Birds Rely on Army-Ants for Dinner : Zooillogix

ScienceBlogs Book Club: Inside the Outbreaks

Video of the Week

Kunekune Pigs

Bleiman Brothers Profile

In the wild, Andrew feeds on fish, sponges, small crustaceans, nematode worms and protozoans.

Benny's diet is very specialized, consisting mainly of the interior of Ramy nuts, nectar from the Traveller's Palm tree, some fungi and insect grubs. He is also known to raid coconut plantations, and has been seen eating lychees and mangoes, which are also plantation crops.

Search

Look How Important We Are

View blog authority

Science Blogs - Blog Catalog Blog Directory

Read the super-informative Interview with the Bleiman Brothers

World's Largest Zoo and Shot Glass Collection

Now accepting donations in exchange for recognition and fame on Zooillogix!

seattle%20aquarium%20shot%20glass.JPG

Currently Featured: Seattle Aquarium from Jason Brunet of JeffTheFish.com - the official website of baby rats!

The List:
Adventure Aquarium
Aquarium of the Bay
Baton Rouge Zoo
Birch Aquarium at Scripps
Bronx Zoo
Brookfield Zoo
Cincinnati Zoo
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
Florida Aquarium
Georgia Aquarium
Honolulu Zoo
Houston Aquarium
Knoxville Zoo
Lincoln Park Zoo
Los Angeles Zoo
Louisville Zoo
Maritime Center in Norwalk, CT
Milwaukee Zoo
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Mystic Aquarium
National Aquarium
New England Aquarium
New York Aquarium
Newport Aquarium
North Carolina Aquarium
North Carolina Zoological Society
Oakland Zoo
Oregon Coast Aquarium
Philadelphia Zoo
Pittsburgh Zoo
Rio Grande Zoo
Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies
San Antonio Zoo
San Diego Zoo
San Francisco Zoo
Santa Barbara Zoo
Sea World San Diego
Seattle Aquarium
Shedd Aquarium
Smithsonian National Zoo
South Carolina Aquarium
Tennessee Aquarium
Two Oceans Aquarium, Cape Town, SA
Vancouver Aquarium
Feed me Seymour!

« Endangered Sea Lions Develop Taste for Rare Penguin | Main | Swedes Croak Their Way to Victory »

Birds Rely on Army-Ants for Dinner

Category: ants • army ants • bird • feeding • ovenbirds
Posted on: June 6, 2007 3:00 PM, by ableiman

Army-ants storm through the jungles of Panama a million strong devouring any and every living creature in their path. Some clever birds have found a way to capitalize on the mayhem: Stay close to the ants and eat the leaping, running, and scampering insects that attempt to escape.

Who would want to escape from this love fest?

Antbirds and ovenbirds, the main ant-following species, have different strategies for using the ants to their advantages. Some birds only follow the ants within their own territories, but stop when they reach the borders. Others dabble in ant following, hitting them up for an easy meal but supplementing this by foraging on their own. Finally, the true loyalists rely solely on the ants to scare up their prey.

One species of ant-following antbird in the Thamnophilidae genus

Rob Brumfield, an Assistant Curator of Genetic Resources at the Museum of Natural History at Louisiana State University has studied the ant-following birds' behavior.

He describes the process of locating army-ants in the dense jungle: "I can hear in the distance the snap, crackle and pop of a million marauding army-ants marching through the leaf litter. They are consuming every insect, spider and lizard in their path. And traveling with the army-ants is a boisterous flock of birds."

Army-ants are routinely found in the birds' stomach contents, but scientists are split on whether or not the birds intentionally eat the army-ants or if the ants just happen to be attached to the prey.