The Driver Ant: Watch a Colony Rampage Through the Forest
Sunday, 13 July 2025
They are completely blind, but somehow driver ants (Dorylus wilverthi) manage to make their way through their African forest home. They coordinate through chemical signals with the
larger workers, with hooked jaws (that can bite us, yes indeed) protecting the
smaller ones. If they come across an
obstacle – no problem, they just use themselves as bridges. If you’re an insect and you get in the way of
a driver ant swarm, you have no chance.
Even human babies and the infirm have been known to fall victim to a
driver ant swarm…
This fascinating short documentary was made by a member of
the Day’s Edge team when he was a teaching assistant in UCLA's Field Biology
Quarter program. His class of 15 undergraduates spent three weeks conducting
original research in Kibale National Park, Uganda. They encountered these amazing
driver in the forest whenever they entered it. On his return to Los Angeles, he
decided toc create a short documentary about the driver ant species.
Watch the video below.
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