S1E9: Urban Ants

In this episode, Claudia Hirtenfelder talks about ants and the numerous ways they build, urbanize, and collaborate. The Animal Highlight is a spinoff and sister podcast to the award winning show, the Animal Turn Podcast. Season 1 is focused on “Animals and The Urban.” 

 Featured: 

• Secret Megalopolis of Ants Uncovered
• Michelle Westerlaken on The Animal Turn. 

Credits:

• Claudia Hirtenfelder, producer and host 
• Christiaan Mentz, sound editor and producer 
• Rebecca Shen, content producer and designer (logo and episode artwork)
• Gordon Clarke, bed music composer
• Learn more about the team here. 

Support the podcast via: 

• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/join/TheAnimalTurn 
• Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theanimalturn 
• Buzzsprout: https://theanimalturn.buzzsprout.com/ 

Sponsor:

• Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics sponsored the season of The Animal Turn Podcast where these highlights were originally aired. Originally Aired/Recorded: 26 April 2021.

A.P.P.L.E
Animals in Politics, Law, and Ethics researches how we live in interspecies societies and polities.

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The Animal Highlight is a spinoff and sister podcast to the award winning show, the Animal Turn Podcast.

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Transcript

00:00 - Introduction 

• This first season animals and the urban and is extracted from Season 3 of The Animal Turn Podcast.  
• In today’s highlight we are focusing on ants

0:33 – Urban Ants

• It is rather strange that we haven’t yet looked at insects “surely they are the most ubiquitous urban animals.”
• Ants help us think about what urbanization is and they are incredible designers. 
• Ants know how to design and structure a society. 
• A documentary showing ant’s structures - Secret Megalopolis of Ants Uncovered
• Complex cities created by ant colonies. 
• Fire ants build floating rafts using their own bodies, they can do this for weeks! 
• Army ants are able to build bridges.
• Weaver ants stitch together leaves to make nests. 

04:27 – Argentine Ants 

• Argentine ants have the biggest ant colony in the world.
• Their colonies stretch at least 3,000 miles across Europe. 
• They don’t make one massive colony like other ants, they make small colonies (roughly 120 ants). They collaborate and communicate across colonies.

05:21 – Collaborative Ants

• Impressive social skills – most ants you see are females. 
• Ants interacts as individuals through touch, sound, and chemical signals. 
• They use scent trails and chemical signals to communicate where food is. But when the signal is dropped they know the food is gone.
• Ants are an inspiration when it comes to think about how to move in space and work collaboratively. 

06:18 – Credits 

“A huge thank you to Animals in Philosophy, Politics, Law and Ethics for sponsoring The Animal Turn Podcast, where these clips were taken from. To Christiaan Mentz for editing this episode. Thank you also goes to Rebecca Shen for designing the Animal Highlight logo and episode artwork.”

Show notes compiled by Claudia Hirtenfelder