Photo from open sources
In an old abandoned bunker on the border of Poland and Germany, scientists made an interesting find. They found there amazing colony of ants, living for many years and growing in its size without light and food. Specialists are not yet in able to explain how insects managed to survive all this time. Where can they get energy in the absence of solar radiation and food?
“Special Object 3003 Templevo” is an underground a bunker built by the Poles at the beginning of the Cold War. In the warm the season here is about ten degrees Celsius, in winter – just over zero. Of any there has never been food here. At one time in refuge nuclear weapons were stored, but they were taken out of here in 1992, and the dungeon was empty, after which, presumably, it wound up here ants.
A photo from open sources
Sometimes bats get into the bunker. Scientists believe that their excrement can serve ants as an inferior substitute for food, however, for so long a colony on such a diet could not hold out would. It is noteworthy that the ants chose a separate concrete a room measuring just six square meters. Insects erected on the floor is a real earthen anthill, functioning almost like that same as normal anthills on the surface.
Small forest ants, apparently, do not think to leave their home, returning to nature. There were no queens, pupae and larvae, from which experts concluded that insects do not breed. However, the colony continues to grow due to new individuals, which get here through the ventilation shafts. According to rude It is estimated that in total in the colony currently lives about million forest orderlies.
A photo from open sources
Employees of the Polish Academy of Sciences found ants in the “Special object 3003 Templevo “back in 2013. Wojciech Chekhovski, leading the study, says that then scientists, albeit they were surprised, but did not attach much importance to their find. It was assumed that ants in such harsh conditions would either die out, either decide to return to the forest. However, after three years, the Poles again visited the bunker and were amazed that the insect colony did not just stayed there, but also increased significantly in volume.
“It seems that we found some kind of separate living things that don’t need water, sunlight, and food. Undoubtedly, this colony requires further study, ” Chekhovsky.
Time Insects
