Ants and teaching

John Roach in the article "Ants have teacher-pupil relations, researchers report" (National Geographic News) reports on the research of Nigel Franks and Tom Richardson, biologists at the University of Bristol in Britain, who assert that at least one species of ants have teacher-student relationships. Ants of the species Temnothorax albipennis teach other ants how to find where food is in a method called tandem running, a method in which one ant goes slowly so another ant can follow and find the food place. Franks and Richardson define a teacher as one that “modifies its behavior in the presence of a naïve observer, at some initial cost to itself, in order to set an example so that the other individual can learn more quickly.” According to these researchers, because the lead ant is “sacrificing” by not going as fast as possible, it is teaching.

Not all agree that tandem running is an example of teaching. Marc Hauser, director of the Cognitive Evolution Lab at Harvard University, believes that information is being acquired but not a skill, so it’s an example of communication not teaching. Franks and Richards disagree, saying that, although the ants gain information, they are also learning how to find the location of the food, which they apparently consider to be a skill.