By Rajni Pandey | July 8, 2024
Last year, researchers discovered ants using antibiotics, and now they have observed them performing life-saving amputations on injured nestmates.
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Researchers have confirmed through experiments that the medical treatments ants provide to each other, including surgeries, significantly increase their survival rates.
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Ants provide astonishingly complex and precise medical care, diagnosing and treating wounds over extended periods.
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"Ants can diagnose a wound, see if it's infected or sterile, and treat it accordingly," says behavioral ecologist Erik Frank.
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Ants treat tibia wounds by holding the injured limb and licking the wound for extended periods to clean it and improve survival rates.
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For severe femur injuries, ants perform amputations by repeatedly biting the limb until it is severed, boosting survival from 40% to 90%.
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Ants selectively amputate only femur injuries, not tibia wounds, which require more cleaning due to faster bacterial entry.
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Ants display innate cooperative behavior, presenting injured limbs for cleaning and amputation, an evolved strategy to combat infections.
Representative Image: Canva