14 DAY TRIAL // In a classic case of David versus Goliath, a certain type of ants has recently been shown capable of deterring elephants from eating Acacia drepanolobium trees.
At first, very few people believe that the small insects can have any possible influence on a creature countless times larger than they are. However, this indeed appears to be the case.
According to a group of researchers, it would appear that ants purposefully swarm inside the nostrils and trunk of elephants, biting and nibbling around until the aggressor gives up trying to eat the plant.
This leads to the creation of a very peculiar sight in the savanna, where most of the vegetation is exterminated when elephants roll by. The only trees that remain are Acacia drepanolobium.
Experts say that this happens because the vegetation has developed a close and personal relationship with ants, creating a symbiosis that is mutually beneficial, LiveScience reports.
While the trees provide the ants with shelter and sweet nectar, the ant colonies make sure that no predator destroys the plant and its leafs.
Whenever elephants approach, the ants begin swarming on their bodies, and then head directly for the most sensitive parts of the beast's snout. While the trunk is harsh on the outside, it is very sensitive on the inside.
It contains a lot of nerve endings, which are very sensitive to ant bites. As such, no elephant can withstand the torture for too long, and prefer to walk away than be subjected to such harsh treatment.
“Ants swarming onto an herbivore's face often tend to head for the sensitive parts such as the nostrils before hunkering down and taking a bite out of the offending animal,” expert Todd Palmer says.
“While the outside of an elephant's trunk is very tough, the inside of the trunk is very sensitive and full of” nerve endings,” explains the researcher, who is a professor of biology at the University of Florida.
“It seems that elephants simply do not like ants swarming up the insides of their trunks,” adds Palmer, who was also a researcher on the new study.
He conducted the research alongside University of Wyoming colleague Jacob Goheen. Details of the work appear in the latest issue of the esteemed scientific journal Current Biology.
“The ants protect the tree in exchange for both housing that the tree produces in the form of bulbous hollow thorns, as well as food in the form of a sugary nectar that is secreted at the base of the leaves,” explains Palmer.
“We found the elephants like to eat the 'ant plant' trees just as much as they like to eat their favorite tree species, and that when either tree species had ants on them, the elephants avoided those trees like a kid avoids broccoli," he concludes.