OMG!
Once again, I can't believe what I managed to film this week.
What do you do when your friend who owns a pet store calls you up and says he's got a
new animal corpse to give you?
Well, logically, you take it of course, and offer it as a gift to your massive pet fire
ant colony!
Meet the Fire Nation, undoubtedly my most ravenous, meat-hungry, prolific, and aggressive
ant colony of my Ant Room.
Time and time again, they've torn up and eaten every single animal I've placed into their
territories: a hamster, a cockroach Christmas Tree, a bird-eater tarantula, a chicken head,
and even a mouse!
And so, AC Family, this week, next in line for them to devour was something they'd never
before had, and what they ended up doing to it, will leave your jaw on the floor, just
as it did mine!
You'll see exactly what I mean at the end of this video!
Brace yourselves, everyone, as we enter the hot Selva de Fuego, the epic paludarium kingdom
of the Fire Nation fire ants, to place some dragon meat into the fire, here on the AntsCanada
Ant Channel!
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Welcome to the AC Family!
Enjoy!
Welcome everyone to the Selva de Fuego, the Amazon river jungle territories and long term
home of my fire ant colony called the Fire Nation.
The Fire Nation, a governing colony of red tropical fire ants, whose species is known
to biologists as Solenopsis geminata, is not one to play around, particularly on this special
night when they decided to have a full out nuptial flight in their enclosure.
Virgin queens and males emerge from the nest in hopes to breed and start new fire ant colonies
of their own.
We saw in a previous video how they attempted to fly and mate, but thankfully weren't actually
mating for some reason, perhaps because conditions weren't right or they naturally don't mate
with their own siblings.
Thank goodness, though because I don't know what I'd do if more colonies of Fire Ants,
born from the Fire Nation here, began to spring up in my home.
I'd literally probably end up being eaten alive, something many of you have either joked
about or expressed legit fears of in the comments!
Fire ants, which hail from the tropical jungles of South America happen to be top predators
in the ecosystems they are part of, as well as very important scavengers.
They devour insects, other invertebrates, the unlucky rodent and bird.
Any person who's had the misfortune of being stung by these ants, like yours truly every
single time I work around them, can testify that they are definitely ants that mean business!
They can quite easily conquer any unsuspecting, injured, or dead animal and reduce it to bones.
This used to be a mouse!
So, guys, you're about to see this incredible process now.
I have a great gift for the Fire Nation as a sort of celebratory sacrifice and thank
you present for graciously deciding to forego breeding in my home.
This is going to be crazy!
AC Family, behold!
A fire breathing dragon!
Well okay, it's a monitor lizard.
It's just a juvenile and it happened to have passed away at my friend's pet store.
The carcass is pretty impressive itself!
It's entire body was covered in very tough scales, so it was going to be interesting
to see just how the Fire Nation was going to burrow into this thing to get inside!
My guess was it was going to enter through the eyes, ears, nose, or mouth.
Alright, AC Family, are you ready to do this?
Let's get to it!
1 - 2 - 3!
I fixated the monitor lizard atop the entanglement of branch work just above their main mothernest,
trying my best to work quickly before the swarm came.
There we go!
And now to watch the magic happen!
The fire ants immediately began to board the monitor lizard, inspecting its peculiar scales
that covered its whole carcass.
This was the very first time these fire ants had ever come in contact with a reptile or
tasted reptile meat, so naturally, they rushed to the scene excitedly, ready to chow down
on some dragon flesh!
Fire ants raced in from all areas of the territories to check out the new bounty that had fallen
from the skies.
And so began the great dissection!
Wow!
Check out that super major using its jaws to bite off a scale.
It seemed like that was the primary objective at the moment!
Bite into the softer areas of the skin between the scales.
More and more reinforcements arrived on location to help with the dissection.
Isn't it amazing watching all the ants cooperating at finding a weak spot in the leathery skin
of the lizard?
I knew that as soon as one of these ants found a way into this giant lizard carcass, it would
surely let the others know of the gateway it had discovered to their grand draconian
feast!
One hour later, it was clear that the biggest talk of the kingdom was now the monitor lizard
carcass we had given them.
Have a look!
Even ants from the neighbouring satellite nests had formed trails to and from the great
dead dragon, which would provide the colony a tonne of nourishment for days to come.
Look at that swarm of ants all trying to get in.
So what do you guys think?
How many days do you think it will take the Fire Nation to finish this lizard?
Leave your guesses in the comments and go back to it later to let us know if you guessed
right!
Now wanna hear something cool, AC Family?
The reason why all this meat is super valuable to the fire ants is because over the past
few months leading up to breeding season, a great deal of the protein the ants collected
in their diet was used up to create the alates, the virgin queen and male reproductives which
generally speaking are quite nutritionally expensive for the colony to grow and upkeep.
I mean look how large they are compared to the other regular ants.
The alates require a lot of food and particularly protein, and so for months the colony had
to invest a great deal of their protein collection into these alates.
But now that breeding season is coming to an end, the Fire Nation producing these nutrient-demanding
reproductives is no longer a priority, and all protein acquired from the ants' diet can
once again, go towards feeding the queen as usual so she could pump out more eggs, as
well as all the larvae of the colony, so they can grow into adult worker ants as quickly
as possible, growing their numbers more and more!
And that AC Family, is why these fire ants are eager to get into this massive lizard
body.
They are all on a mission to grow their nation even bigger and more powerful.
I resolved to let the ants feed in peace and come back later to check up on their progress.
I was riveted at the sight of the workers all working hard with their mandibles to penetrate
the lizard's thick leathery skin.
Check it out, AC Family!
Through the night ants were busy making their way to the lizard from the nest hoping to
bore a hole into the carcass so they could finally start feeding.
Some late flier alates had decided to emerge from the nest tonight, to hopefully get their
last shot at nuptial flying, but the workers clearly had their minds on just one thing,
and it wasn't catering to these alates.
They wanted in, and the workers were not going to stop until they were!
It was just amazing to watch the night shift at work!
I had a feeling it wouldn't take the fire ants much longer to create that hole into
the lizard's body.
Could you imagine being one of these ants?
Normally they would be working in complete darkness here, but regardless of an absence
of light, they all still are able to work as effectively as they would in the day.
If you were wondering if ants sleep, yes, they take short few minute naps several times
a day and adjust according to work load demand, and tonight it looks like a lot less ants
will be napping here in the Selva de Fuego, and that's how it will be until the lizard
is finally consumed.
Perhaps that would be by morning?
I went to bed and when morning came, you guys won't believe what I woke up to when I came
back to check up on them the next day.
A swinging arm?!
Was this a zombie lizard?
Obviously, not, but the fire ants had not only managed to burrow into the lizard's body
over night, but were now in the limbs gnawing at the joint of this arm, making it move!
How gruesome!
In fact, looking at the lizard's body, the ants had successfully managed to burrow into
several places of the lizard's torso.
Whoa!
Oh, they've eaten the back legs and were feasting on that tail.
And, I was right!
As expected, the fire ants did manage to burrow through the lizard's eyes, nose, and ears.
Hope you guys aren't eating right now, but look at that rib cage!
Wow!
They were eating through the lizard's lungs now and had ploughed a huge gaping hole right
through to the other side.
Appendages had been almost entirely stripped of flesh.
And it seemed the majority of the meat now lay here in this section of the gut and base
of the tail.
Mmmmmm!
And guys check out this bird's eye view!
From the top, you could see that the ants had been busy eating holes through the lizard's
body through its back.
Whoa!
You could totally see its spine and rib cage!
The Fire Nation are just savages!
As gross as all of this was, it was amazing to see the ants working into the carcass in
such detail with my 4K camera.
Again, take a moment to imagine being one of these ants, with your face and body, thorax
deep into the rotting flesh of this smelly lizard carcass.
But for these ants, this is gourmet, and a dish they've never before tasted!
If you were one of these ants, you'd be rejoicing at the smells and flavours, because this is
utter heaven to your fire ant palatte!
So how were they bringing all the food back to the nest?
Well, ants came rushing up the branches following a very thick pheromone trail laid down by
thousands of ants before it, and came to the carcass to gorge themselves on the lizard
meat.
Now here they had two options.
One was to simply feed and fill up the first of their two stomachs, i.e. their social stomach.
Once their social stomach was full, they could return to the nest and distribute the food
by regurgitating its contents into the mouths of other ants, the queen, and larvae.
Or the other option, was to get your mandibles around a fat chunk of meat, dislodge it from
the carcass using your mandibles as a saw, and carry the lizard meat nugget home for
further processing.
It's a bit of a trek down back to the nest carrying the huge chunk in your mouth, but
you do get to bring back more meat home than if you were to stuff your social stomach.
And look!
They've begun creating piles of lizard meat chunks on the surface of the nest.
I suppose it's a quicker system to just dump what you've carved out of the carcass into
a pile for others to carry into the nest, so you can rush on back to the site to carve
out more lizard meat chunks.
Let's see if the lizard would be completely finished by night!
Right now, it seemed the fire ants were making good time on this major operation.
It wasn't going to be much longer now.
The ants worked fastidiously through the night, carving out the remaining meat from the lizard.
I forgot to mention that the Ant Room stank of decaying flesh throughout this entire process
since day 1!
It was disgusting for me to smell, but I'm sure it was heaven for these ants that relentlessly
worked through the night to feed on the lizard.
It was important that the ants process this lizard meat as soon as possible, to ensure
other thieves don't try to take it from them!
With a carcass this smelly, it would surely attract birds, other reptiles, insects, and
even other ants, but the Fire Nation would be ready to defend this bounty at all costs!
And based on my experience, nobody messes with a huge colony of fire ants, not wild
ants, not geckos running loose in my home, not even flies!
There were no maggots found on the carcass at all over the past 2 days, which meant the
fire ants were diligent at shooing the flies away!
Had this been a sole decaying lizard without the Fire Nation eating it, this would have
been riddled with maggots by now!
It was also interesting to see alates at the carcass, probably still hoping to mate.
The piles of lizard meat were growing in size now, and I was certain that by morning, this
lizard would be completely done with.
Day 3.
I approached the Selva de Fuego to check up on the state of the lizard.
Very few ants were on site now, which meant the ants had pretty much finished what they
could from the lizard's body.
The body cavity was completely hollowed out now, with only some skin and bone left in
place.
The legs were reduced to bones.
Remaining scavenger workers did their best to scrape every little last bit of meat they
could.
In nature, the remaining decaying parts inedible to the ants, would have been further broken
down by soil creatures, fungi, and microbes, but regardless, watching these fire ants reduce
this lizard carcass from this to this,
was a spectacle I would never forget.
What did you guys think of this process?
Was it gross or cool?
Or both?
What other things should I try feeding the Fire Nation?
The surge of protein from this lizard will nourish the colony for days!
The larvae will grow fat and extra quick, and the Fire Nation's egg-laying queen will
be able to produce and lay extra eggs, and the Fire Nation will continue to reign supreme
in these tropical Amazonian lands.
The droppings and leftovers of the ants will go on to nourish the plants of the Selva de
Fuego, and continue the cycling of nutrients within this contained ecosystem, whose members
are all interconnected and interdependent.
It's no wonder ants happen to be among the most important scavengers and predators in
the ecosystems they are part of.
The Fire Nation will always be my favourite ant colony of our Ant Room, and as long as
you guys continue watching these ant videos, participating in the polls, and helping me
with decisions that ultimately affect their individual fates, this ant keeping journey
will always be sacred and extra special!
Thank you AC Family, and until next week, it's ant love forever!
AC Family, did you enjoy today's episode?
I couldn't believe we were able to film what we filmed today!
Another epic ant story up ahead next week, so you know what to do!
Smash that SUBSCRIBE button and BELL ICON now for notifications, so you don't miss out
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It would really help a lot!
Speaking of ants, it's approaching the end of nuptial flight season in the Northern Hemisphere,
and a lot of you are catching queen ants now, and in case you didn't know, we've got all
the top of the line ant keeping gear for you ant keepers at all levels from beginner to
advanced, as well as a tonne of new and exciting products for the ant keeping community not
available anywhere else, so head on over to AntsCanada.com, and browse through our shop.
We ship worldwide, and offer full email support if you need us.
We also have ant colonies with a queen available in most regions, so go check us out and pick
up your ant farm kit and ant gear today!
If you're new to the channel, and want to catch up on all your AntsCanada Lore, feel
free to binge watch this complete story line playlist here, which traces the origins of
all the ant colonies of the ant room, so you can follow their stories and better appreciate
how these ant kingdoms came to be, and why we love them so much!
AC Inner Colony, I have left a hidden cookie for you here, if you'd like to watch the full,
extended play footage of the fire ants eating the lizard.
It's a pretty amazing process when watched in completion so do check it out!
And now it's time for the AC Question of the Week!
Last week we asked:
What other creatures other than the ants did we spot moving into the Ant Tower?
Congratulations to Dhruv who correctly answered:
"Mites"
Congratulations, Dhruv, you just won a free e-book handbook from our shop!
In this week's AC Question of the Week, we ask:
Why is the protein from this lizard valuable to the Fire Nation?
Leave your answer in the comments section and you could also win a free e-book handbook
from our shop!
Hope you can subscribe to the channel as we upload every Saturday at 8AM EST.
Please remember to LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE, and SUBSCRIBE if you enjoyed this video to help
us keep making more.
It's ant love forever!