00:02You can see these ants in the children's zoo at the San Diego Zoo and our
00:06invertebrate exhibit is called spineless marvels and the leafcutter ant exhibit
00:10is the newest exhibit. Well what you'll see in the exhibit is a simulation of
00:16what you would see in the wild which is leafcutter ants cutting down trees
00:20practically several hundred of them carrying leaves down into their
00:24underground nest. What you will see in our exhibit that you won't see in the
00:27wild is the underground nest and you'll see a series of subterranean fungus
00:31chambers. Well they're governed by no one which is one of the most fascinating
00:37things about them. There are worker ants which are all sterile females and males
00:42are only produced during times of reproduction. There's a queen but she
00:47doesn't tell anybody what to do she's simply the reproductive member of the
00:50colony and this in this case with leafcutter ants she can live 15 to 20
00:54years and produce 300 million ants in her lifetime.
