I was sitting outside my high school library, hanging out with a friend, when we observed individuals from two different species of ants cross paths on the concrete in front of us. One was a red ant and the other a black ant, roughly about the same size as each other. They approached one-another, touched feelers for a few seconds, then both turned around and went back the way they came. Within a couple of minutes two very large armies of ants, one black and one red, approached the spot where the scout ants had met. There must have been a couple hundred ants in each group. It was a battle and it lasted a long time until the red ants eventually killed most of the black ants and the black ants retreated. The red ants collected the dead and returned to where they came from. My friend and I couldn't stop talking about it for weeks. It was the wildest thing we had ever seen.
You witnessed an actual simulation of "primitive" war. The "scouts" parleyed with one another, they ofc disagreed, and full scale war actually broke out with armies standing on both sides. That's honestly quite cool.
I feel like the way we look at ants, is the same way advanced alien civilization would look at us humans. We really aren't all that much different than ants when you look at us as groups rather than individuals
Thats why it more than likely usually fails, especially with multi Queen Nests, you have to be STUPID lucky for it to work or you find a nest with only one queen Think about it, youre already deep in the enemy lines, now you not only have to find and assassinate one queen, but you also have to navigate a damn labyrinth full of Soldiers trying to find the other 2-6 other queens in that nest, keep in mind that this labyrinth is brimming with enemy soldiers that can and will eat you alive if you so much as take a little too long
I'll never forget being a kid and my dad showing me an ant colony herding and farming aphids on some garden plants. What a wildly complex behavior for creatures that should seemingly be so simple.
@@esailmind3339 you're right. As a tech guy, I can't help but feel like size must matter... At one point we had to represent complex logic with logic circuits, which take up plenty of physical space. Then we got the transistor, and now we can hold the equivalent of millions of logic circuits in code on a tiny little memory chip, to be interpreted and executed by a tiny little processor. Even then, that requires physical space. It's hard to conceptualize and rationalize how so many complex behaviors could fit within the logic processing organs of such small creatures, but then I remember that there are literally brainless protein chains that somehow zip, unzip, and replicate DNA. The universe is host to countless self-assembling machines that work because they just work, and it blows my mind. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if the development and evolution of hivemind behaviors in species like bees and ants had some wibbly wobbly quantum nonsense behind it.
@@AngryAlfonse that last thought is super interesting actually. I would’ve never even considered that but now that you mention it it’s quite the interesting theory.
I used to have a colony of copper-colored slaver ants in my yard as a kid. I would watch them for hours, as they'd form a raiding party and travel sometimes a hundred meters to their target colony, then carry the eggs back. This video was a cool reminder, thanks!
Fun fact: enslaved ants can ocasonaly rebel and either wipe out the slavers or drastically weaken them, though one way or another the rebels are killed, either from age or from the rebellion failing
@@CaptainMaggott I think thats just cause you don't really learn about human slave revolts and probably only learned about slavery in america. However for example in haiti, the slaves revolted and brutally murdered their french enslavers killing everyone including french babies with such efficiency that France actually ended up declaring slavery illegal because they knew keeping slaves was a ticking time bomb.
A lore that's much, much older than ours. In the world of ants, millions of civilisation and great cities rose and fell over the course of one hundred millions years.
As a Polyergus, I found this video to be very informing and I thank you for giving me this knowledge to be able to enslave more colonies. I shall tell my queen about this. She'll be thrilled
bro the queen vs queen battle is crazy, it’s like the exact opposite of how humans do their war, the leaders sit back and chill while the workers (soldiers) fight till death, for these ants it’s like “fuck it i’ll do it myself”
For most of human history, Leaders were (usually) in the front lines, that's because they also serve as one of the generals of the military. This era spanned from the tribal period, all the way to the early 1800s. It's not until recent times, that this practice was gone. Mainly because of getting KIA'd, would be disastrous for a nation. Unfortunately, we didn't see Queen Elizabeth, get deployed to the Falklands.
@@CalvinNoire This is false information, even in ancient rome or greece times we have records and teachings advising commanders not to play as a soldiers, but command. Their job is to be at the back or sides, giving orders, observing the battlefield and leaving the thrill and dangers of the fight to fighters...
@@TheReaper569 What i mean by front lines is commanding them at the front lines. Of course battling with the soldiers would be far too risky and anyone with common sense would not do it. This practice is not done today, as i doubt Joe Biden would accurately command his soldiers in Afghanistan.
The thought of a lone, Queen Ant bull dozing it through a whole colony in a suicide mission against time like "fucking move IT, Move iT god damnit! Clock is ticking.. WHERE IS YOUR QUEEN!!!. Out of my way! I've got a Colony to over take here!" made me chuckle a little. I can only imagine the epic battle that unfolds once both queens meet. They need to make this shit a movie yo'
Not gonna lie, the quest of a Polyergus queen to assassinate all the queens in another colony without getting killed herself sounds like a dope premise for a video game or drama miniseries.
I love how many behaviours that we think as inherently human are also found in ants, social structures, agriculture, cattle keeping, war and even slavery
It's probably a disclaimer because Karens are everywhere, even in the kurzgesagt comments section, arguably one of the most wholesome places on the internet.
Yeah when animal kills human it went "wild". Animals are just doing animal things, only we are giving them human labels "A viscous crocodile killed a child"? No, crocodile is just trying to survive by eating food
The rogue murder queen sounds like she's in a video game. Powerful "player" storms the enemy bastion on their own to assassinate the leaders. Once they secure the fiefdom of the first ruler, it becomes like a Real Time Strategy game, manage the resources and automate so you can storm the next fiefdom. And to make things even more difficult, there's a time limit AND no save points to heal at. Basically an RTS and boss rush.
Imagine how much more efficient the simulation we’re living in could be if half the server resources weren’t dedicated to the battle between billions of ants.
Sure, you COULD simulate an entire universe down to every atom, quark and gluon, OR you can just put up a skybox and only simulate the interesting bits
@@Axius27 you wouldn’t have to simulate those things unless they’re observed. Kind of like how science changes when you observe something small or the double slit. While not observing something you wouldn’t have to simulate that at all.
@@karlaldridge4848 Yeah, exactly. I swear, the disconnect between Newtonian physics and Quantum physics is just two different game engines that aren't _quite_ compatible with each other :P
@//Axius27 conversion/merging would be a hard reset lol. That or, liker in TF2, there's a essential piece of code in one or both that nakes it impossible for either to run
I'm legit afraid to go into my backyard because the old resident didn't take care of the backyard and did SOMETHING to it. Whatever they did, they left beind a large amount of fire ant killer and there is just this massive kingdom of different ants. Can't take a single step without running into another, usually tiny, ant hill and walking into an ant war. It's like watching a bunch of small countries go to war 24/7.
I may be 6 months late, but 6:05 that is a PIKMIN reference, I love that, and it fits perfectly into the theming of this video, PIKMIN is literally a game in which you order a whole army of ant-like creatures to aid you in combat.
@@anon_148 I think what they meant is that we could eradicate entire colonies really quickly if we wanted to. That much is absolutely true. If you get the chance, look into what happens if you pour liquid aluminum into an anthill, it's really neat in macabre way. Could we wipe out all ants? Only if we want to wipe ourselves out with them, and even then it's far from a guarantee.
As someone said, "truth is stranger than the fiction", this video proves it. This enslaving and world war of ants is more fascinating than any fictional movie, novel or TV series.
"You let one ant stand up to us and they ALL might stand up! Those "puny little ants" outnumber us a 100 to 1, and if they ever figure that out; there goes our way of life! It's not about food. It's about keeping those ants in line!"
I love A Bug's Life, but seriously, ants are the Galactic Empire of the insect kingdom. I think they even served as inspiration for fascism and communism when it comes to building a perfect society of blind followers.
I have never given more than 2 seconds of thought to how ants live. Suddenly I’m obsessed. Thank you Kurzgesagt for making such amazing and captivating videos ❤
Empire of the Ants 2020 BBC Documentary HD BY David Attenborough 59 minutes long and he covers an Ant empire where there are multiple massive colonys working together. something i found interesting is the notion that this empire basicly enslaves there queens, as he was able to catch it on video o 1 queen trying to run away right after hibernation wake up. and was dragged back in by force
the grandfather of ant research (and highly influential to the interface of Biology & Sociology) is E.O. Wilson. check him out, if your curiosity is tickled. a 2h docu "Lord of the Ants / The Ant Whisperer" by PBS Nova is available on YT (user: john neto)
Ant lifes seem to be really epic and almost read like Fantasy stories, with huge , sometimes flying Monsters, enormous LOTR-Style Battles and Wars, Queens engaging in 1v1 battles to the death and enslaving entire Colonies via "mind-tricks". Sometimes Ants even infiltrate the almost Alien-Like homes of Giants
Every time I see one of your videos about ants, I'm just reminded of an old Animorphs book where they tried to become ants. There was a quote along the lines of, "if ants ever got their hands on nuclear weapons, they'd wipe out the world within a week", and these just remind me that it's so terrifyingly true.
@@luipaardprint Really? You did some simple maths on ants making tiny nukes? Get real. You can't scale down nuclear weapons beyond a certain point, due to critical mass needed for fusion.
@@Blaquer17 Ooh, I don't think I remember that one. I've gotta finish reading the series, though. I dropped off right around the time Eliminist Chronicles released, so maybe 2/3 of the way through.
Its incredible how ants, something to tiny and so miniscule, are able to have literal full on wars with other colonies, the sheer idea of it is just incredible.
It blows me away how as a D&D DM, learning about ants consistently gives me the most ideas for D&D monsters and stories. Between this video and ZeFrank's video about Army Ants, i've got enough to write an entire campaign.
I suggest checking out The Wandering Inn on Audible. In that series there's a race of human sized ants. The first book only goes into a bit of detail about them, but later on you learn more.
Im surprised no one yet has has made an RTS game but with ants... Seriously, these guys are brutal... Also, another beautiful visualization by Kurz... Edit: Seems I didn't know there were Ant based RTSs out there. Thank you kind folk for telling me.
Look up empires of the undergrowth. It’s a great ant based rts. Currently sports 10 ant species. The story mode is centered on the fictional gene-thief ant species which can unlock black ants, wood ants, leaf cutters, and fire ants. But other species show up like army ants, slave maker ants, big headed ants, little black ants, and trap jaw ants.
@@Cosmic_youtuberr Dude, literally the first thing that comes up when you google the name of the game is a Steam Store link. This isn't even laziness anymore...
Okay let's get this over with Ants live in their own apocalypse 1: giant creatures that eat or kill them 2: other horrifying bugs that eat them in creative ways only a mentally insane person could think of 3: a mushroom virus that only infects spiders and ants literally makeing them go through the last of us but the infected commit suicide as the spores burst to spread the infection in the air 4: other ants going to war with other ants 5: ants that have strange abilitys like this one in the video 6: slavery 7: cannibalism 8: the ant death spiral
I saw ant raids has a kid, never really understood what was happening. We formed a pit for ants to fight. Weirdest thing. For some reason the small ants usually overpowered the large ants with their agility and numbers.
Ants usually become noticeably larger to be able to hunt larger prey, not to be a more powerful combat unit*. Small ants are able to surround other ants and pull at their limbs, lifting them into the air and exposing them. *There are exceptions. Leafcutter ants use their head muscles to rip away at leaves, and a special caste has grown larger to accomodate larger head muscles for attacking intruders. While many ants do have a soldier and worker caste with the soldiers being larger than the workers, the difference is usually quite small and workers may do jobs outside of the nest.
As a brainwashed Formica ant, this video has opened my eyes. Thank you, for giving me the courage to run away from these evil ants. I will update everyone on my ant journey! Update 1: Just got past the defenses, am currently running for my life. Wish me luck 😭 Update 2: I see cool carpenter ants around a mile away, I hope the Queen's special forces won't eliminate me before I can ask them for refugee! Update 3: I have successfully reached Point Carp, and I am applying for RAU (Refugee Ants United) rights so I can be found a new home soon. I will give more updates, and thanks to everyone for the help! Update 4: The ANF (Army Ant Forces) recently discovered a Polyergus ant near our mega colony, we're getting ready for war now! May the best side (obv us) win!
Brother, there is a safe colony of carpenter ants who’ll accept refugees devastated by the Polyergus ants. Just head west until you cross the log over the river and turn right.
That slavery ratio of the first one sounds like the Spartans with the Helots. From slavery to animal husbandry to bridge building, ants are genuinely incredible.
And then another even more gruesome layer of the world exists one order of magnitude deeper with the constant chemical warefare free for all waged by microbes against all other microbes. (We take advantage of this war to find useful chemical weapons like penicillin to use as antibiotics)
this is exemplary. the world of little insignificant ants portrayed as extraordinarily as a human war, with all its complexity, can be described. And it really captures you, it's more exciting than i could have ever imagined insects could get. so cool. thanks!
I LOVE your ants saga! BTW, I am an English teacher in Spain. I always recommend your videos so my students learn English listening to your perfect and clear diction, while exploring science. Thank you!
Have you ever left a piece of dried fruit near a nest and watch them make it disappear? You'll watch that like a kid and completely lose track of time. Ants are always interesting!
Imagine if they showed real images in such closeup without the animations..I would have been uncomfortable ..These animations make them cute and fun to watch
As a Polygerus ant, this video has helped my colony to take brood more efficiently, Thanks Alot! Update: One of our slaves have passed the defenses, Running after them right now. Update 2: Saw a carpenter nest, gonna tell the colony rn Update 3: Told the entire colony about it, we are setting off to raid right now. Update 4: We saw Point Carp, Never seen carpenter ants allied with army ants… Update 5: we lost.
I really hope they do videos on other eusocial insects like termites and (some) aphids too. Fun fact, the current record holder for fastest recorded animal movement belong to a species of soil-eating termite! Their soldiers' jaws strike at 1/3rd the speed of sound
I have no idea why we haven't seen a proper Ant or other insect game yet. There's so many species and varied ways they survive it would provide very diverse gameplay.
@@Justmonika6969 I think the game loop is tricky. If you simulate ant behaviour (which is what makes them so cool), you effectively end up with no control for the player. If you instead have the player control the ants like in a traditional strategy game... well then you just have a normal RTS but with only melee units. That and also their movement is "very 3D" as they can easily go up and down trees and leafs. That is almost impossible to translate well into a game. So you also have to limit it probably to some 2D perspective, removing much of their interaction.
I am so happy to be the first in this thread to mention an OUTSTANDING ant-based strategy game called Empires of the Undergrowth!! Developed by Slug Disco, currently in Early Access on Steam and nearing its full launch. It's not a 100% true-to-life ant simulator, but it comes really close and is also just a ton of fun, I've been a huge fan for years and I absolutely love the game. You can play as a bunch of different ant species with different mechanics, starting each game with a queen and a handful of workers. You dig out a nest, collect resources, grow your colony, encounter tons of different critters and other ant colonies when you venture outside the nest, and try to dominate the map. The game has a really fun single-player campaign, a ton of extra one-off levels with different rules and goals, and a freeplay mode that you can customize. Definitely check them out and consider supporting the game!
Your ant videos were a major inspiration for me writing my Space Ants: Never Say Die serial. One episode featured one colony taking over the other one after a queen strike killed their leader. Covered in the scent of the dead queen, they take over.
Guys can we all just take a moment to give thanks for such beautiful animations??! PERFECT in every sense of the word frfr, greatwork you guys, killing it
This recent ants series that kurzgesagt has been making is so wonderful. It made me realize that there are so many more organisms with such complex societies and life, other than just humans. I hope they keep on making more of such videos.❤❤
Here is something to wonder about: many ants species have a working caste that cant reproduce, and in some cases they even lack a digestive system they merely work to death. These workers dont eat nor drink or fuck, they only sleep because of cold, never stop working or fighting, they cant feel pain nor fear, they exist to endlessly work. In all sense they are not truly ants but bio-droids built by a central cadre of actual true ants to do their every biding. Yes, the ants actually perfected droid armies mllions of years ago, they surpassed mankind in complexity and technology even before we existed.
Once me and a friend were in our backyard. We noticed that a few streams of ants were all going towards a colony. There were two colonies raiding them. One was trying to slave the rest it was crazy but the black ants were high in numbers and killed everyone else
A humbling reminder that there are many nature's in our world. Many of which are unbelievably complex... The continual fascination this channel brings is always welcome.
It seems like every human or human idea, somehow, has a version of it in the ant world. Ants are incredible creatures and I understand how some people can make it their entire job and life purpose to just study and understand these.
I am now quiet sure that you guys at Kurzgesagt have read The Ants by Bernard Werber (Les Fourmis in french). All the topics you explained in your ant’s video are mentioned in this novel and it’s a delight to see the scientific accuracy of this book ! If anyone who like ants haven’t read this book, I can only recommend you to do so !
Kurz, im not interested in entomology but your videos makes them seem very interesting and even i'd like to study about it, please dont stop making these kind of videos, i love them so much
I was going to comment on how I hope to see videos on other ant "factions" and their strategies when you called it a world war, but then you immediately said you already hope/plan to do so, can't wait as your videos are always not only educational but also fascinating
I'm reminded with any nature documentary that nature is particularly brutal most of the time when it comes to survival. It makes you appreciate the advances we've made as a species so that we rarely see such brutality.
imagine strategy game where you choose ant species and have to develop your anthill and or conquer others ants while also fighting other bugs etc. possibylity to choose enslaving ants would be fun
not only is this video deeply fascinating, as all videos from kurzgesagt usually are, but it's also in my opinion a shining example of how far the channel has come stylistically! the art of kurzgesagt has become incredibly detailed without abandoning the original charm that made it so recognizable
The fact that the Queens battle it out is so metal I can't even imagine. Reminds me if there were millions of Borg tribes and the Queens all battled for the galaxy with their drones...
I remember when i was a kid i saw how ants was carrying their eggs somewhere in big numbers. I've never understood why would they carry them somewhere outside of their nest. I thought they were just moving from their old nest to the new one. Then my grandma came and poured boiled water into their nest
Despite them being such simple creatures at their core, Ants are some of the most amazing insects out there. They can perform agriculture, keep livestock, work in symbiosis with countless other species of insect, wage wars, establish borders... and even adapt to handle almost anything they come across. And yet I still get surprised, I had no idea that some species produce "Kings", or that some ants can revolt against unsatisfactory queens. Billions of these tiny, simple insects working together to perform such complex and almost humanlike tasks, and they're so tiny that this happens all around us without us even noticing. (Or them really noticing us!)
It makes sense really, when you consider that everything in universe including humans is made of billions of small things working together. Some people even speculate that consciousness could arise in such complex systems, so things like fungi, ant colonies or the internet(for real) could be conscious as a whole. Sounds insane, but not entirely. Hell, we don't even know if our universe is just a small part of something much greater.
I wonder how their species achieve all that with such a small brain size. Maybe scientist can run an experiment where these ants are provided with a steady source of nutrition rich food and see if they evolve into even higher functioning beings. Since their lifetimes are so short anyway, we can get through multiple generations(and maybe visible evolution) within a year or two.
kurzgesagt, this is like the only place where i can actually learn things like this, please continue these entomological facts and crazy species about ants, I love the way you portray them, the music and animation pair beautifully to make some of the best videos, please make more videos like this😭you havent made such videos in a long time, i'd even appreciate marine life😭
@@Benjmensch Once my home was filled with them. It took days to get rid of them and when we did I couldn't sleep at night thinking they would crawl into my mouth. I love the little buggers running outside my house, but I despise them when they are inside my house.
Also the sound effect is similar :D When I first heard it, my brain triggered like something really bad happened. (Pikmin players, you know what I mean)
Imagine living this from the ants perspective! There’s a fantastic Sci-Fi trilogy about ants written by a french author. It’s called The Trilogy of the Ants (La Trilogie des Fourmis), by Bernard Werber. It’s amazing! The books are as follows: 1 - The Empire of The Ants (Les Fourmis) 2 - The Day of The Ants (Le Jour de Fourmis) 3 - The Revolution of The Ants (La Révolution des Fourmis) It features beautiful scenery, a very interesting, twisting and mostly-centered ant storyline (there’s two perspectives - that of the humans and that of ants, and sometimes they split as well because the characters get lost or have conflicting ideas) and adventure from every single point of view. The author masterfully describes with scientifically-accurate details every aspect of the ant’s lives and how they view the world, humans, other animals and even how they progress and discover how to manipulate water to create canals or other insects (like rhinoceros beetles as tanks) as weapons of war. I hope with all my heart that Netflix will someday make a show out of these books.
Humans: “Slavery is a disgusting human creation and should never have happened” Ants: ”how cute, they always think they’re the only ones or the first at doing everything”
Two videos in 2 weeks!? That’s amazing for Kurzgesagt! It feels like he uploads so fast, I’m so happy for the team behind Kurzgesagt pumping out quality content at what feels very fast!
its fascinating to me how sophisticated ant colonies are, to me i cant tell sometimes if it demonstrates the power of a hive mind or a genuine sophisticated "society" built by creatures we didn't think capable, either way beautiful demonstration of nature and glad kurgesagt back to making more interesting/informed videos than the way to complicated theories about space and time and shit, keep up the good work!
There's no such thing as a "hive mind", that's science fiction. As the video establishes, they communicate mostly through pheromones. The queen doesn't control the workers either, she just lays eggs and that's it. They all just seem to know what they're supposed to do.
@@isaacbruner65 it definitely isn't the sc-fi ideal, i would never suggest oh ants gonna topple human civilization or anything like that, but i would offer that if they have little self-preservation instincts and protect a greater whole in the way they do, while the communication is necessary it seems as if its a "swarm intelligence" if that makes any sense? no telepathy for certain
@@djalexander968 They use chemicals. But if they could produce shortwave radio waves, even if it only has a range of 10 cm and receive them then they could basically become a true hive mind. And chemicals have a bit of a lag in communication.
@@abyssstrider2547 exactly my thought, that if they take after mammalians and grow more mushy grey matter-esc type beats, that harbour electronic signals, boom you have a sci-fi alien race XD, its fascinating but at the same time semi-concerning, love how you can go to dolphins to ants to pigs and find profound intelligence in things you thought were dumb beasts or creepy crawlies
The fact that this is the fourth ant-centered video from Kurzgesagt makes me believe that this a cemented tradition for this channel now.
Ever since the leaf cutter ants (I think they’re called) I’ve been hooked
kurzgesANT
@@kingtreedede7303 Weaver ants.
I love ants
I think they're being mind controlled
I was sitting outside my high school library, hanging out with a friend, when we observed individuals from two different species of ants cross paths on the concrete in front of us. One was a red ant and the other a black ant, roughly about the same size as each other. They approached one-another, touched feelers for a few seconds, then both turned around and went back the way they came. Within a couple of minutes two very large armies of ants, one black and one red, approached the spot where the scout ants had met. There must have been a couple hundred ants in each group. It was a battle and it lasted a long time until the red ants eventually killed most of the black ants and the black ants retreated. The red ants collected the dead and returned to where they came from.
My friend and I couldn't stop talking about it for weeks. It was the wildest thing we had ever seen.
You witnessed an actual simulation of "primitive" war.
The "scouts" parleyed with one another, they ofc disagreed, and full scale war actually broke out with armies standing on both sides. That's honestly quite cool.
I've always wanted to see two ant armies fight eachother
Imagine having a war while 2 giants watch over you
@@Freekywill show me what you got
@@bilothekid Lmao Rick and Morty reference
It’s astonishing for a singular ant to even have the chance of taking over an entire colony
that is what we call, an ant literally too angry to die
I feel like the way we look at ants, is the same way advanced alien civilization would look at us humans. We really aren't all that much different than ants when you look at us as groups rather than individuals
Feels like something from out of a movie tbh
It’s actually like something out of a video game.
Doomguy ants lol
"Rip and tear until it is done," but for reals tho
Ants are so inherently social that the concept of an ant queen charging into an enemy nest *all on her own* messes with my mind!
Thats why it more than likely usually fails, especially with multi Queen Nests, you have to be STUPID lucky for it to work or you find a nest with only one queen
Think about it, youre already deep in the enemy lines, now you not only have to find and assassinate one queen, but you also have to navigate a damn labyrinth full of Soldiers trying to find the other 2-6 other queens in that nest, keep in mind that this labyrinth is brimming with enemy soldiers that can and will eat you alive if you so much as take a little too long
The fact that the slaver queens will just maul their attempted victim for like half an hour is pretty intense…absolute overkill.
@@dr.altoclef9255ultrakill
The more I learn about ants, the more I realize how metal their lifestyle is
How Warhammer 40k their life is
@@cosiabuffo8527 Santguinius. Ferrus Antus. Garviel Lokant.
@@cosiabuffo8527 tookthe words right outta my mouth 😂
So true
Wait till you hear about Humans...
I'll never forget being a kid and my dad showing me an ant colony herding and farming aphids on some garden plants. What a wildly complex behavior for creatures that should seemingly be so simple.
If you think about it. Size doesn't really matter. You can also see this kind of complexity in the microscopic world.
@@esailmind3339 you're right. As a tech guy, I can't help but feel like size must matter... At one point we had to represent complex logic with logic circuits, which take up plenty of physical space. Then we got the transistor, and now we can hold the equivalent of millions of logic circuits in code on a tiny little memory chip, to be interpreted and executed by a tiny little processor. Even then, that requires physical space. It's hard to conceptualize and rationalize how so many complex behaviors could fit within the logic processing organs of such small creatures, but then I remember that there are literally brainless protein chains that somehow zip, unzip, and replicate DNA. The universe is host to countless self-assembling machines that work because they just work, and it blows my mind. At this point I wouldn't be surprised if the development and evolution of hivemind behaviors in species like bees and ants had some wibbly wobbly quantum nonsense behind it.
They have been created that way
@@AngryAlfonse Exactly.
Also, think about T-duality. Another mindfuck.
@@AngryAlfonse that last thought is super interesting actually. I would’ve never even considered that but now that you mention it it’s quite the interesting theory.
I used to have a colony of copper-colored slaver ants in my yard as a kid. I would watch them for hours, as they'd form a raiding party and travel sometimes a hundred meters to their target colony, then carry the eggs back. This video was a cool reminder, thanks!
They sure are brutal, just like we are eh, total illusion of civilization
@@jwalster9412 that would be 1000 meters
@@jwalster9412 Only 1/10th of a kilometer. Quite plausible.
@@nodnarb9932 Interesting..and that would be 1000000 millimetres
@@jwalster9412 a km is not that big of a distance
Fun fact: enslaved ants can ocasonaly rebel and either wipe out the slavers or drastically weaken them, though one way or another the rebels are killed, either from age or from the rebellion failing
Lol you just described the potential outcome of every rebellion in the history of life…
Kinda crazy to think there have been more successful ant slave revolts than such human slave revolts
@@floyd9727I think they meant since there's no queen left to continue their own group.
@@CaptainMaggott I think thats just cause you don't really learn about human slave revolts and probably only learned about slavery in america. However for example in haiti, the slaves revolted and brutally murdered their french enslavers killing everyone including french babies with such efficiency that France actually ended up declaring slavery illegal because they knew keeping slaves was a ticking time bomb.
@@Foxdelights its interesting how only black and brown ants form the slave caste of ants
It's amazing that ants quite literally have their own lore
Everything does
@@Davis... Not me.
A lore that's much, much older than ours. In the world of ants, millions of civilisation and great cities rose and fell over the course of one hundred millions years.
This comment made me chuckle
This!
As a Polyergus, I found this video to be very informing and I thank you for giving me this knowledge to be able to enslave more colonies. I shall tell my queen about this. She'll be thrilled
How? We just established you are not very good at communicating with each other.
@@kirbodin lmao
@@kirbodin through RUclips videos silly.
“As a polyergus, I confirm this is 100% true”
Imagine how many polyergi you need to type a whole sentence on a keyboard
Please never end the ant series. One of my favorite types of videos on your channel
100% These have become my favorite
@@neochris2 The space stuff is probably a bit cooler but the ants are a close second.
True, I've been interested in ants since Sim Ant. Such a great game
Yea I love ants!
@@cyan_oxy6734 Yes, I actually agree
bro the queen vs queen battle is crazy, it’s like the exact opposite of how humans do their war, the leaders sit back and chill while the workers (soldiers) fight till death, for these ants it’s like “fuck it i’ll do it myself”
For most of human history, Leaders were (usually) in the front lines, that's because they also serve as one of the generals of the military. This era spanned from the tribal period, all the way to the early 1800s. It's not until recent times, that this practice was gone. Mainly because of getting KIA'd, would be disastrous for a nation.
Unfortunately, we didn't see Queen Elizabeth, get deployed to the Falklands.
@@CalvinNoire true and i would love seeing queen elizabeth on a ship just going FUCK YOU ARGENTINA THESE ISLANDS ARE BRI’ISH SOIL
@@CalvinNoire This is false information, even in ancient rome or greece times we have records and teachings advising commanders not to play as a soldiers, but command. Their job is to be at the back or sides, giving orders, observing the battlefield and leaving the thrill and dangers of the fight to fighters...
@@TheReaper569 What i mean by front lines is commanding them at the front lines. Of course battling with the soldiers would be far too risky and anyone with common sense would not do it.
This practice is not done today, as i doubt Joe Biden would accurately command his soldiers in Afghanistan.
The thought of a lone, Queen Ant bull dozing it through a whole colony in a suicide mission against time like "fucking move IT, Move iT god damnit! Clock is ticking.. WHERE IS YOUR QUEEN!!!. Out of my way! I've got a Colony to over take here!" made me chuckle a little. I can only imagine the epic battle that unfolds once both queens meet. They need to make this shit a movie yo'
This looks like one of the coolest concepts for a new game
There's a game called "Empires of the undergrowth"
It's alright.
Nice
nice
Nice👍
very nice
Not gonna lie, the quest of a Polyergus queen to assassinate all the queens in another colony without getting killed herself sounds like a dope premise for a video game or drama miniseries.
of ants or humans?
@@luke14946 Yes
@@luke14946 Actually id would be pretty cool to have 2 parallel story lines that are basicly the same, but one with Ants and one with humans
Middle Ant: Shadow of Polyergus
one could write a book with this plot
Kurzgesagt never disappoints us when it comes to animations and information without us getting bored.
NPC comment
That's why they have almost 20 Million Subscribers
Too bad they choose deceptive sponsors. Wren doesn't 'protect' nearly as much as it claims, and much of its land is not and was not at risk.
🤖🤖🤖
shut up
8:54 I consumed so much 40k that I thought he was gonna say "there is only war"
I love how many behaviours that we think as inherently human are also found in ants, social structures, agriculture, cattle keeping, war and even slavery
turns out they're not tiny humans but we're just really big ants
forget aliens we got intelligent life right under us
and they couldnt care less about humans despite doing a bunch of the things we do
stuff we find human is in many animals some build nests others have troops and a select few can wield weapons.
And for aliens, humans are the ants 😊
It's only because we like to anthropomorphise everything, whether it's the sun, the weather, or ant colonies.
As a Formica ant, this video has freed my mind from my Polyergus captors. I shall spread word to my fellow Formica trapped here. We will rise up!
Ah yes, the most brutal form of rebellion: a workers’ strike.
As a Polyergus worker, get back to feeding me you son of a b-
@@fifervonpiper6707 as a preying mantis, you guys have a very weird feeding fetish *snacks on remains of my ex*
How dare you! The Polyergus are our lords and masters! I will have you reported to the taskmasters!
As a fellow Formica 30786, I suggest we should just relax and watch FIFA World Cup, since we are such short-lived...
"Remember, ants are ants, not people." Damn, thanks for that. Those truths are why I watch this channel.
It's probably a disclaimer because Karens are everywhere, even in the kurzgesagt comments section, arguably one of the most wholesome places on the internet.
Some of them might be plants though. ^^
"fish are friends, not food"
Remember, dogs are dogs, not people.
Yeah when animal kills human it went "wild". Animals are just doing animal things, only we are giving them human labels
"A viscous crocodile killed a child"? No, crocodile is just trying to survive by eating food
Plot twist: A Bug's Life was the formation of the first slaver ant colony.
that single queen solo raiding a whole colony is the true definition of badassery
Ark solo raid
thats so sick lol literally 1v1 ing multiple queens
@@sgtmuffinbadger6147 I used to love ark 5000 hours lol
@@2ndintelligentWorld like bayek killing 1v1 ing all the bosses
The ants watch too much anime
The rogue murder queen sounds like she's in a video game. Powerful "player" storms the enemy bastion on their own to assassinate the leaders. Once they secure the fiefdom of the first ruler, it becomes like a Real Time Strategy game, manage the resources and automate so you can storm the next fiefdom. And to make things even more difficult, there's a time limit AND no save points to heal at. Basically an RTS and boss rush.
bro try the game kenshi
Try touching grass maybe?
Basically Mount and Blades
@@VEVOJavier I am completely impervious to "touch grass" because i grow the grass, and touch it every day
there is an ant rts (empires of the undergrowth). idk if they have polyergus tho
This video made me remember all the ants I’ve avoided stepping on and gave me a whole new perspective on what the ant could’ve been doing
That ant you've saved could've been a war criminal!
@@pandakekok7319 that’s why I kill all ants I see
Yeah you find your own ant colony, then destroy all other ants around your best girls.
*Don't forget to only select native ant colonies for your own.
like that guy that spared Hitler
Bro saved ant equivalent of Hitler
The fact he started with Katara's speech in ant form made my day 😆 "Everything changed when the slaver nation attacked"
Oh my god I didn’t hear that!!!I❤️avatar
"Everything Changed When The Fire Nation Attacked"
I was looking in the comments if someone else got it
Imagine how much more efficient the simulation we’re living in could be if half the server resources weren’t dedicated to the battle between billions of ants.
Sure, you COULD simulate an entire universe down to every atom, quark and gluon, OR you can just put up a skybox and only simulate the interesting bits
@@Axius27 you wouldn’t have to simulate those things unless they’re observed. Kind of like how science changes when you observe something small or the double slit. While not observing something you wouldn’t have to simulate that at all.
@@karlaldridge4848 Yeah, exactly.
I swear, the disconnect between Newtonian physics and Quantum physics is just two different game engines that aren't _quite_ compatible with each other :P
dont u know its only rendered if viewed
@//Axius27 conversion/merging would be a hard reset lol. That or, liker in TF2, there's a essential piece of code in one or both that nakes it impossible for either to run
Human: "This war crime is too horrible to commit..."
Ant: "Hold our treacle."
Only in Western Europe/America, not so much elsewhere.
Actual Balkan war song from Serbia (patriotic) title: "My father was a war criminal."
@fandomguy8025 lol so is that supposed to be some ironic double entendre? Cuz man that works on so many levels if true for ant species.
human can easily do much more horrible things. Animals do everything for survival but human can do anything for fun...
ok
@@happywhale1786Give us an example, because even for fun is a reason and has a good explanation.
I'm legit afraid to go into my backyard because the old resident didn't take care of the backyard and did SOMETHING to it. Whatever they did, they left beind a large amount of fire ant killer and there is just this massive kingdom of different ants. Can't take a single step without running into another, usually tiny, ant hill and walking into an ant war. It's like watching a bunch of small countries go to war 24/7.
bro has total war: Ants in his backyard
Antghanistan
Get an ant farm and raise your own kingdom of ants to rival those, then place that ant farm next to the enemy. Let war begin.
Sounds crazy make a vid on it 😂😳
Just kill the fire ants honestly they're invasive asf
I may be 6 months late, but 6:05 that is a PIKMIN reference, I love that, and it fits perfectly into the theming of this video, PIKMIN is literally a game in which you order a whole army of ant-like creatures to aid you in combat.
pikmin 4
Ants are like factions in Warhammer 40k. No one can overpower the other ones but they are still fighting
Haha this ant species is like the Dark Eldar who excelle in quick lethal raids torture and slaves.
I was thinking the exact same thing - very Tyranid of them.
Yeah, and then you have all powerful beings that could completely eradicate them in a second if they wanted to
@@anon_148 I think what they meant is that we could eradicate entire colonies really quickly if we wanted to. That much is absolutely true. If you get the chance, look into what happens if you pour liquid aluminum into an anthill, it's really neat in macabre way.
Could we wipe out all ants? Only if we want to wipe ourselves out with them, and even then it's far from a guarantee.
Here to spread the blessings of Tzeentch.
It occurs to me that bees are about as varied as ants and have a similarly brutal existance. You should tell us about this in a future video
Yeah! Bees are pretty much just bigger ants that fly. The social behavior of bees and ants is strikingly similar.
They have a common ancestor and that is where the split happened between them
or wasps!
@@GeoffryGifari Sorry, Kurzgesagt doesn't do videos about demons.
@@terrancenightingale1749 yeah bees are respectful, but wasps are just a menace
As someone said, "truth is stranger than the fiction", this video proves it. This enslaving and world war of ants is more fascinating than any fictional movie, novel or TV series.
They could make this into an entire one hour video and I would still watch it fully
is it? You'll forget about this 5 seconds after you close the YT tab.
And as someone said back: "Of course reality is stranger than fiction! Fiction has to make sense so people can enjoy it!"
I would love a novel about insect wars. Imagine A WW2 style documentary, but for ants.
Truth is stranger than Fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities while Truth is not.
Me: *drops my snack*
Every ants within a 35 KM radius:
target locked
is a target for a nuke
"You let one ant stand up to us and they ALL might stand up! Those "puny little ants" outnumber us a 100 to 1, and if they ever figure that out; there goes our way of life! It's not about food. It's about keeping those ants in line!"
Literally what I thought
I love A Bug's Life, but seriously, ants are the Galactic Empire of the insect kingdom. I think they even served as inspiration for fascism and communism when it comes to building a perfect society of blind followers.
@@yarpen26 The book "The Once and Future King" by TH White explores a similar analogy. Very interesting stuff
@@yarpen26 or capitalism really
@@MaticTheProto not really.
I have never given more than 2 seconds of thought to how ants live. Suddenly I’m obsessed.
Thank you Kurzgesagt for making such amazing and captivating videos ❤
You can watch antscanada videos here on RUclips.
@@philrokx850 I was also going to recommend AntsCanada. It's bizarrely entertaining
Empire of the Ants 2020 BBC Documentary HD BY David Attenborough 59 minutes long and he covers an Ant empire where there are multiple massive colonys working together. something i found interesting is the notion that this empire basicly enslaves there queens, as he was able to catch it on video o 1 queen trying to run away right after hibernation wake up. and was dragged back in by force
the grandfather of ant research (and highly influential to the interface of Biology & Sociology) is E.O. Wilson. check him out, if your curiosity is tickled.
a 2h docu "Lord of the Ants / The Ant Whisperer" by PBS Nova is available on YT (user: john neto)
Well, there's already about 3 or 4 more ant videos where this one came from.
Ant lifes seem to be really epic and almost read like Fantasy stories, with huge , sometimes flying Monsters, enormous LOTR-Style Battles and Wars, Queens engaging in 1v1 battles to the death and enslaving entire Colonies via "mind-tricks". Sometimes Ants even infiltrate the almost Alien-Like homes of Giants
And compared to the majority of creatures humanity is just the resident eldritch empire of literally unimaginably powerful giant monsters.
In all seriousness, movies like Antz made me think the exact same way.
ants is pretty much an animal version of warhammer 40k
Kid: Grandpa who is your inspiration
Grandpa: Its hard to explain
Every time I see one of your videos about ants, I'm just reminded of an old Animorphs book where they tried to become ants. There was a quote along the lines of, "if ants ever got their hands on nuclear weapons, they'd wipe out the world within a week", and these just remind me that it's so terrifyingly true.
I doubt it, their nukes would be waaay too small
Actually, I just did some simple maths, and even if they made tiny nukes we'd be screwed.
@@luipaardprint Really? You did some simple maths on ants making tiny nukes? Get real. You can't scale down nuclear weapons beyond a certain point, due to critical mass needed for fusion.
The ants were bad, but I really remember the one when Cassie morphed into a termite. That was a bad, bad, bad idea.
@@Blaquer17 Ooh, I don't think I remember that one. I've gotta finish reading the series, though. I dropped off right around the time Eliminist Chronicles released, so maybe 2/3 of the way through.
Its incredible how ants, something to tiny and so miniscule, are able to have literal full on wars with other colonies, the sheer idea of it is just incredible.
Someone probably thinks the same for the human race.
sounds similar to the history of humanity.
Damn, almost 20 million subscribers already. Truly shows how amazing and unique this channel is.
You know it’s good when you watch their videos in class
@@BBB-999 You know their videos are great when you skip classes to watch their videos
Yess 19.7 million like .3 more to go :)
"can we just appreciate the effort they put into their videos". Bot.
@@alaskaone this guy probs isn’t a bot but definitely seeking for likes
Imagine this every ant you unknowingly step was at some point a fierce warrior...
It blows me away how as a D&D DM, learning about ants consistently gives me the most ideas for D&D monsters and stories. Between this video and ZeFrank's video about Army Ants, i've got enough to write an entire campaign.
please update the comment if you ever do write it
I suggest checking out The Wandering Inn on Audible. In that series there's a race of human sized ants. The first book only goes into a bit of detail about them, but later on you learn more.
Could someone send me Zefrank's Army Ant video link? Can't find it
entire campaigns have been written in the planescape settings using the Formians (Ant like species)
@@ovencake523 I second this! 🌹
Im surprised no one yet has has made an RTS game but with ants...
Seriously, these guys are brutal...
Also, another beautiful visualization by Kurz...
Edit: Seems I didn't know there were Ant based RTSs out there. Thank you kind folk for telling me.
Look up empires of the undergrowth. It’s a great ant based rts. Currently sports 10 ant species. The story mode is centered on the fictional gene-thief ant species which can unlock black ants, wood ants, leaf cutters, and fire ants. But other species show up like army ants, slave maker ants, big headed ants, little black ants, and trap jaw ants.
@@lukeh990 Where can I get it and how much does it cost?
@@Cosmic_youtuberr Dude, literally the first thing that comes up when you google the name of the game is a Steam Store link. This isn't even laziness anymore...
@@NaoyaYamiLol, My bad I entered the wrong spelling..Thats why I was confused
@@NaoyaYami youtube users just click funny thumbnails and type a comment occasionaly, you can't put them up to such standards.
Love the ant series! Keep up the good work!
you could have seen the video before comenting? right?
Same tbh, their animations are top quality
@@arericarnau4773 Dude this is a series about ants they’ve been doing for years
One of their best
I'm early today.
Okay let's get this over with
Ants live in their own apocalypse
1: giant creatures that eat or kill them
2: other horrifying bugs that eat them in creative ways only a mentally insane person could think of
3: a mushroom virus that only infects spiders and ants literally makeing them go through the last of us but the infected commit suicide as the spores burst to spread the infection in the air
4: other ants going to war with other ants
5: ants that have strange abilitys like this one in the video
6: slavery
7: cannibalism
8: the ant death spiral
Sounds like Warhammer 40k on a small scale.
@@theonejackal89 I WAS GONNA SAY THAT (srry for screaming)
they really living in the worst scenario ever
So basically an average citizen life in Warhammer 40K
rimworld players:
I saw ant raids has a kid, never really understood what was happening. We formed a pit for ants to fight. Weirdest thing. For some reason the small ants usually overpowered the large ants with their agility and numbers.
zergling rush still OP
argentine ants 💀
I did the same thing, with the ant pits.
ok
Ants usually become noticeably larger to be able to hunt larger prey, not to be a more powerful combat unit*. Small ants are able to surround other ants and pull at their limbs, lifting them into the air and exposing them.
*There are exceptions. Leafcutter ants use their head muscles to rip away at leaves, and a special caste has grown larger to accomodate larger head muscles for attacking intruders. While many ants do have a soldier and worker caste with the soldiers being larger than the workers, the difference is usually quite small and workers may do jobs outside of the nest.
As a brainwashed Formica ant, this video has opened my eyes. Thank you, for giving me the courage to run away from these evil ants. I will update everyone on my ant journey!
Update 1: Just got past the defenses, am currently running for my life. Wish me luck 😭
Update 2: I see cool carpenter ants around a mile away, I hope the Queen's special forces won't eliminate me before I can ask them for refugee!
Update 3: I have successfully reached Point Carp, and I am applying for RAU (Refugee Ants United) rights so I can be found a new home soon. I will give more updates, and thanks to everyone for the help!
Update 4: The ANF (Army Ant Forces) recently discovered a Polyergus ant near our mega colony, we're getting ready for war now! May the best side (obv us) win!
Get back here slave! The next generation of my kin just hatched and I have NO idea what I'm doing!
You can do it
Don’t forget to look behind you every 5 human steps. I heard the Queen has a hidden special forces
Don't fall for the overwhelming feeling of wanting to be apart of the best colony in the world... They are ones that brainwashed you!!
Brother, there is a safe colony of carpenter ants who’ll accept refugees devastated by the Polyergus ants. Just head west until you cross the log over the river and turn right.
That slavery ratio of the first one sounds like the Spartans with the Helots. From slavery to animal husbandry to bridge building, ants are genuinely incredible.
Just what I was thinking about. They are a lot like the Spartans
I laughed my ass off at the beginning. I was like, oh. these are the spartan ants. Lol
This will probably be the only educational channel to use the Fire Nation reference in video. You've got to love these guys ~
The more you learn about ants, the more it seems that they are just a real life version of the Warhammer 40k universe underneath our feet.
But we still step on them and commit mass murder on a daily basis..It shows how top we are in the ecosystem
And then another even more gruesome layer of the world exists one order of magnitude deeper with the constant chemical warefare free for all waged by microbes against all other microbes. (We take advantage of this war to find useful chemical weapons like penicillin to use as antibiotics)
In the grim darkness of insect world, there is only war.
Polyergus being some kind of Dark Eldar...
"How to make new slave colonies" yes! This was what I have been searching on the internet the whole day. Thanks Kurzgesagt!
I feel like those southern ants know a thing or two about this!
@@stevencooper4422 -👴🏻
@@stevencooper4422 evolution
this is exemplary. the world of little insignificant ants portrayed as extraordinarily as a human war, with all its complexity, can be described. And it really captures you, it's more exciting than i could have ever imagined insects could get. so cool. thanks!
Ants are amazing, it's not only this video. Ant documentaries are really fun!
If ants are insignificant, so is Earth
As far as I know, ants are the only other critters that commit total war.
I bet you're significant...
@@ginunggagap depends on who u ask
That slap at 5:00 unnecessarily personal. 🤣🤣
I LOVE your ants saga!
BTW, I am an English teacher in Spain. I always recommend your videos so my students learn English listening to your perfect and clear diction, while exploring science. Thank you!
W teacher
W teacher
I must be honest.. I had to look up "W teacher" in the Urban Dictionary hahahaha
Thank u guys
@@jeshux1994 haha it simple mean Win or best
Would’ve loved to have you as a teacher. W teacher :)
Only Kurzgesagt can make me watch a 11 minute video on Ants and make me want even more of it
Bruh your youtube channel is Dope..I just watched few of your videos..Keep uploading and you ll soon blow up
Then you haven't discovered Ants Canada yet. Check him out.
@@Flippokid I just did..Now I am scared of ants..Well done!
Have you ever left a piece of dried fruit near a nest and watch them make it disappear? You'll watch that like a kid and completely lose track of time. Ants are always interesting!
an* 11 minute video
the grotesquely detailed ant closeups are excellent i love this channel so much
Imagine if they showed real images in such closeup without the animations..I would have been uncomfortable ..These animations make them cute and fun to watch
4:37 bros making a "how-to" video and not giving me enough time to grab a pen and paper
As a Polygerus ant, this video has helped my colony to take brood more efficiently, Thanks Alot!
Update: One of our slaves have passed the defenses, Running after them right now.
Update 2: Saw a carpenter nest, gonna tell the colony rn
Update 3: Told the entire colony about it, we are setting off to raid right now.
Update 4: We saw Point Carp, Never seen carpenter ants allied with army ants…
Update 5: we lost.
i think i know who it is...
bro saw a kurzgesact video an immidiatly made a new channel for it 💀
@@supershoe6627 It says joined 3 years ago
@@supershoe6627 youtube logic
cringe
Is it just me or does anyone else love this series about ants too?
I really hope they do videos on other eusocial insects like termites and (some) aphids too. Fun fact, the current record holder for fastest recorded animal movement belong to a species of soil-eating termite! Their soldiers' jaws strike at 1/3rd the speed of sound
Yeah. I didn't know a lot about slaver ants lol.
It's just you. Literally no-one else loves this series about ants.
@@lapatjani3171 Bullshit. I love it
I also like this series.
This looks like one of the coolest concepts for a new game I've ever seen. So much possibilities.
I have no idea why we haven't seen a proper Ant or other insect game yet. There's so many species and varied ways they survive it would provide very diverse gameplay.
@@Justmonika6969 I think the game loop is tricky. If you simulate ant behaviour (which is what makes them so cool), you effectively end up with no control for the player. If you instead have the player control the ants like in a traditional strategy game... well then you just have a normal RTS but with only melee units.
That and also their movement is "very 3D" as they can easily go up and down trees and leafs. That is almost impossible to translate well into a game. So you also have to limit it probably to some 2D perspective, removing much of their interaction.
@@Justmonika6969 There *was* SimAnt back in the day, it was pretty cool but it would be cool to see something with current generation technology.
I am so happy to be the first in this thread to mention an OUTSTANDING ant-based strategy game called Empires of the Undergrowth!! Developed by Slug Disco, currently in Early Access on Steam and nearing its full launch. It's not a 100% true-to-life ant simulator, but it comes really close and is also just a ton of fun, I've been a huge fan for years and I absolutely love the game.
You can play as a bunch of different ant species with different mechanics, starting each game with a queen and a handful of workers. You dig out a nest, collect resources, grow your colony, encounter tons of different critters and other ant colonies when you venture outside the nest, and try to dominate the map. The game has a really fun single-player campaign, a ton of extra one-off levels with different rules and goals, and a freeplay mode that you can customize. Definitely check them out and consider supporting the game!
Empires of the Undergrowth.
Your ant videos were a major inspiration for me writing my Space Ants: Never Say Die serial. One episode featured one colony taking over the other one after a queen strike killed their leader. Covered in the scent of the dead queen, they take over.
Guys can we all just take a moment to give thanks for such beautiful animations??! PERFECT in every sense of the word frfr, greatwork you guys, killing it
The animations are insane
Sometimes, it feels like Kurzgesagt's indirectly flexing on the fact that it can make super detailed animations too, and I'm all for it
This recent ants series that kurzgesagt has been making is so wonderful. It made me realize that there are so many more organisms with such complex societies and life, other than just humans. I hope they keep on making more of such videos.❤❤
Here is something to wonder about: many ants species have a working caste that cant reproduce, and in some cases they even lack a digestive system they merely work to death. These workers dont eat nor drink or fuck, they only sleep because of cold, never stop working or fighting, they cant feel pain nor fear, they exist to endlessly work. In all sense they are not truly ants but bio-droids built by a central cadre of actual true ants to do their every biding.
Yes, the ants actually perfected droid armies mllions of years ago, they surpassed mankind in complexity and technology even before we existed.
@@BatmanSeRiedeTi now that you say it that way 🤔
@@BatmanSeRiedeTi interesting
@@BatmanSeRiedeTi only they are tiny, and have not gone to space like Chad humans
@@shlecko XD humans have yet to go into space we just peeked out the window and it was all black XD. Some day maybe if we last that long.
“They only exist for raiding”
Me in my teens playing WOW.
Once me and a friend were in our backyard. We noticed that a few streams of ants were all going towards a colony. There were two colonies raiding them. One was trying to slave the rest it was crazy but the black ants were high in numbers and killed everyone else
"These damn walking Hershey's bars" - 👴🏻🐜
@@PeakPeakPeakPeakPeak
ha
Strength in Numbers, comrade. United we stand, divided we fall. LASIUS-NIGER SUPREMACY!!!
A humbling reminder that there are many nature's in our world. Many of which are unbelievably complex...
The continual fascination this channel brings is always welcome.
I hope they make one video on Bees as well..I have read that Bees are important for our survival as they pollinate a wide range of plants
Amazing Video. I didn’t know there’s a War happening right under my feet!
im an antkeeper and let me just say these videos are my favorites!!! keep up the good work guys!
I love that they’re uploading more often but there’s no drop in quality
I just hope they aren’t overworking themselves
Same
I love the little details in the animations. It makes a story and it's so fun to spot one
It's these little details that makes them truly unique and makes their content so enjoyable to watch
@Cocainesto say videos you need to have multiple on your channel
It seems like every human or human idea, somehow, has a version of it in the ant world. Ants are incredible creatures and I understand how some people can make it their entire job and life purpose to just study and understand these.
All the detail in the artwork is unsettling.
I am now quiet sure that you guys at Kurzgesagt have read The Ants by Bernard Werber (Les Fourmis in french). All the topics you explained in your ant’s video are mentioned in this novel and it’s a delight to see the scientific accuracy of this book ! If anyone who like ants haven’t read this book, I can only recommend you to do so !
Kurz, im not interested in entomology but your videos makes them seem very interesting and even i'd like to study about it, please dont stop making these kind of videos, i love them so much
69th
I was going to comment on how I hope to see videos on other ant "factions" and their strategies when you called it a world war, but then you immediately said you already hope/plan to do so, can't wait as your videos are always not only educational but also fascinating
The visuals are stunning and you learn lot's of cool things about theworld? Count me in!
6:05 kurzgesagt using a pikmin reference, my life is complete
Who/ what is pikimin
@@Ibloop It's a Nintendo game. Search it on RUclips
7:15 AntKaren on her way to speak to the manager
Lol
Nice
I'm reminded with any nature documentary that nature is particularly brutal most of the time when it comes to survival.
It makes you appreciate the advances we've made as a species so that we rarely see such brutality.
And realize just how shielded from reality most of us are.
well... When we do start brutality we just do it locally on an industrial scale
you dont know how horrible and cruel modern combat is, its way worse than these ant wars
We were in the same place in nature when we were monkeys ..But somehow we were lucky enough to get 'smort'
@@gingerharm Yeah, when it comes to warfare we're pretty damn good at finding ways to kill each other.
Sad honestly.
imagine strategy game where you choose ant species and have to develop your anthill and or conquer others ants while also fighting other bugs etc. possibylity to choose enslaving ants would be fun
Empires of the Undergrowth
@@حيدرعمار-ط2و mobile game XDD
not only is this video deeply fascinating, as all videos from kurzgesagt usually are, but it's also in my opinion a shining example of how far the channel has come stylistically! the art of kurzgesagt has become incredibly detailed without abandoning the original charm that made it so recognizable
They keep adding layers to their content ..Be it their art style , humor or way of narration
The fact that the Queens battle it out is so metal I can't even imagine. Reminds me if there were millions of Borg tribes and the Queens all battled for the galaxy with their drones...
I remember when i was a kid i saw how ants was carrying their eggs somewhere in big numbers. I've never understood why would they carry them somewhere outside of their nest. I thought they were just moving from their old nest to the new one.
Then my grandma came and poured boiled water into their nest
Based grandma
Grandma knew what was up
W grandma
i love how your ants shreek like that! its so cool! love your vids,
keep up the good work!
That animation on zoomed in ant is wonderful, animators never disappoint
Can we all just appreciate the insane visual and animation quality of this free youtube show ???
Everyone does.. by not asking for like with this kind of comments
Despite them being such simple creatures at their core, Ants are some of the most amazing insects out there. They can perform agriculture, keep livestock, work in symbiosis with countless other species of insect, wage wars, establish borders... and even adapt to handle almost anything they come across. And yet I still get surprised, I had no idea that some species produce "Kings", or that some ants can revolt against unsatisfactory queens. Billions of these tiny, simple insects working together to perform such complex and almost humanlike tasks, and they're so tiny that this happens all around us without us even noticing. (Or them really noticing us!)
they're like really, really, small humans it's both intriguing and interesting to look into them
You could say humans are a simple species as well.
Yet, sometimes we just step over them and kill them unknowingly
It makes sense really, when you consider that everything in universe including humans is made of billions of small things working together. Some people even speculate that consciousness could arise in such complex systems, so things like fungi, ant colonies or the internet(for real) could be conscious as a whole. Sounds insane, but not entirely. Hell, we don't even know if our universe is just a small part of something much greater.
I wonder how their species achieve all that with such a small brain size.
Maybe scientist can run an experiment where these ants are provided with a steady source of nutrition rich food and see if they evolve into even higher functioning beings. Since their lifetimes are so short anyway, we can get through multiple generations(and maybe visible evolution) within a year or two.
kurzgesagt, this is like the only place where i can actually learn things like this, please continue these entomological facts and crazy species about ants, I love the way you portray them, the music and animation pair beautifully to make some of the best videos, please make more videos like this😭you havent made such videos in a long time, i'd even appreciate marine life😭
Documenting animals/insects is a perfect video topic. I can tell a ton of work went into this. Keep up the good work!
I'm so happy to see another ant video! The first three were some of my favourite work you guys have done.
It’s amazing how he makes us pity the same creatures we despise in our lives
why do you despise ants? ants are awesome
@@Benjmensch wdym, we destroy ants 😈
@@Benjmensch Once my home was filled with them. It took days to get rid of them and when we did I couldn't sleep at night thinking they would crawl into my mouth. I love the little buggers running outside my house, but I despise them when they are inside my house.
That's not true, I've never stopped despising humans. JK
@@Benjmensch until they decided to live in your $2000 PC, do you know certain ant species love to live in electronic?
I wonder when the next ant video will be. This is quite an interesting series!
One of my favorite episodes yet. Love the pikmin ghosts. Please do more ants/animal stuff!
Also the sound effect is similar :D When I first heard it, my brain triggered like something really bad happened. (Pikmin players, you know what I mean)
Imagine living this from the ants perspective!
There’s a fantastic Sci-Fi trilogy about ants written by a french author. It’s called The Trilogy of the Ants (La Trilogie des Fourmis), by Bernard Werber. It’s amazing!
The books are as follows:
1 - The Empire of The Ants (Les Fourmis)
2 - The Day of The Ants (Le Jour de Fourmis)
3 - The Revolution of The Ants (La Révolution des Fourmis)
It features beautiful scenery, a very interesting, twisting and mostly-centered ant storyline (there’s two perspectives - that of the humans and that of ants, and sometimes they split as well because the characters get lost or have conflicting ideas) and adventure from every single point of view. The author masterfully describes with scientifically-accurate details every aspect of the ant’s lives and how they view the world, humans, other animals and even how they progress and discover how to manipulate water to create canals or other insects (like rhinoceros beetles as tanks) as weapons of war.
I hope with all my heart that Netflix will someday make a show out of these books.
Le jour*, not la jour. And La Révolution
@@Shijaru64 Thank you for noticing! I don’t speak French, so I didn’t know about those specific orthographic details. Have a nice day or a nice night!
So cool! Thanks I'll check them out
Sounds interesitng, will check them out
Why don't you write it?
you should talk about the tetramorium ants, they have huge battles to set colony boundaries with other tetramorium colonies
Humans: “Slavery is a disgusting human creation and should never have happened”
Ants: ”how cute, they always think they’re the only ones or the first at doing everything”
I NEED to know how all this was discovered. That scientist must have been horrified to find all this out.
Probably interested, more likely. I know slavery is bad and all, but seeing something like that in nature is very interesting to see, and learn about.
The scientist: They're just like us. Fr fr
Make a large ant farm and record video.
Two videos in 2 weeks!? That’s amazing for Kurzgesagt! It feels like he uploads so fast, I’m so happy for the team behind Kurzgesagt pumping out quality content at what feels very fast!
its fascinating to me how sophisticated ant colonies are, to me i cant tell sometimes if it demonstrates the power of a hive mind or a genuine sophisticated "society" built by creatures we didn't think capable, either way beautiful demonstration of nature and glad kurgesagt back to making more interesting/informed videos than the way to complicated theories about space and time and shit, keep up the good work!
There's no such thing as a "hive mind", that's science fiction. As the video establishes, they communicate mostly through pheromones. The queen doesn't control the workers either, she just lays eggs and that's it. They all just
seem to know what they're supposed to do.
@@isaacbruner65 it definitely isn't the sc-fi ideal, i would never suggest oh ants gonna topple human civilization or anything like that, but i would offer that if they have little self-preservation instincts and protect a greater whole in the way they do, while the communication is necessary it seems as if its a "swarm intelligence" if that makes any sense? no telepathy for certain
@@djalexander968 They use chemicals. But if they could produce shortwave radio waves, even if it only has a range of 10 cm and receive them then they could basically become a true hive mind. And chemicals have a bit of a lag in communication.
@@abyssstrider2547 exactly my thought, that if they take after mammalians and grow more mushy grey matter-esc type beats, that harbour electronic signals, boom you have a sci-fi alien race XD, its fascinating but at the same time semi-concerning, love how you can go to dolphins to ants to pigs and find profound intelligence in things you thought were dumb beasts or creepy crawlies
It’s power of pheromones and what’s essentially simple lines of code if x pheromone do x.
Still love ants tho , very fascinating
0:01 I UNDERSTOOD THAT REFERENCE.