Clever Ants Use Sponges And Paper To Transport Honey

The phrase “good things come in small packages” certainly appears to hold true when it comes to ants. The tiny creatures can survive floods by morphing into rafts, find their way home using an internalized GPS system, and even lift up to 20 times their body weight. In 2013, scientists discovered that the insects, whose brains are smaller than a quarter of a small pin’s head, could even use tools, a skill that was once believed to be the realm of “intelligent” species like humans and a select number of animals. Now, researchers from the University of Szeged in Hungary have discovered that when given a choice, the clever insects even have the smarts to select the most efficient tool for the job.