During the COVID-19 pandemic, people were forced to change their living and working environments to reduce close contact with each other.
Now, new research has shown that this behavior is not unique to us, and that ants also make similar changes to their living environment when faced with pandemics.
According to this study, recently published in the journal Science by researchers at the University of Bristol, ants change the structure of their nests when exposed to pathogens in a way that reduces the likelihood of the disease spreading.
These changes include increasing the distance between entrances and reducing direct communication between chambers, a behavior that the researchers say has not been observed in any animal before.
