An Abandoned Nuclear Power Plant Taken Over By Ants Left Scientists Stunned
When scientists visited an abandoned nuclear power plant in Poland, they expected to find a colony of ants. What they found instead surprised them. Keep reading to learn about the colony of ants that they found inside, and the extreme lengths the ants took for survival.
The Polish Scientists Intended To Observe Bats
Back in 2013, a group of Polish scientists made a journey to an abandoned bunker where they assumed they were going to be able to observe a colony of bats that they were studying.
The bunker had been part of a now-abandoned nuclear power plant, and the team wasn't entirely sure what they might find. The facility was now overgrown and home to a variety of different creatures.
Instead, They Discovered Millions Of Ants
While the scientists may have been looking for bats, what they found was something entirely different. They discovered that the place was covered with ants. There were millions crawling all around the bunker.
While most people might not see this unusual, however, what made this particularly strange is that they had been trapped inside without any of the resources necessary to survive. Even ants need some basic resources in order to continue living.
Two Years Later, The Colony Hadn't Died Off
The team didn't think much more of the ants, considering that there wasn't much that they could do for them. Assuming they would eventually die out, they left the bunker and the ants that were trapped within it.
However, when the team returned to the same power plant two years later to check on the ants out of curiosity, they were astonished by what they found. Amazingly, the ant colony hadn't died off yet, and their numbers showed no signs of dwindling.
The Scientists Had No Idea How The Ants Could Survive
Instead of the ants slowly dying out like the scientists had assumed that they would, it opposite had happened. The ants appeared to be thriving, and their numbers had at least doubled from their last visit to the power plant two years prior.
There were no clear signs of food or water, so the team was completely clueless how this phenomenon managed to take place.
The Ants Had Survived And Even Multipled
Regardless that the ants had access to virtually no food and water, it wasn't utterly unbelievable that they were still alive. Ants are incredibly resilient and resourceful creatures, one of the reasons that they have been in existence for so long.
Some colonies have been found inside walls, under concrete, and even inside a car engine. But for these ants' situation, this still all seemed like a bit of a stretch. On top of that, they had multiplied!
The Ants Did The Unthinkable
This particular colony of ants had no choice and they either needed to adapt to their surroundings or die. Even though it might have seemed like an impossible task, these minuscule insects managed to find a way.
Programmed to do what they needed to do to survive, the ants did the unthinkable. When it comes to starvation, almost all creatures will go to extreme lengths to eat in order to survive.
Every Ant For Himself
As it turns out, these trapped ants resorted to eating their own kind as a source of food. The colony began partaking in cannibalism on the bodies of their fellow ants. Some of the ants, both alive and dead, showed evidence of bite marks from other ants.
This would provide the answer to not only how the ants had survived for so long, but how the colony managed to double since the last time that the researchers encountered them.
Specific Wounds
Incredibly, the cannibalistic wounds that were found on the deceased ants all seemed to be around one specific area, the abdomen. While this may seem random, scientists have discovered an explanation for why this might be.
As it turns out, ants share their resources with one another more so than most other creatures on planet Earth. The reasoning behind this might prove to be more gruesome than most people think.
Why The Abdomen?
While most people might assume that the ants began eating each other for the simple reason to survive, it's actually a lot darker than that.
Experts claim that the reason the ants were specifically taking bites out of the abdomens of the other ants was that they believed that the stomach contents of the other ants belonged to them as well. This is why it didn't take long for this colony of ants to resort to cannibalism.
An Impressive Means Of Survival
No matter how gruesome it may seem, the scientists were undoubtedly impressed by the resilience of these insects. Not only was it resourceful, but it proved to be incredibly effective.
Ants are insects that are programmed to survive and thrive "even under conditions going far beyond the limits of the survival of the species." For example, some ant colonies have even managed to survive floods by creating rafts made up entirely of their own bodies.
Further Understanding
The discovery and documentation of the colony of cannibalistic ants proved to be useful to fellow researchers, especially those who study the behaviors of ants and other insects.
They claimed that the findings "add a dimension to the great adaptive ability of ants to marginal habitats and suboptimal conditions, as the key to understanding their unquestionable eco-evolutionary success." It helped to prove that ants are truly a remarkable species far more capable than many people believe.
