Consciousness in Nature
Ant School
Researchers have a strict definition for what is needed to say an animal is teaching another. Now for t
he first time an animal has met that definition, and it turns out that it is one of the smallest brained creatures on the planet, an ant. To be a true teacher a creature must:
1) While teaching, do the task less efficiently than they would outside the classroom.
2) Pupils of the teacher learn faster than they would by themselves.
3) There needs to be some feedback between teacher and student.
When they would set up a new food source for ants in the lab the older ants would learn the new route quickly but the young ones had to be trained. The older ants would carry the young ones or lead them to the new source. As the older ant led the young ones they would repeatedly call a halt and turn in loops. Then for feedback, the follower ant would tap their antennae against the leader’s body to keep her moving forward. Also if the distance between the ants shrank or stretched, both adjusted their speed. Not a mirror test, but some kind of consciousness is going on.