Scientists were shocked when they discovered an uninhabited mega-city beneath the earth after pumping a load of cement into an abandoned ant hill.
The experiment took place over three days, with a total of 10 tonnes being put into the ground as part of the documentary titled Ants! Nature’s Secret Power, and when they finished, they couldn’t believe the size of what the discovered.
Completely built up by the insects themselves, the anthill’s mould would take some careful digging to get it out of the ground, with it taking several weeks to ensure that the huge city would be untouched.
The scientists then uncovered the shape of the structure, which had been filled up and solidified by concrete, they examined just how precise and detailed the six-legged insects were in constructing the colossal city.
But how big is it exactly?
Apparently, the self-built environment was 50 square metres in size, stretching down eight metres underground, with all structures connecting by a series of tunnels, as well as chambers with rooms for different purposes.
For ants wanting to get around while dodging most of their colleagues there were even side roads for the insects to scuttle around in – what a life, eh?
All of this might make you think it was constructed by one mind with a particular goal of how the mega-city should look, but it was instead constructed by ‘the collective will of the ant colony’.
The massive anthill had tunnels, chambers and even side roads. (ORF Enterprise)
Right beneath the ground we walk on thousands of little creatures were toiling together in the dark to scrabble out an incredibly complex construction.
Even more incredibly, while it took 10 tonnes of concrete to fill out the abandoned mega-city experts estimated that the ants shifted a whopping 40 tonnes of dirt to clear out space for their home.
You might be wondering just how they managed to do that and the answer is that ants are incredibly strong, able to carry between 10 and 50 times their own weight.
Their neck joints in particular can withstand pressure of up to 5,000 times the creature’s own weight before giving way.
A big amount of dirt to shift requires a big workforce and with thousands of ants as a construction team this colony was able to construct themselves a mega-city.
Clearing the mega-city out took weeks of digging just to uncover how big it really was. (ORF Enterprise)
However, with the experts discovering the place abandoned your next question might be why ants abandon a perfectly good anthill.
The most common reasons for a colony of ants to skedaddle from their carefully constructed mega-city beneath the ground is the danger posed either by predators or damaging disasters.
Anthills can be invaded by other ants or creatures that want to break in and feed on the insects larvae, while weather conditions can risk flooding the nest and rendering it unsafe.
If people mess with anthills the colony of insects inside can also get the message that they’re not in a safe location, resulting in them upping sticks and moving.
