00:00Just last year, scientists made an estimate about ant populations around the world, saying
00:09they believe there are an unfathomable 20 quadrillion of them. That's 2.5 million ants
00:14for every one human, with their dry carbon biomass exceeding the weight of all birds and
00:19mammals combined. Now, invasive ants from abroad have arrived in imported goods in the state of
00:24Florida, and they're quickly taking over. They're called leaf litter ants, and they're a non-native
00:29species. Experts say that in the last 50 years alone, their populations have doubled in many
00:34areas, prompting a warning that they would soon become the dominant species. And their viability
00:38in Florida is egged on by the fact that rather than killing off other ant species, they're
00:43actually working with them instead. In a lab study, researchers found that the invasive ants
00:47were willing to adopt ants from other colonies. Native Floridian ants, however, were far more
00:52likely to reject them, with their researchers writing, quote,
00:55by accepting and cooperating with ants from various nests, non-native ants effectively act
01:00like a single unified colony over a large landscape.
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