I’ve always found ants incredibly fascinating — the way they can climb across nearly any surface and in any direction; the way they use their antennae to communicate; their ability to lift up a hundred times or more their own body weight; and especially how they can work as a group on a level that rivals almost every other animal, even humans.
Christy Bowyer shared on The Coalition for Animal Rights website an observation that she called, “The ants that refuse to leave each other behind.” It starts with a plastic water bottle teeming with life and it ultimately sheds light on why ants are some of the most fascinating and successful creatures on our planet.
“Tiny ants clung to its plastic walls above the waterline, squeezing together in silence,” Bowyer recounts. “At first, I felt irritation. Were they abandoning each other to drown? I muttered about their callousness, imagining them only out for themselves. But something in their calm discipline stopped me. I watched as the morning light touched each dark back, and my heart shifted.”
Bowyer observes how dozens of ants gathered into a single living raft on the water’s surface, the insects locked leg-to-leg and body-to-body, forming “a tangled tapestry of tiny creatures.” It was evident that every tiny life was worth saving, there was no hierarchy of value: worker, baby, or queen — each was equally precious on that raft.
“Not one is struggling or alone; they have built themselves a buoyant island out of solidarity,” Bowyer continues. “In that still water, they moved as one, an astonishing testament to shared sacrifice. My earlier judgement crumbled as I realized: this was no act of selfish escape, but a communal rescue mission.”
Interestingly, in response to floods, ants can assemble themselves like this in as little as 100 seconds, and if necessary, they can remain in raft formation for weeks until floodwaters subside.
Entomologists call such behavior “altruistic” – literally ants acting as a single super-organism. In the lab, researchers observe that no single ant is in charge when these rafts form. Instead, each one instinctively takes a turn swimming or floating, so every member of the colony survives. Even the queen and the youngest brood are carried safely on top – all members of the colony, from eggs and larvae to worker and queen, rise together.
Named for a famed group of Bantu warriors, the Matabele ant is renowned as a fierce fighter. But the sub-Saharan termite-hunter also shows a caring side. Researchers have found that it will tend to the wounds of nest-mates.
When a termite soldier injures a Matabele ant, something that happens frequently during raids on mounds, the wounded ant releases a “help” pheromone that triggers ants nearby to come to her aid. Injured ants are carried back to the nest, where other ants then “lick” the site of the injury with their mouth appendages, helping to ward off infection.
The only other animals that have been observed systematically treating others’ injuries are humans and some of our primate relatives. In other words, ants and humans share what biologists call a convergent trait: caring for another in need.
If we could embrace some of the ideologies that these tiny creatures are humbly living every day, we would find ourselves learning to be a more efficient and cooperative society. These little critters have a thing or two to teach us if we only pay attention.
“Everybody in the ant world is important.,” wrote T.J. Blackman in Eartheasy. “Each ant specializes in a certain task within the colony whether it be guarding the queen, foraging for food, or removing the waste. Yet, the ants operate as one seamless organism. This is a great example of individuality being essential to the overall function of a society and yet it does not usurp it. One could call this perfect social balance.”
Ants do not take on tasks that they cannot handle. If a load is too big to handle alone, the lone ant signals to the others that it needs help. Sometimes it takes a lot of ants to move that bread crust. From ants we can learn that a graceful act of sharing can make the whole journey of being human so much easier.
If an ant loses its way back to the nest, it does not live long. Like ourselves, the ant is a highly socialized creature that depends on its place within the whole where generosity, selfless devotion and a strong sense of community are the norm.
Ants show us that even the smallest beings will support each other without complaint, without expecting glory. If insects can act so nobly, surely we humans can learn to respect and protect one another with the same unspoken loyalty.
The quiet lifeboat formed in the water bottle reminds us that life on Earth is interconnected: No one should be left behind or treated as expendable. In honoring that truth, we embrace a better kind of kindness.
Ultimately, the world’s survival depends on our willingness to carry each other’s burdens, to see every life as worthy. Ants are truly outstanding teachers of humility: They show us that true strength lies in lifting others.
Dr. William Kolbe, an Andover resident, is a retired high school and college teacher and former Peace Corps volunteer in Tonga and El Salvador. He can be reached at bila.kolbe9@gmail.com.