It looks like a scene from a Spielberg movie. Video of ants saving wounded relatives by "amputation" has appeared

Scientists have discovered that some ants amputate the limbs of wounded comrades to save their lives. Watching the video presented by the scientists, it seems as if you are watching one of the scenes of a movie by the famous American film director Steven Spielberg.

The scientists prove that ants can perform life-saving amputations on injured nestmates. The study of carpenter ants is the first example of a non-human animal that cuts off limbs to curb infections, The Guardian reports.

Scientists have been studying Florida carpenter ants (Camponotus floridanus), which live in the southeastern United States. These are reddish-brown ants about 1.5 cm in size. They actively defend their home from rival ant colonies, and therefore sometimes get "battle wounds".

"In this study, we describe for the first time how a non-human animal uses the amputation of another individual to save a life. I am convinced that we can safely say that the ant 'medical system' for treating the wounded is the most advanced in the animal kingdom, rivaled only by our own," said entomologist Eric Frank of Germany's Julius-Maximilians-University.

Who performs the amputation and how?

Life-saving amputations are always performed by females, who are the worker ants. Males play a secondary role in ant colonies.

The team of scientists observed ants in the laboratory. Interestingly, the insects did not always resort to amputation of limbs. The method of treatment depended on the location of the injury. If the wound was high, the limb was amputated, and if it was low, it was not.

"When ants were injured at the level of the femur, their nestmates amputated them in 76% of cases. In contrast, no amputations occurred in ants that were injured at the lower leg," the study says.

In both cases, the ants first licked and cleaned the wound, probably sucking out the infected hemolymph. Then they gradually bit off parts of the injured leg until they could chew it off completely.

It took 40 minutes from injury to amputation, and sometimes more than three hours. Interestingly, when amputated after an upper leg injury, the survival rate of ants was about 90-95%, compared to 40% without intervention. In lower leg injuries, after which the ants only cleaned the wound, the survival rate was about 75%, and if the wounds were not treated, it was 15%.

Why do ants perform amputations?

"It's an interesting question, and it challenges our current definitions of empathy, at least to some extent. I don't think ants are what we would call 'empathetic'. There is a very simple evolutionary reason for caring for the wounded. It saves resources. If I can rehabilitate a worker with relatively little effort, who then becomes an active, productive member of the colony again, that's very important. However, if the individual is too badly injured, the ants will not take care of it, but leave it to die," summarized Eric Frank.

Ants have six legs, so after losing one of them, they remain fully functional.

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