Less than thousand (I guess) members. Exactly twelve hrs, that also night shift. They didn’t waste even a second I am sure. And the result ? A cute fort ! Really nice. You can see how beautiful it is. The design – perfect. Circular shape, one side higher than other (see the side view). Entrance at centre. Four ants will start from the centre every five seconds, they will go near the uppermost point of the fort, then will come back. Making sure no attack will be there in the near future ? Other members might be very busy inside the fort. Call me crazy (even the IRC does it these days !) but it was really nice and interesting watching this.

Side view of the same fort – You can see the difference in height. Now, don’t you think they are really amazing ? And when you sit near and watch, the ants get the signal very fast. Within seconds all the security-staff goes inside, may be passing the warning to message to the top officials ? They came back after about five minutes and continued the duty ! See the material they used, how they collected it, the pattern and distribution of the material. WOW, I am impressed !

While I was watching this, I saw another type of ants making something different near. Not a fort this time, but a nice trench ! That was near our open well. The trench is of about two metres length. Seems they have more entrances and exits throughout it. More than one way might be the idea ! These ants must be really intelligent. As the open well is near, there is chance of a flood any time and if that happens, these multiple entrance / exit combinations will help them to manage things. Good teamwork and great crisis management team.

Lesson learned – Going out and watching these small but amazing things (instead of sitting in front of the computer all the time) is really a nice experience. Yes, I am childish sometimes !

Note : Click on the thumbnail images for enlarged view