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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Ants amputate their nest-mates’ legs to save lives

The location of an injury determines whether ants bite off or preserve a damaged limb.
A close-up of an ant cleaning the wound on a missing leg of another ant on a white background

A Florida carpenter ant cares for the stump of a nest-mate’s missing leg. Credit: Bart Zijlstra, UNIL

Performing life-saving surgery is not something only humans can do. Some ants have been observed treating injured nest-mates — through either wound care or amputation, depending on the injury1.

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Nature 631, 257 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-02138-6

References

  1. Frank, E. T. et al. Curr. Biol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.06.021 (2024).

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