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This April, in the garden of the Pedralbes monastery in Barcelona there are already several anthills. Watching the ants, I saw a soldier ant carrying his dead companion.
It has been difficult for me to prepare this report for La Vanguardia’s Readers’ Photos, because I have had to be almost stretched out on the floor. But it was worth it to be able to take images of this fascinating scene, watching how this ant carried away her dead companion to bury her.
Now, beyond the emotionality of this action, there is actually a practical background, since it must be taken into account that ants need to eliminate corpses to prevent the spread of pathogens. Termites and bees do the same thing,
When an ant dies, its body produces a chemical, known as oleic acid, that attracts more ants. And dead subjects can be useful as fertilizer.
What the ants do is remove them from the nest so that they do not contaminate the colony, but, especially, to protect the queen, the most important piece, from pathogens. Thus, this ant in the images will transport its companion as far as possible to bury it.
