Now listen to a lecture on this topic in a biology class.
(male professor) OK, we can see a great example of this with ants. Ants live in large groups called colonies. They normally move together to get to food sources. And sometimes when the ants are moving toward food source, they'll encounter, find an obstacle in their path. So, for instance, let's say a large number of ants are walking on a tree toward some food on a branch. But when they reach the end of the branch they are walking on, there's a wide space between that branch and the next one, the branch with the food on it. Now, none of these ants alone can cross this wide space to get to the other branch with the food. So, how did they solve this problem?Here's how: one ant walks forward until it reaches the end of the branch and then automatically holds onto the branch with its back legs. Then it stretches its body forward into the open space. Now, this comes naturally to ants and it's a simple action. So then the next ant walks to the end of the branch and right across the first ant’s body. Then it holds onto the first ant and then it stretches its body out into the open space, just a little bit closer to the branch with the food on it. Then, one after another, other ants do the same thing until enough ants connect together to form a bridge between the two branches. Pretty amazing, huh? The connected ants hold this position allowing the rest of the ants in the group to cross over this bridge of ants to reach the food. "
Explain how the example from the lecture illustrates the concept of swarm intelligence.
The complex group behavior that insects living in a large group display to achieve a complex task together is called swarm intelligence. For example, a group of ants are walking on a branch of a tree when they discover food on another branch. But it seems impossible for any ant to reach the food since there's a huge space between the branch with the food and where they are. So they use their swarm intelligence to solve the problem. One ant walks till the end of the branch, attaching itself to it and stretches its body to allow another ant holds on to it, so one after another, the following ants repeat the same action by connecting each other to form a bridge so that the rest of the ants can cross the bridge and reach the food. (139 words)
