Cooperative Transport in ants:

Mentor: Dr. Helen McCreery, Harvard University
In collaboration: Dr. Deborah Gordon, Stanford University

This research aims to understand the ecological and evolutionary processes behind cooperative transport, a mode for prey retrieval and movement of larger items by ants. We wonder why some ants are capable of performing this group transportation of items and why some are not? We want to know what makes some species better than others and what patterns, if any, relates to an ecological basis for this technique. We are looking at the world that is changing around a species to learn about how much of their environment might be impacting their collective behavior. Some ants rely on this foraging technique to gather large sums of food and others never use it. There is still very little information about cooperative transport known and we are trying to get a more holistic understanding behind the processes involved.