Leafcutter Ants Slice Leaves for the Colony | A Real Bug's Life | National Geographic

Finally, our little leafcutter has reached the canopy. So, this is where the harvest happens? Everyone's working hard before the weather turns. Slicing through leaves and bouncing their booties as they go. It creates rhythmic vibrations that other ants feel in their feet, like a leafcutter samba.

It gets everyone joining in where the good leaves are. After that long commute, she's getting her groove on too. With jaw muscles a quarter of her body weight, and serrated zinc-lined mandibles, even a first-timer can power through her work. This is almost too easy.

Rookie error. Well, that's certainly a quicker way down. But this is no place for a leafcutter to be lost and alone. The army ants have set up camp close by. A living fortress made of soldiers. But they don't rest for long.

With half a million mouths to feed, they need to hunt every day. The leafcutter better find her sisters quick. The army is so close, she can almost smell them. Wait, that's not army ants. It's something more familiar. Faint at first, getting stronger.

The trail! Back on track, close to the nest, and still carrying her precious leaf.