here: an AC test tube portal, complete with a test tube full of sugar water, another with
freshwater behind it, and a test tube setup with red film to act as a shelter. So now guys, before we begin, what is your
hypothesis? How do you think an ant will react once it’s separated for 12 hours? Will it
show signs of depression? Will it keep wandering the enclosure non-stop in search of its colony?
Or will it remain happy, stuffing its face with sugar water, and relaxing in our shelter,
relieved it was now solo and free from its fascist life of slavery? OK, maybe a bit much.
But, let us know your guesses in the comments and afterward go back to your comment and
let us know if you were right! Okay, so now to choose our ant. My plan was
to stick a toothpick inside their territories and collect one of these curious ants climbing
up it. You may be wondering why a lot of the ants seem to be covered in white stuff. Well,
that’s baby powder. The ants here have probably been previously preoccupied with trying to
escape their setup, and surpass our baby powder barrier. Well, okay, if they wanna break out
so badly, let’s grant that wish for one of them now! I went in with a qtip to gather one ant. And
got one. This worker ant will be our test subject for this isolation experiment. I then
placed the ant into our isolation chamber. Done. At first, it paced all around the test tube
portal in search of regaining its bearings. It was in strange lands now and often stopped
to clean its antennae so it had the best sense of smell possible for finding its way back
home. It spent most of its time wandering the top
trying to find a way out. It could probably smell its colony’s pheromones nearby, so
it likely knew it wasn’t too far from home. But now AC Family, this was the sad part.
I proceeded to move the colony far away from the isolation chamber. Our ant was now officially
alone. And so began our ant isolation experiment. For the first hour the ant paced around and
tried its hardest to retrace how it got in. Going back on its tracks by smell is how ants
that are lost find their way back home. I’m sure this ant was so confused. I felt so bad
for it already. It eventually found our sugar water test tube,
but instead of drinking from it, it chose to prioritize finding its way back home. It
could always come back once it found a home-bound trail. It kept cleaning its antennae every
few minutes and continued to search. I bet it was bewildered as to why it could no longer
smell its colony anywhere. What amazed me was how sure the ant was that
it had entered through the top port. I wondered if it was a visual memory or the smell of
the top port that it remembered, or maybe both? An hour later, I caught the ant attempting
to chew or dig its way out. How interesting! By the second hour, it finally rested in place
to more thoroughly clean itself. Watching her self-groom, I suddenly felt compelled
to give this ant a name. For me, she was special, as she would help us understand more about
ants through this experiment, contribute to science, and possibly enlighten us. What should
we name her, guys? Let me know in the comments! Three hours later, after tirelessly wandering
the premises in vain, she stood still here in the same place. I wondered what she could
be thinking right now. Could she be depressed, scared, confused as
to how she could have lost her family and her way? That disconnect must be so tough.
I felt bad, but I knew this was just for the 12 hours, and she’d already finished a quarter
of the way. Over the next few hours, the ant seemed determined
not to give up with the search for a way out, stopping for naps every now and then before
resuming. She would always come back here to this spot
to rest, not really interested in using our shelter. By the 7th hour, the ant lay still hanging
upside down from the roof, motionless. There was no work to be done, no babies to feed,
no food to collect, no nest tunnels to excavate, no colony to protect. As a single ant, her
life no longer had any meaning. She was an ant that had lost her purpose. By the 8th hour, she wandered back into the
sugar test tube and finally had a drink from our sugar water. She must’ve been famished
and so thirsty by now. With a full social stomach, she did what any ant would naturally
do, which is find a way back to the colony one last time to share her goods, but again
it was no use. There was just no way out. It was getting really late, so I decided to
go to bed and check up on the ant in the morning, as well as prepare for its reintroduction
to the colony. At sunrise, I checked up on our fire ant.
My biggest fear was that she had died. Looking around the isolation enclosure, it took me
a moment to find her. She was resting in our shelter. She must’ve found the place overnight.
She’d been through so much. But suddenly, a vibration caught her by surprise,
followed by a commotion, and then a very familiar smell. With renewed life, she ran towards
the entrance, almost shouting through the glass at her fellow sister ants who were now
pouring into the isolation chamber. Before long, a fellow worker ant made first contact
and seemed rather interested in her status. Perhaps she smelled different, because in
just the 12 hours her colony scent must’ve faded a bit. She had so much to tell and a
social stomach full of sugar water to share with the colony! As she stepped out into the open atrium of
the test tube portal, fellow sisters came around to inspect her, intrigued by what she
smelled like and had to communicate to them. What surprised me most, was that instead of
going straight home, she proceeded to enter the sugar test tube, not to drink, but as
if to say “Here, guys! This is where I found the sweet stuff!” She didn’t drink, but
decided it was now time to head back home, and before I knew it, I’d lost her in the
crowd, but I knew she must’ve been so happy to be back. It was heartwarming to know that our ant had
fallen right back into place, becoming once again a contributing member of its massive
society of ants. I felt gratitude to our fire ant subject for allowing us to discover what
we’d seen today. As I watched the Phoenix Empire feed together
on sugar water, I began to think about us people. It seems a lot of us being isolated
at home has brought on the cabin fever big time, but what’s even greater than that,
is the fact that real life human interaction and physical contact has been reduced, and
many of us are now missing it. I know I am. Before the pandemic, a lot of us were going
about our days’ business, absorbed on our mobiles every day on social media, often super
disconnected from the physical world we lived in and were part of. But now that we’ve
been subjected to actual physical disconnection, where our human interactions have been reduced
to zoom birthday parties and Tiktok posts, I believe many of us are now realizing the
value of being physically connected to each other in the real world, how great we had
it when we could just go out and hang with our friends, talk casually with co-workers
by the water station, and hug our loved ones. As the saying goes, you don’t appreciate
something until it’s gone. Once life goes back to normal, I’ve decided to more greatly
appreciate real life interaction, in gratitude that the human species is not only smart enough
to invent all these magnificent things like the internet and our mobiles that surf it,
but also wise enough to realize, that being physically present and around each other,
being a contributing and interacting member of our global human colony, is truly an awesome
gift and an inescapable part of who we are. Thank you for watching, and supporting the
ants. It’s ant love forever! AC Family, did you enjoy today’s episode?
I truly felt bad for our isolated ant and was happy to see it rejoin the colony! So
much more is ahead for the Phoenix Empire and other creatures of the ant room, so if
you haven’t yet, do SMASH that SUBSCRIBE button and BELL ICON now, and hit ALL so you
get notified at every upload. Also don’t forget to hit the LIKE button every single
time including now. It would really mean a lot to me, guys. Thank you! AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie
for you here, if you would like to watch extended play footage of the worker ant during its
isolation period. And guys, did you know that it’s anting
season in the Northern Hemisphere, and you don’t even need to leave your home to start
an ant colony?! You can catch pregnant queen ants from the safety of your own backyard,
balcony, or open window starting this month! 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, so you can get the most out of your ant keeping experience. We ship
worldwide and also offer full email support if you need our help! We also have a helpful
forum and ant colony trading marketplace on the site. Visit AntsCanada.com today. And now it’s time for the AC Question of
the Week. Last week, we asked: Which of the flavours would you choose if
you were an ant? Congratulations to S B A Channel who answered: I prefer brown sugar because it’s tasty! Congratulations S B A Channel, you just won
a free Ultimate Ant Keeping handbook from our shop! In this week’s AC Question of the Week we
ask: What do you miss most when separated from
the world and society? Leave your answer in the comments section
and you could also win a free e-book handbook from our shop! Hope you could 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. It’s ant love forever!
S A D
U won’t believe what happens next...
Must save
C r y (can ants even cry in our colony?)
Cruel