14 DAY TRIAL // In a paper published in the latest issue of the respected scientific journal Animal Behavior, experts detail the amazing smelling abilities of Tunisian desert ants. The creatures are part of a larger group of animals that can sense two different smells, coming from two different directions, at the same time. This allows them to process a mental odor map of their surroundings inside their nerve cells, permitting them to always find their way back home, the BBC News reports.
The ability in itself is not rare. Many animals, including humans, can smell in “stereo,” but these ants are the first creatures discovered that can navigate based on a map they created using this ability. The new work was conducted by German researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, in Jena, who were led by experts Dr Markus Knaden, Dr Kathrin Steck and professor Bill Hansson. Their investigation focused on the interesting desert ant Cataglyphis fortis. The experts kept track of how the ant moved, and also of how it approached its surroundings.
These insects are very reliant on their smell, the group said. Each single day, members of a nest need to travel in excess of 100 meters from their colony, in order to find food. The researchers were amazed at the ability they seemed to posses, of returning straight home with the food they recovered, without wining from the path. They are somehow able to detect the tiny entrance to their nest in a uniform landscape, where not many features exist to be taken as landmarks and reference points. Experts have up to this point believed that the insects were reliant on visual clues to do this, but the new study showed that a lot more factors were at work.
In their experiments, the researchers placed four different odors around a nest entrance, and watched the ants navigate their way back home flawlessly. Then they removed the odors, and placed them somewhere else, away from the nest. The ants immediately headed to the new location, proving that they navigate by the smell. When the four scents were mixed up, the ants became confused, and unable to navigate their way home. The experts also subjected ants with a single antenna to the test, and determined that having only one sensory device was insufficient for orientation.