IF PEOPLE were as orderly and altruistic as ants, walking down a crowded street wouldn’t be such a battle. By filing into three lanes, army ants in Panama come close to achieving the maximum possible rate of traffic flow.
Army ants (Eciton burchelli) from Panama are blind, but get around by following pheromone trails that have been left by other ants. They send out huge hunting parties with up to 200,000 individuals travelling in opposite directions, but still manage to keep the traffic moving efficiently.
To find out how they get to be so organised, Iain Couzin of Princeton…
