Scientists at Georgia Tech recently reported this fascinating example of altruistic behavior in the animal kingdom as a survival mechanism. They reported that the dreaded Amazonian fire ant when swept up by the seasonal floodwaters came together by the thousands to save each other. Alone they soon drowned but when they clung to each other locking arms, legs and jaws to form a raft, it was impenetrable to water, and the living raft could survive for months.
They come together without a single ant being in charge of the process and become what entomologists call a super- organism. Bound together in this way the raft can survive for months sailing off to new lands. Fire ants have succeeded in landing in the southern United States.
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