10 Weirdly Human Animal Behaviours

2. Ants Have Revolutions And Protests

So, it turns out that civil unrest is not a purely human trait, ants will occasionally overthrow their masters too.

There is a species of ant called Protomognathus americanus that are a particularly nasty piece of work. They will regularly invade the homes of weaker ants, steal their babies, and take them back to their colonies to make them their own live-in slaves.

The lives of these slave ants are pretty miserable, serving their work-shy masters, feeding their larvae and cleaning the nest. Not only that, but they'll never get the chance to breed, making them an evolutionary dead end.

You'd think, then, with such a hopeless fate, that there would be no reason to rebel, but that's exactly what this formiciform underclass do.

Some will go on strike, ceasing to care for their masters and their young, leaving them to starve. Other will take a more violent approach, literally dismembering their masters by pulling them limb-from-limb with the help of the other slaves.

The mutinous slaves will often die in the attempt, but it has been found that the rebellions help to reduce the amount of slaver ants and discourages them from preying on the weaker colonies.

Vive la révolution (des les fourmis)!