Ants take on Goliath role in protecting trees in the savanna from elephants
Thursday, September 2, 2010 - 12:14
in Biology & Nature
Ants are not out of their weight class when defending trees from the appetite of nature's heavyweight, the African elephant, a new study finds. Columns of angered ants will crawl up into elephant trunks to repel the ravenous beasts from devouring tree cover throughout drought-plagued East African savannas, playing a potentially important role in regulating carbon sequestration in these ecosystems.