Ants can learn to forage on one-way trails.

The trails formed by many ant species between nest and food source are two-way roads on which outgoing and returning workers meet and touch each other all along. The way to get back home, after grasping a food load, is to take the same route on which they have arrived from the nest. In many species...

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Autores principales:	Pedro Leite Ribeiro, André Frazão Helene, Gilberto Xavier, Carlos Navas, Fernando Leite Ribeiro
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2009
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/00c63c98af5b4b3cb486dd4b76fe7386
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:00c63c98af5b4b3cb486dd4b76fe73862021-11-25T06:16:24ZAnts can learn to forage on one-way trails.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0005024https://doaj.org/article/00c63c98af5b4b3cb486dd4b76fe73862009-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/19337369/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203The trails formed by many ant species between nest and food source are two-way roads on which outgoing and returning workers meet and touch each other all along. The way to get back home, after grasping a food load, is to take the same route on which they have arrived from the nest. In many species such trails are chemically marked by pheromones providing orientation cues for the ants to find their way. Other species rely on their vision and use landmarks as cues. We have developed a method to stop foraging ants from shuttling on two-way trails. The only way to forage is to take two separate roads, as they cannot go back on their steps after arriving at the food or at the nest. The condition qualifies as a problem because all their orientation cues -- chemical, visual or any other -- are disrupted, as all of them cannot but lead the ants back to the route on which they arrived. We have found that workers of the leaf-cutting ant Atta sexdens rubropilosa can solve the problem. They could not only find the alternative way, but also used the unidirectional traffic system to forage effectively. We suggest that their ability is an evolutionary consequence of the need to deal with environmental irregularities that cannot be negotiated by means of excessively stereotyped behavior, and that it is but an example of a widespread phenomenon. We also suggest that our method can be adapted to other species, invertebrate and vertebrate, in the study of orientation, memory, perception, learning and communication.Pedro Leite RibeiroAndré Frazão HeleneGilberto XavierCarlos NavasFernando Leite RibeiroPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 4, Iss 4, p e5024 (2009)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Pedro Leite Ribeiro André Frazão Helene Gilberto Xavier Carlos Navas Fernando Leite Ribeiro Ants can learn to forage on one-way trails.
description	The trails formed by many ant species between nest and food source are two-way roads on which outgoing and returning workers meet and touch each other all along. The way to get back home, after grasping a food load, is to take the same route on which they have arrived from the nest. In many species such trails are chemically marked by pheromones providing orientation cues for the ants to find their way. Other species rely on their vision and use landmarks as cues. We have developed a method to stop foraging ants from shuttling on two-way trails. The only way to forage is to take two separate roads, as they cannot go back on their steps after arriving at the food or at the nest. The condition qualifies as a problem because all their orientation cues -- chemical, visual or any other -- are disrupted, as all of them cannot but lead the ants back to the route on which they arrived. We have found that workers of the leaf-cutting ant Atta sexdens rubropilosa can solve the problem. They could not only find the alternative way, but also used the unidirectional traffic system to forage effectively. We suggest that their ability is an evolutionary consequence of the need to deal with environmental irregularities that cannot be negotiated by means of excessively stereotyped behavior, and that it is but an example of a widespread phenomenon. We also suggest that our method can be adapted to other species, invertebrate and vertebrate, in the study of orientation, memory, perception, learning and communication.
format	article
author	Pedro Leite Ribeiro André Frazão Helene Gilberto Xavier Carlos Navas Fernando Leite Ribeiro
author_facet	Pedro Leite Ribeiro André Frazão Helene Gilberto Xavier Carlos Navas Fernando Leite Ribeiro
author_sort	Pedro Leite Ribeiro
title	Ants can learn to forage on one-way trails.
title_short	Ants can learn to forage on one-way trails.
title_full	Ants can learn to forage on one-way trails.
title_fullStr	Ants can learn to forage on one-way trails.
title_full_unstemmed	Ants can learn to forage on one-way trails.
title_sort	ants can learn to forage on one-way trails.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2009
url	https://doaj.org/article/00c63c98af5b4b3cb486dd4b76fe7386
work_keys_str_mv	AT pedroleiteribeiro antscanlearntoforageononewaytrails AT andrefrazaohelene antscanlearntoforageononewaytrails AT gilbertoxavier antscanlearntoforageononewaytrails AT carlosnavas antscanlearntoforageononewaytrails AT fernandoleiteribeiro antscanlearntoforageononewaytrails
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Ants can learn to forage on one-way trails.

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