Uncovering the Secret Foraging Habits of Desert Ants with Tracking Tech

Researchers have developed new tracking technology using computer vision to track individual desert ants over their entire foraging lives, revealing new insights into how they navigate their complex worlds. The ants learn quickly, memorizing their homeward paths after just one successful trip, and their outward routes evolve over time indicating different strategies for exploration versus exploitation. The high-precision data gathered is crucial to understanding how brains can guide animals through their complex world, which could inspire a new generation of bioinspired robots.