Ants Move Insect Down Milkweed

Watch as a group of ants move a dead insect carcass down a complex milkweed structure (4x).
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Details:
I stumbled across what looked like a limping caterpillar on the sidewalk in front of our house. Further inspection revealed it to be a dead insect of sorts, being dragged by an ambitious ant. Some time went by as the ant dragged the insect across the concrete, but eventually stalled and perhaps gave up (or was getting more ants - they were too busy to be interrupted for questioning).
Earlier that week I had noticed two milkweed plants in the backyard, each inhabited by a different ant species. Each species had one or two ant guardians on each leaf. I thought it would be an interesting challenge to see if the milkweed ants would be able to drag the dead insect from the top of the milkweed plant to the bottom, and to see how they would handle it.
I first placed the insect on the milkweed occupied by the larger ant species, and they ignored it. I then placed it on the milkweed overran by the smaller ants, and they became instantly excited and started to drag it towards the stalk of the plant.
I filmed as much as I could before memory ran out on my iPhone. It was a windy day, and I likely had some caffeine, so the videography is poor at best, nauseating at worst.
You can see the heroics of many of the ants, and the infuriating frustration caused by others. At one point, a single ant is holding up the insect carcass on the underside of a leaf, with at least two other hands just free riding on the carcass. The path of the carcass is certainly not direct (I believe the scientific term is that the path is "sinuous"). You'll see the group occasionally takes detours to other leaves.
At 3:19, two ants succeed in dragging the carcass a significant way down the plant, before other ants grab on and start pulling it in inefficient directions.
In the end, a windy gust blew the carcass off the plant and into the grass (likely closer to their nest). At that point I went in to eat my dinner, and left the ants to theirs.
All in all, this video highlights the capability of a 'leader-less' social system to effectively complete complex tasks, such as navigating heavy objects through a dynamic three-dimensional environment.
For a scientific analysis/experiment of simpler ant transportation tasks, check out this article in the Journal of Experimental Biology:
jeb.biologists...
Thank you for watching!
Michael Hoefer

[@andresd.ramirezchiquillo9430]

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