Army Ants vs Big-Headed Ants in the Amazon Rainforest

In this video a swarm of army ants go to battle with big-headed ants at Finca Las Piedras, the ASA's research and education center in the Peruvian Amazon.
The army ants' goal is to capture larvae to feed their hungry colony, but the big-headed ants won't let them go without a fight. Who will prevail? Watch the video to find out!
Finca Las Piedras is located in Peru's Madre de Dios region, in the country's southeastern Amazon rainforest, a global biodiversity hotspot that is home to more species of plants and animals than almost anywhere else on Earth. From ants to other insects and a dizzying variety of other lifeforms, there is always drama unfolding all around here if you only look closely.

[@JTJSSG]

This proves that ants are coordinated and majors are brave soliders

[@bloodhunter4628]

2:11 anyone else see the badass big headed worker that managed to grab a pupa from the army’s pile?

[@user-and-id]

That deserves a medal

[@mordekaiser328]

props to the majors for helping the colony

[@wildlifeisthewealthofnatur5457]

Yes. They even gave a good fight to much larger army ants and killed some of them. Impressive thing is big headed ants don't have stinger. They fight just with mouth unlike the cowardly army ants dependent on stinger and huge number.

[@LostInTheFarmersMarket]

@@wildlifeisthewealthofnatur5457 No offense, but that last bit is a pretty dumb statement. Using sheer numbers is a incredibly normal tactic for insects, having a bite and a stinger is also very common. There is nothing cowardly about any of that.

[@liverstealer2374]

Exactly, army ants use sheer numbers to overwhelm their enemies so I don't understand how is it cowardly, though there are other species of ants who do the same. Solenopsis Invicta (Red imported fire ants) and linepithema humile (Argentine ants) are great examples

[@flatland_ants3153]

@@LostInTheFarmersMarket it's fine guys have some humor

[@flatland_ants3153]

@@liverstealer2374 it's alright I don't think he was serious have some humor

[@polibot1]

Really cool! I've observed Pheidole morissi in central florida evacuating their nests the same way when fire ants come and attack. It must be something common in the pheidole group of ants.

[@dejeuxx]

Sounds like it!

[@bomboclaat1509]

I love how quick ants are. Such an intelligent animal. It's actually so fascinating to watch them do almost anything lol.

[@wildlifeisthewealthofnatur5457]

Unfair fight. Because big head ants live in small colonies and also size is smaller neither do they have stinger and acid spray. But it was impressive to see how soldier pheidoles gave a fight to much bigger stinging army ants so that the workers can go away with eggs and queen. Brave little ants pheidoles are. They are one of the favourite ants of mine.

[@lunaticranger6532]

Big headed ants are more adaptive for this type of invasion and against army ants every fight is unfair.

[@wildlifeisthewealthofnatur5457]

@@lunaticranger6532 I think driver ants will be fair. They live in very large number and kill anything that crosses their path. Drivers Vs army ants will be fair.

[@lunaticranger6532]

@@wildlifeisthewealthofnatur5457 yes usually this kind of fight are draw.

[@radiodemon9202]

@@wildlifeisthewealthofnatur5457 the driver ant is another type of army ant:/

[@radiodemon9202]

Most people call it the Africa army ant

[@TankieBoi]

it's interesting that the army ants don't really seem to know how to fight back against the majors, despite being significantly larger, they just use sheer numbers

[@IsoyaYasuji]

Bruh, this is almost as good as the national geo tv series! Keep up the good work!

[@dejeuxx]

Thank you!

[@sthao1733]

confirmed. i had always wondered if army ants attacked other ant species colonies when they foraged. its interesting to see army ants attacking these big headed ants. whats even more interesting is i saw a video where an army ant colony run into a leaf cutter colony but neither colonies fought each other. i guess its much smarter and easier to attack a smaller ant species colony.

[@allianceforasustainableama4749]

Though army ants are often portrayed as devouring everything in their path, most are actually quite picky. The ones in this video prey on the larvae of other ants, and also vespid wasps, one of their favorites. Full size leaf cutter ant colonies, with hundreds of thousands of massive majors are immune to attack from just about everything...except one species of army ant, Nomamyrmex esenbeckii, which appears to specialize in raiding leaf cutter ant colonies. The workers are built like little tanks to stand up to the leafcutters slicing jaws. Most of the action in such a raid would occur underground so I don't believe this has been filmed.

[@derrickhageman1969]

​@@allianceforasustainableama4749hmm it seems that everything in nature has one thing to counter another thing also sometimes turtle ants get attacked by army ants but they are too heavily armored for the army ants

[@felixbuenjr.1624]

Army ants for sure will never mess up with the fire ants...

[@wildlifeisthewealthofnatur5457]

Do you realize that army ants are in millions while fire ants are in thousands to lakhs. And the soldiers of army ants are ferocious who can even kill soldiers of fire ants. Fire ants are not that invincible as you people think. Many ants have easily warded off their raids and even the smaller stingless much less numerous aenictus army ants of Asia have successfully raided fire ants. While pheidole megacephala(who have neither stinger nor acid spray) and black tapinoma ants have displaced them from some parts.

[@dinoT_T]

Army ants can reach 500-700 thousand in population while fire ants can only reach 200 thousand - 500 thousand

[@bigmoose7]

@@dinoT_TTropical fire ants can reach from 7 million to 40 million individuals but a few million is more average, army ants it depends on the species.

[@tinirafi]

Size doesn't matter what matters is your size of your army

[@dejeuxx]

True!

[@NKVD_Enjoyer]

Thats crazy, the big headed ants fought brave.
I recently saw a big head ant major vs a giant termite fight and the termite won what made me sad but seeems like the big heads work faar beter in groups.

[@dudley0826]

Eciton hamatum, specialized in preying on other ants. Great video. Have you ever seen E. Rapax?

[@ANTASIA_07]

This is exactly like if weaver ants attack Carebara diversa but Majors of Carebara are slow in attacking and defending unlike phediole

[@terrencejackson914]

Nice video could have been longer, and showed more ants and action.

[@dejeuxx]

We're working on it, stay tuned for more videos!

[@-_-urworstnightmare-_-8063]

Awesome vid.

[@allianceforasustainableama4749]

Thank you very much!

[@jesper112183]

As you can see from the footage, even minor workers will fight to their death to protect the colony

[@vxrtuality]

I’ve been waiting for this video thanks man

[@cannonf_odder3041]

It was unclear whether the queen of the big headed ants made it out alive then again Big headed ants(pheidole species) are usually polygenous so they should have more than 1 queen

[@allianceforasustainableama4749]

I think that the queens would have been fine. I imagine additional majors underground would fall back(sacrificing a few rooms of larvae in some instances) to prevent the whole colony from being overrun. In any case the army ants raid the area fairly frequently so it might be in their best interest not to kill the colonies they feed on.

[@Goofya-q6x]

1:18 a winged ant came out

[@radiodemon9202]

A drone it’s a male ant sadly not a queen a late but they are both very useful

[@frankfrastein2244]

That's one nice battle. Have you ever seen army ants trying to raid fire ants or leafcutter ants?

[@user-qv7yf7de8y]

no son hormigas cortadoras de ojas son hormigas pheidole pallidula

[@ZenoSamaOmniKing]

which species of pheiodle

[@ghostoperationswithcheukgu9844]

These army ants are new world army ants in the old world we have asked that can literally strip a horse to the Bone and can eat a baby alive

[@reiadhoti3297]

Army ants are my favourite ants

[@stellamon1]

why did the male emerge out of nowhere 1:18

[@lunaticranger6532]

Nice video a rare sight.

[@bhartidevi1791]

My friend : no one can beat a colony of army ants
Me : give me a flamethrower than...😈

[@bhartidevi1791]

True bro
But flamethrower has it's own rank

[@tomaszzajaczkowski6839]

Amazing video !!!

[@allianceforasustainableama4749]

Thank you!!

[@dejeuxx]

Thanks!

[@SocialStudiess]

I don't know what was worse. How nasty looking this stuff is, or how big of a dork the narrator is😂😂

[@proviser_d1295]

So u know the bald guy that share with us the ants wooooooowowoowowow

[@JQEm1]

wow cool video

[@ffugooglesuxdk9792]

HOLD THE LINE!! HHHHOOOOOOOLLLDDDDD THHHHHHEE LIIIIIINNEEEEEEE!

[@bastianriveros1432]

@antscanada look at this brave pheidole ants

[@skyong3958]

And pls say the right name

[@chrisrusso4512]

Really? Did the queen make it out?

[@amberjac213]

who would win th ough

[@tetrionactionantadventure5628]

Amazing Evacuation. My Leaf cutter Ants are vegan :)

[@pedropablomendezdeleon9103]

army vs. Big. edead

[@skyong3958]

They are not army ant

[@EvilNecroid]

hopefully the queen got out

[@ghostx141xgaming5]

where is the full war zone

[@armanfn2891]

Wer hat jetzt gewonnen

[@fionanguyen7525]

i saw a male ant helping the majors in the fight

[@arelsia-ed1411]

Sriosly man this is ants canada

[@hrishikeshs4186]

U copyed antscanada

[@ffugooglesuxdk9792]

men, women, zes. we fight this day, in the name of honor and GLORRRRRYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH