Reversing ants navigate successfully despite going backwards
Channel: The Company of Biologists
Date: 2016-07-21

Desert ants (Cataglyphis fortis) are remarkable navigators, but how do they locate home when they have to shift into reverse when dragging a heavy load? In a pair of papers, scientists from the University of Ulm, Germany, have discovered that ants are capable of successfully navigating  to the nest while going backwards, despite reversing the visual cues that are essential for navigation, and that they somehow measure the length of each stride precisely to keep track of where they are, instead of counting the number taken.

The full research papers can be accessed at http://jeb.biologists.org/content/219/14/2110.abstract and http://jeb.biologists.org/content/219/14/2119.abstract.