OMG!
I can't believe what I managed to film this week.
So this video was supposed to be a regular holidays video of what I gave to all my pet
ant colonies of the ant room for Christmas, but it turned out to be something much more...
raw, and so utterly fascinating, that I just had to completely make this week's video about
this very event.
My massive pet fire ant colony, you guys have named the Fire Nation, is undoubtedly my most
ravenous, meat-hungry, prolific, and admittedly for some reason, the channel favourite, so
this year, I had to give them a gift they'd love.
Something that would beat the hamster I gave them two years ago, and the cockroach Christmas
Tree, I gave them last year.
And so, AC Family, this week, what they received for Christmas 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 firy Selva de Fuego, the epic paludarium kingdom
of the Fire Nation fire ants, here on the AntsCanada Ant Channel!
Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel and hit the BELL icon.
Welcome to the AC Family!
Enjoy!
Welcome everyone to the Selva de Fuego, the Amazon river paradise and home to a number
of interdependent creatures, including fish, snails, and shrimp.
But this thriving, living and bioactive river and waterfall are merely an installation to
benefit the real rulers of this entire rainforest plot of territory, known as the Selva de Fuego.
The Fire Nation, a governing colony of red tropical fire ants, whose species is known
to biologists as Solenopsis geminata.
They skate masterfully on the surface of the water like it's solid glass, a true display
of proficiency around the river which runs right through their lands, providing the colony
water and humidity.
It always amazes me watching them traveling to and from places on top of the water's surface,
setting up islands and resting stations on the giant floating water plants living in
their river.
But the Fire Nation's clever use of aquatic plants and active life around a large body
of water, is but one of many impressive and mind-blowing features, that make these fire
ants such satisfying creatures to own and observe.
I feel the biggest thing that has ultimately lead the Fire Nation to become the most popular
ant kingdom on this channel, is their ferocity and appetite for meat.
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, even small reptiles and amphibians, the unlucky
rodent and bird.
Any person who's had the misfortune of being stung by these ants can testify that they
are definitely ants that mean business!
And yes, I know from experience.
They can quite easily conquer any unsuspecting, injured, or dead animal and reduce it to bones,
and that, guys, is exactly what you're about to see now.
Meet, no pun intended, this year's Fire Nation's Christmas gift.
A raw chicken head, plucked of its feathers but still with its biological juices in tact.
I anticipate, they'll love this and tear it up to bits, leaving us with some bones to
clean up later.
Alright, AC Family, are you ready to do this?
Le's get to it!
1 - 2 - 3!
Placing the chicken head into the Selva de Fuego.
The fire ants immediately climb up the stick to inspect the fresh meat that they surely
could smell from below.
Now, of course, you would think that a ravenous, meat-hungry fire ant colony would immediately
rush in and completely swarm this delicious chicken morsel, tearing it to shreds, especially
the Fire Nation right?
But, hold on a minute, what the ants actually ended up doing, completely surprised me and
was quite peculiar!
Have a look.
For some odd reason most of the ants just stationed themselves along the stick and didn't
actually come near the chicken head.
Only a few ants were seen feeding from the chicken's meaty juices.
Why?
Can you believe our Fire Nation right now, there is a massive chunk of chicken meat at
their disposal and all they seem to want to do is, well, hang out below on the stick.
The Fire Nation has eaten cooked chicken before, but this was the first time they've ever had
raw chicken.
How out of character for the Fire Nation to not be just devouring this chicken head immediately
upon discovery, right guys?
Had this been my hand, they'd have been all over it!
Haha!
Looking at the surrounding vicinity, it did seem like message of the chicken had begun
to spread throughout the colony, as the Fire Nation seemed to be moving about, with that
very familiar sense of urgency I see, every time I place some food into the Selva de Fuego.
Ants had begun to travel from far corners of the kingdom, to come and check out what
all the buzz was about.
Ants were even traveling from their watery stations to come check out the chicken hype.
But if they were clearly showing interest in our chicken head, why would they not be
swarming the chicken head yet?
It didn't make any sense.
In fact, their apprehensiveness, was now forfeiting this chicken head to the vultures of the Anitverse,
i.e. these miniature flies which are perfect nurseries for their maggots to thrive off
of.
This chicken head could be perfect for a swarm of maggots to devour and completely steal
from the Fire Nation.
Hmmm...
I could see a few scouts eventually inspecting the chicken's comb and beak, but why wasn't
this chicken head just covered in fire ants by now?
Were the ants weary of this foreign chicken head for some reason?
Well, AC Family, the answer to that, will surprise you, and was going to come to us
in a little bit.
Meanwhile, while waiting for them to make their next move on our chicken head, let's
take a closer look at the Fire Nation workers.
Though we've featured the Fire Nation in many videos before, it's been awhile since we've
actually taken a close look at the impressiveness of the individual workers themselves, which
in my opinion are easily overlooked.
You may or may not know, fire ant workers like these members of the Fire Nation here,
are known to be what is called polymorphic, which means that there are various sizes of
workers from small minors to massive supermajors with big heads.
Though each worker caste shares similar jobs, some workers castes may be better at specific
tasks than others, for instance, the super majors like this one you see here may be better
at cutting food items open with their massive jaws and jaw muscles.
The smaller fire ants, the minors, may be better at handling tiny objects like eggs
and micro bits of food.
It does seem like these ants may be licking a drop of chicken blood that hit this stick
when I placed the chicken in.
But if they seemed to love the raw chicken blood what was the problem with the chicken?
Something about our chicken head was not right for the Fire Nation.
I couldn't imagine the Fire Nation being afraid of a lifeless, raw chicken head.
I was beginning to wonder if the Fire Nation was actually having cold feet.
Little did I know, that was exactly what it was, literally.
Because 20 minutes later, this is what I saw!
The Fire Nation had finally decided that the time was right for them to move in!
Alright!
The deconstruction of the chicken head had begun!
Ants were swarming in through the bottom, as well as chewing in from the skin of the
face, flies also seen taking full advantage of the carcass.
It finally occurred to me what had taken the fire ants so long to start swarming in.
AC Family, listen to this.
So these tropical fire ants actually have a cryptonite, and that cryptonite is cold.
Cold can actually kill them.
If the Fire Nation were to ever escape fully into my condo, all I would need to do is turn
on the air conditioning and they would all die.
And turns out this chicken head, was bought from my local grocery where it was kept cool
in the fridge, so that is why the fire ants took so long to advance in.
They were waiting until the chicken meat thawed to a safe temperature for them to be able
to start feeding.
Clever girls.
The flies were also quite interesting to watch through all of this.
Now that the fire ants had moved in to claim this chicken head theirs, finding a suitable
place to station, feed, and lay some eggs was tricky business.
The fire ants defended this valuable chunk of nourishment violently!
Check it out!
If I were this fly, I wouldn't be standing still in one spot for too long.
It's a good thing these flies have impeccable eye sight and lightning speed reflexes.
As I watched this fly which had managed to gorge itself on some of the chicken's bloody
fluids, which were actually visible through the fly's semi-transparent body, it made me
wonder how the fire ants were going to process this massive chicken head.
Were they going to bore holes through the chicken's ears to get to the meaty goodness
within?
Were they going to outcompete the perusing flies that were clearly wanting to lay their
eggs on this raw chicken head?
Would the chicken's mouth become a massive entrance into their meat excavation operations?
Only time would tell, but all I knew was that this process was going to be one of the coolest
things I've ever seen the Fire Nation execute.
5 hours later, I checked up on the progress.
Have look!
Oh wow!
Look at them!
They were so busy!
The ants were everywhere now, all over the chicken's face skin, feeding from the tissues,
entering through the ears, and just pouring in from the bottom of the head!
It was clear that the fire ants were loving this chicken head!
I couldn't wait to see them tearing it up gradually over time, and boy were they dedicated.
Over night the operations continued.
Dismantling this chicken head for distribution to the rest of the colony was a round the
clock job.
These ants were relentless and were not going to rest until the chicken head was completely
bare.
By now I could see swarms of ants feeding from within the mouth, entering through the
nose, entering and exiting through the ears, and teams of ants still pouring in from below.
It's no wonder ants are among the most successful organisms on the planet, as their team work
and tireless determination is truly exceptional in the natural world.
They actually have the pressure to break this huge meat source down as fast as possible,
because in the wild they risk losing it to larger hungry animals that might find this
chicken head tasty.
Fire ants, though notoriously perceived as hated pests by most people, are in fact, Mother
Nature's specially designed agents for the transitioning of animal matter back into the
earth.
What I saw the next morning kind of startled me.
Peeking into the Selva de Fuego, it was evident that the chicken head had begun to decay and
sort of dry up.
Of course, the ants were still hard at work, and flies still trying their best to get in
and find a safe spot to feed and lay eggs.
This sight kind of reminded me of the novel Lord of the Flies, wouldn't you say, guys?
But the startling thing about this entire scene was that the chicken's eyes were open!
OMG how creepy!
I guess the dehydration process, coupled with the interior excavation of the meat has caused
the chicken's eyelids to open, or another possibility, the ants managed to pry the eyelids
open to gain better access within.
From the looks of things, no pun intended, the ants were trying to bore their way into
the chicken's eye socket.
Is it just me or is this giving anyone else out there the shivers?
The ants had seemed to be much more organized now with specific operational plans as to
where to get into the chicken's skull, where all the good stuff lay, and little did I know,
the process was going to get even cooler as time passed more and more.
AC Family, if you're a fan of zombies, I can't wait for you guys to see what this chicken
head looked like 24 hours later, as well as how the ants needed to alter their food processing
technique.
These fire ants are indeed masters at what they do.
Do you guys understand now why I had to make this its own video?
It was all too cool not to.
So the next day, I found a peculiar amount of ants drinking from the river.
Hmmm...
Why?
Thirsty much, oh Fire Nation?
This here is an unusually large number of ants drinking from the river at the same time,
and it made me wonder what was making the ants so thirsty.
Can you guys guess?
Well turns out, the answer lay just above them.
Have a look!
AC Family, presenting fire ant chicken jerky!
The chicken head had dried out and decayed so much now, giving it a sort of zombie-like
beef jerky-esque appearance.
And trust me, it smelled salty and like beef jerky.
Let's observe the flesh!
The meat and skin had been eaten away and was now starting to grow strands of fungus
on it, forming a sort of carpet fungus.
The ants seemed to be breaking up and feeding on remaining bits of meat that were available
in the chicken head.
But it did seem the ants didn't have very much left to work with.
Still, the ants seemed determined to get every little bit of usable meat they could from
this chicken skull.
Let's look at where they were entering.
It seemed the ants now had established entrance into the chicken's skull through the mouth,
nasal cavities, and a hole towards the top of the skull.
The eye had completely been sealed off now with fungus carpet.
It was surprising to me to note that although flies were still seen droning around, there
was no evidence of maggots at all.
Seems the Fire Nation had done a great job at fending off the flies from taking their
valuable meat.
So why were the ants then extra thirsty now?
Probably because, drier meat, meant the colony needed extra water to break down the dried
meat fibers within their bellies, at least that was my guess.
Over time, the chicken head began to decay more and more, and less and less ants were
seen visiting the chicken head, probably because it became less and less edible.
Nearly one week later, as of this morning, this is what the chicken head looked like.
A chicken skull with nothing more than a bit of hard rotting flesh bits.
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 chicken head from this to this, was a spectacle I would never forget.
What did you guys think of this process?
What other things should I try feeding the Fire Nation?
I felt this chicken head was the perfect Christmas gift to give the most famous ant colony on
this channel, as the nourishment was enough to sustain the entire colony of millions,
for a good week, at least, and perhaps give the queen a surge of valuable protein to produce
more eggs than usual, and give the colony a huge population boost, as if they need it!
Going into 2019, I was optimistic for the Fire Nation, as well as all the ants of the
Ant Room, optimistic because you the AC Family is now bigger and stronger than ever.
You guys watching these ant videos and participating in the polls, helping with names and decisions,
ultimately affecting their individual fates, has made this ant keeping journey extra special!
Now speaking of the Ant Room, I promised to give an extra video this week, so AC Inner
Colony, feel free to watch this hidden video here, for a full Ant Room tour and update
on all ant colonies, creatures, and animals in the Antiverse and beyond, just so we are
all caught up for our new wave of epic ant videos in 2019.
If you're new to the channel, do take this opportunity to walk with us through all the
ant kingdoms of the ant room and meet the creatures we all love.
AC Family, I wish you all a happy new year 2019, thank you for watching, and as always,
it's ant love forever!
Alright AC Family, and there you have it!
Let's celebrate another year of epic ant videos and toast to more adventurous discoveries
in 2019.
So, guys, go and smash that SUBSCRIBE button and BELL icon now, so you can join our growing
AC Family, one of the coolest, smartest, and I must say, kindest communities on Youtube.
Do subscribe to keep updated on the workings of the Antiverse, and don't forget to hit
that LIKE button every single time, including now.
Also a special announcement!
Although it's past the order date at AntsCanada.com for arrival before Christmas, our awesome
Holidays Promo is still in full effect until the end of the year, for all you ant keepers
and ant lovers wanting to get into the hobby this year!
And boy have the ant lovers gone ant love crazy so far!
So, guys, here's the deal!
Anyone ordering our new Ant Towers, which are already on sale, or any of our Hybrid
Nests or Hybrid Nest Gear Packs, will also get our newly revised 2019 version of the
Ultimate Ant Keeping Handbook, with new and updated ant keeping info, a huge new section
on nuptial flight schedules and distribution info per species, and tonnes of gorgeous ant
photography.
Just order an Ant Tower or Hybrid Nest or Hybrid Nest Gear Pack, add the new e-book
to your cart and use the coupon code "antove2019" and you get the e-book for free!
If you've always wanted to start ant keeping, don't miss out on this opportunity and check
out our ant keeping gear at AntsCanada.com.
I look forward to you all keeping ants with me!
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!
And now it's time for the AC Question of the Week!
Last week we asked:
Why do we suspect that phoretic mites might be a seasonal thing?
Congratulations to Fernanda Silveira who correctly answered:
Previous infestations occurred around the same
time of the year, when it was colder and dry.
Congratulations, Fernanda Silveira, you just won a free e-book handbook from our shop!
In this week's AC Question of the Week, we ask:
What does polymorphic mean?
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!