Desert ants have outstanding navigational skills. They live in the saltpans of North Africa, an extremely inhospitable environment. To find food for their nest mates, foraging ants have to walk far ...

Some ants have figured out how to keep from getting lost: Build taller anthills. Desert ants that live in the hot, flat salt pans of Tunisia spend their days looking for food. Successful grocery runs ...

Some ants are so good at navigating they can do it backward. Researchers think that foraging ants memorize scenes in front of them to find their way back to the nest. But that strategy only works when ...

A desert ant species constructs mounds to use as navigational landmarks, which help them find their way home in their otherwise flat Saharan habitat. Desert ants are famous for their wayfinding skills ...

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology used behavioral experiments to show that desert ants are able to quickly learn many different food odors and remember them for the rest of ...

Cataglyphis fortis desert ants can learn visual or olfactory cues to pinpoint their nest, but only if these cues are unique to specify the nest entrance. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for ...

Feb. 17 (UPI) --How do animals navigate featureless landscapes like a desert? To find out, researchers decided to study one of the most efficient navigators in the natural world, the desert ant. All ...

Holly has a degree in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Leicester. Her scientific interests include genomics, personalized medicine, and bioethics.View full profile Holly has a degree in ...

Desert ants use the Earth's magnetic field for orientation. This provides ants the cue to find their way back to the nest. Desert ants (Cataglyphis) spend the first weeks of their life exclusively in ...

Ants’ frenzied movements may seem aimless and erratic to a casual observer, but closer study reveals that an ant colony’s collective behavior can help it thrive in a harsh environment and may also ...

Researchers report that in the absence of visible landmarks, desert ants increase the likelihood that foraging nest mates will find their way home quickly and safely by elevating their nest entrance.