In a groundbreaking study published in Current Biology, researchers have discovered that Florida carpenter ants have the ability to perform life-saving amputations and clean wounds to prevent infection from spreading. These ants are the second animal after humans to possess this capability, making them truly unique in the animal kingdom.
The study was led by Erik Frank, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Würzburg in Germany. The research found that Florida carpenter ants can identify wounds on their nestmates’ legs and then treat them by cleaning or amputating as needed. This is the only known case of one individual performing complex amputations on another member of the same species.
To understand how these ants treat wounds, researchers focused on two types of leg wounds: thigh lacerations and leg lacerations. They observed that ants cleaned thigh lacerations by using their mouths and then amputated the leg by biting repeatedly. In contrast, they only cleaned leg lacerations. The surgery significantly improved the survival rate of patients, with thigh lacerations increasing from less than 40% to 90-95% after amputation and leg lacerations from 15% to 75% after cleaning.
What sets Florida carpenter ants apart is their innate ability to recognize and treat wounds, which is not learned behavior. Further research is ongoing to see if other ant species without special antibacterial glands also have this ability to perform surgery.
Overall, this study highlights the incredible adaptability and resilience of nature’s most remarkable creatures.
