Giant ants' nests given special building protection
Insects' towering structures will be safeguarded during timber removal process in Northumberland woodlandA rare British "skyscraper city" made by ants has been given the equivalent of listed building protection and a place on maps to safeguard it from forestry work.Nests up to two metres (7ft) high, constructed from millions of conifer needles in Northumberland woodland, will be monitored during the felling of "intrusive" 20th century conifers amid the ancient oaks of Holystone, near Rothbury.Naturalists have plotted the whereabouts of 69 of the structures, made over years by successive colonies of the hairy northern wood ant. The red and black-coloured species is Britain's largest, but on a human scale the nests dwarf the ants by a greater measure than the Empire State Building.The new protection at Holystone, one of only three Forestry Commission colonies of the ant in the north-east, is designed to safeguard the nests during the removal of 10,000...
Read the whole article on The Guardian - Science
More from The Guardian - Science
Related
- How social insects recognize dead nestmatesTue, 5 May 2009, 12:01:36 EDT
- London's earliest timber structure found during Belmarsh prison digWed, 12 Aug 2009, 12:31:37 EDT
- Project succeeding to relocate Caspian ternsMon, 16 Jun 2008, 13:35:45 EDT
- Bee swarms follow high-speed 'streaker' bees to find a new nestFri, 3 Oct 2008, 5:42:53 EDT
- Enriched environment improves wound healing in ratsWed, 13 May 2009, 6:08:24 EDT