Projects > About the project
This ant project is a personal study to the topography of ants. This means that it is focused on the exact locations of the ant nests, ant roads and food sources but also objects and structures in the ant's environment.
Why?
As explained in the history of this project it is amazing that ants, especially wood ants, build nests and road structures with enormous proportions. The ants build these structures on a way that is very similar to the human urban development. The ants cooperate individually, but nest do also work together in these structures or super colonies. This brings up a lot of questions. What we know is that the ants do this to survive. But one question is how do they do it? And maybe more interesting: is there a universal method for building urban systems?
Hypothesis
I believe that ants, especially wood ants, are able to build systems of nests and roads with almost mathematical precision because ants follow a universal natural guideline for geographical patterns that is also used by human urban development.
Method
The way to find prove is to collect topographical information of wood ant super colonies. This information is gathered in a geographical information system (GIS) to make it possible to compare super colonies with each other and with human structures. The information gathering process exist by the following steps:
- Mapping and register all individual nest
- Mapping road structures
- Monitor the nests and road structures
See also:
Results
The result of the field work and GIS contains detailed maps, information on distribution of ants at the sites and development of the individual nests. Some of this information is published on this website to share with organizations and anyone who is interested. The results are also useful for:
- People who protect the ants
- Forrest rangers to monitor the environment
- Studying distribution and transport methods
Conclusions
There is to less information gathered to draw any conclusions yet.
