Can ants perform surgery? The ant amputation paper, explained

Ants that amputate an injured nestmate’s leg, but only when it improves survival. In this video we explain “Wound-dependent leg amputations to combat infections in an ant society” by Erik T. Frank, Dany Buffat, Joanito Liberti, Lazzat Aibekova, Evan P. Economo and Laurent Keller, published in Current Biology in 2024. Chapters 0:00 The paper 0:11 Why wounds are dangerous 1:01 The first observation 1:29 Femur or tibia: amputate or clean 2:17 Does amputation help? 3:59 Bacteria inside the ants 4:16 Why the wound location matters 5:19 Testing the timing 5:36 Infected or not 6:03 Limitations 6:35 Conclusion Paper Frank, E. T. et al. (2024) Wound-dependent leg amputations to combat infections in an ant society. Current Biology 34, 3273–3278. #ants #animalbehavior #biology #science #insects