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Today on Animal Fact Files we're talking about leaf cutter ants. Don't leaf without subscribing! Thank you to dinesh pandian for today's request! These ants may just be the first farmers to ever live on our planet. Of course, it’s totally possible that some prehistoric species cultivated its own food and we just aren’t aware of it. I won’t lie, the idea of a megaloceros using its antlers for tilling the ground is fun to consider, but as far as we’re aware, leaf cutter ants are some of the only animals on earth besides humans to farm their own food. While leaf cutter ants do dine on tree sap, the majority of their diet consists of fungus grown on the leaves they cut. You wouldn’t be blamed for thinking that leaf cutter ants consume the leaves they cut, I mean, nearly all images of them consist of their above ground activities of chopping up and transporting leaves, however, that’s only part of the process.

A leaf cutter ant colony may have upwards of ten million individuals, all working together to harvest a food supply of fungus and to pass on their genetic material to the next generation. There are currently thought to be somewhere around 50 leaf cutter ant species, and colonies may differ between these individual groups, but, typically, leaf cutter ant colonies have a caste system of work responsibilities. The queen runs the show and produces offspring. Queens will leave their parent colony bringing with them a small piece of that colony’s fungus. She’ll fly about until she meets up with a male. They’ll mate, and the queen will then find the perfect spot to begin her own colony. She’ll burrow into the ground and produce offspring. These first offspring are usually tended to by the queen herself and they will grow to become the first gardeners of the colony. Their job is to tend the colony’s fungus crop; they also care for the brood. The queen will continue producing offspring while her infertile daughters tend to the new members of the colony. Eventually, both foragers, the ants who go out and find the leafs, as well as soldiers, the ants who protect the nest, are produced and the colony continues to grow from there. An entire colony may live as long as its queen who can be more than ten years old if she lives a full life. Some threats that leaf cutter ants face include birds, rodents, other larger mammals, and even other ants. These arthropods are pretty territorial and may execute any members of neighboring colonies found wandering their trails.

Follow a leaf cutter ant trail, and you’ll find chopped up plants. Leaf cutter ants seem to have a preference for younger vegetation that’s easier to cut through; and though their namesake may indicate otherwise, leaf cutter ants don’t just take leaves! A single ant will carry their prize back to the nest where other workers are standing by to further chop up the leaves and pass them along to the gardeners. The fungus grown in leaf cutter ant colonies is kept free from harm both by the careful observation of the gardener ants as well as bacteria that lives on the bodies of the ants that keeps other harmful fungi out of the nest.

These farmers can be found throughout the tropics of the Americas. Though it can be difficult to leaf cutter ant species apart, apparently one species gives off a minty smell - unfortunately this is only achieved by squishing them, and act that we here on AFF don’t condone.

For more facts on leaf cutter ants, check out the links in the description. Thank you for watching, and be sure to give a thumbs up for more Animal Fact Files.