Modern Australian

In an ant's world, the smaller you are the harder it is to see obstacles

  • Written by Ravindra Palavalli-Nettimi, PhD student in Ecological Neuroscience, Macquarie University
In an ant's world, the smaller you are the harder it is to see obstaclesHow much an ant can see depends on its size.Flickr/photochem PA, CC BY

Look around your home or garden, or while out for a walk in the bush, and you’ll soon find plenty of ants of all shapes and sizes making their way around the place.

But how do ants detect and detour around obstacles, especially when they are finding food alone and not in a...