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Interesting fact of the day: if you put butter on an ant he, along with every other ant in the colony, will think he is dead. He will either walk over to the ant graveyard himself or be carried there by another ant. The ant will usually stay there until the butter wears off.
The reason for this is that butter is 35% Oleic Acid. This is the Fatty Acid responsible for triggering this response.
@freemo
What... what does it mean 'the ant think its dead'? Like 'oh, I'm dead, lets get to work on that'? I wonder what could lead to evolve such a response... must look into it.
#enthomology is for crazy people.
#til , thanks!
@freemo Yeah, I understand the etology, it's just so crazy to think that a being can think of it not being. Woah.
@arteteco haha yea. though I dont think that is really whats happening. I think the smell just means "Move that thing over there". Since they smell it on themselves they move themselves over there. But I am not convinced they actually have much of a concept of dead and alive itself. Maybe though.
@arteteco It means he walks over to the ant graveyard (where ants put their dead) and stays there. If he doesnt walk over on his own other ants will carry him there and he is content to stay.