 This is accomplished by the males flying at least one kilometer away from their home population to mate with a neighboring colony's queen, thereby minimizing the chances of procreating with a related queen.Also, the monthly migrations of these ant populations help spur enhanced gene flow and eliminate the harmful effects of small breeding population sizes.A total of 557 different species of animal have been found to associate in some way with "E. burchellii", the greatest number known for any individual species.