Slashdot reader TranquilVoid writes: To higher perceive the battles between native and invasive ants, scientists at Australia’s nationwide science company have turned to Microsoft’s basic laptop sport to mannequin ant warfare.
Throughout Australia, 50 totally different species of invasive ants have established themselves, together with electrical ants, fireplace ants and yellow loopy ants, with tons of of tens of millions of {dollars} spent trying to eradicate them.
“Ants are one of many few teams of animal species by which warfare resembles human warfare, by way of scale and mortality,” researcher Samuel Lymbery mentioned. The analysis discovered small armies of sturdy troopers did higher in advanced terrain-based battlefields and huge armies of weaker troopers fared higher in easy open battlefields. Within the ant world, a easy battlefield can be a footpath or park whereas a fancy battlefield can be bushland with undergrowth and woody particles.
Dr Lymbery mentioned his work may assist develop new approaches to habitat administration, like including undergrowth or extra environmental complexity again into urbanised environments, to tip the aggressive stability again in favour of native ants.
