AR Philosophy > Morality of AR > Speciesism - Index    Ants Are
First Non-Humans to Teach, Study Says By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer January 16, 2006  The ants are tiny
and usually nest between rocks in the south coast of England.
Transformed into research subjects at the University of Bristol,
they raced along a tabletop foraging for food -- and then,
remarkably, returned to guide others.  Time and again, followers
trailed behind leaders, darting this way and that along the
route, presumably to memorize landmarks. Once a follower got its
bearings, it tapped the leader with its antennae, prompting the
lesson to literally proceed to the next step.  The ants were
only looking for food, but the researchers said the careful way
the leaders led followers -- thereby turning them into leaders
in their own right -- marked the Temnothorax albipennis ant as
the very first example of a non-human animal exhibiting teaching
behavior.  "Within the field of animal behavior, we would say an
animal is a teac