Enrichment for my ants.
I’ve filled an extra wide tube with wet sand and connected it to my Dorymyrmex bureni colony’s outworld. This is to simulate the sandy soil where they dig deep nests in the wild. I hope they will start digging— if they do I’ll connect a little nest on the other end so they can move in. The tube is vertical and three feet long. I will update if they make progress.
This is the bookshelf where they live. The tube runs down the shelf giving them a place to dig a very deep nest if they want to.
UPDATE: (10 min later) The first ant has discovered the sand tube! They always find anything new so quickly. She’s on her way back now to tell her sisters what she has found.
Watching them run down the long tube it’s hard not to think they seem excited. They always move with so much haste!
UPDATE II: Now there are five of them. Still deciding what to do. More and more ants make the long trek down the tube to check out the sand layer.
Ants don't give each other orders or commands. Every ants takes in the information and options based on the actions of her sisters and decides what she wants to do.
But they act together so well. Like they have a discord where they are discussing and planning everything. The trek to the sand tube is long. Longer than their whole outworld. They found the new region in mins. They are planning how to use it best even now.
I love ants so much!
