Biologist Dr. Erik Frank is researching how an African ant species treats its wounded. To continue his work, the German Research Foundation (DFG) has now granted him an Emmy Noether group.
The African Matabele ant (Megaponera analis) lives dangerously when hunting able-bodied termites. However, the animals do not simply give up their wounded. Depending on the degree of injury, they rescue and treat them. Injured individuals decide for themselves whether they will be helped. If a specimen demands rescue, it remains calm, releases pheromones, and allows itself to be carried back to the nest. Animals that are too badly injured, on the other hand, move frantically and boycott being "medevaced".
But that is not all. ...
