[ad_1]
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 traditional laptop recreation to mannequin ant warfare.
Throughout Australia, 50 completely different species of invasive ants have established themselves, together with electrical ants, hearth ants and yellow loopy ants, with a whole lot of tens of millions of {dollars} spent trying to eradicate them.
“Ants are one of many few teams of animal species wherein warfare resembles human warfare, when it comes to scale and mortality,” researcher Samuel Lymbery stated. The analysis discovered small armies of sturdy troopers did higher in complicated 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 posh battlefield can be bushland with undergrowth and woody particles.
Dr Lymbery stated his work might assist develop new approaches to habitat administration, like including undergrowth or extra environmental complexity again into urbanised environments, to tip the aggressive steadiness again in favour of native ants.
[ad_2]
Source link
