Meat Ants | The Kickboxing Ants From Down Under 

The most interesting thing to me about the meat ants is how upon stumbling across a wingless queen they will bring them to their nest or help her create and maintain a nest for her. Incredible how loyal they are to growing and maintaining their species.

I think what is most interesting about Meat Ants is the way they fight other meat ant colonies. It is very cool to see how they establish territorial boundaries by almost having "duels". It looks as if they are slapping each other with their front legs haha. Instead of killing the other colony and being detrimental to the overall species' success, they find a way for both groups to survive and thrive!

... "Civilized territorial dispute" ( T-poses and begins to slap each other in the face until one backs down ) >)X^D

The thing I find most interesting about meat ants is the sheer effect they can have on the environment around them! I spotted a nest while working the other day and in addition to the large cleared area for the nest itself it had two large 'highways' leading away from it. One of which broke even further into two trails! Such an industrious species.

The thing I found most interesting about meat ants is how they have an extremely complex behavior towards others of their own kind, and how they will help and take care of closely related queens and even go far as letting them in their nest.

I didn’t know , but am absolutely amazed at how the workers help young queens build a nest, and make her a satellite colony, and even more impressive when they ADOPT her into their own colony, truly fascinating! Thank you for the great videos

7:16 "Meticulously carried home." It proceeds to bite drop and kick it repeatedly...Do you work for UPS?

The kickboxing is the best part, surely. It’s a bit like how siblings go around their conflicts haha.

I love how they protect their own queens and helping them founding a new colony to expand their colony and how they solve conflicts with kickboxing instead of "real" fighting (/until the other is dead).

Almost 8 months since the last video. Where did the time go...Hope it was worth the wait! And THANK YOU for helping me reach 80K subscribers!!

I found the fact that they are immune to cain toads poison to be the most intriguing for me, knowing the toads have been an epidemic in Australia as an invasive species it's good to know they're developing natural predators

I was fascinated by the unique method of nearby colonies helping queens grow out their own colony. I have never heard of a species of ant that does anything similar to this, and I was amazed that these ants were able to develop all these spectacular attributes.

He doesn't drop videos very often but when he does they are masterpieces. Well worth waiting for

The most intresting thing about meat ants is how similar they are compared to wood ants. With their huge mounds, long trails, many nests, even many queens. Not to forget how aggressive both are and how important both are to the ecosystem. I just love watching wood ant trails in the wild.

I grew up with meat ants. Watching them take apart other ants nests and termite mounds will stay with me forever.

I find the kickboxing hilarious. It's like a slap fight between siblings.

You are my favourite ant RU-vidr I absolutely love your videos I find it very interesting that such strong and powerful ants instead of absolutely destroying each other they kick box

Ant Giveaway: My favorite thing about meat ants is that they have a civil way of solving issues, where other ants tend to fight, also I caught a spider ant queen.

I love how cute meat ants look when they “kickbox” to resolve conflict because I have never heard of a more unique way of resolving a conflict in the ants world

How’s it going with all the stuff down there? Hope you’re okay.

The thing that interests me about meat ants, is that they tend to help other meat ant queens when they’re done with the nuptial flight and drop down to the ground. I have never heard anything like this before and it fascinates me. Meat ants really care for the survival of their species.

I thought the kickboxing was hilarious, definitely my favourite part about meat ants. So civil haha

I found that the way of kickboxing to solve problems is most interesting about these meat ants. Also, their unique behaviour to accept other newly mated queens or caring for them is quite amazing.

My favorite thing about the meat ants is the generosity of the worker ants who find the queens that are trying to nest. A very unselfish move to help the new nest become founded. We can learn alot from these ants :D

YES OH GOD YES FINALLY ANOTHER ANTS AUSTRAILIA VIDEO!!! Why don't you post more often ;)

What an amazing documentary, I'm completely amazed by the quantity and quality of information you have managed to exposed in such a well put and composed video!! My favorite thing about meat ants that I saw in the video is probably not exclusive to meat ants but is quite fascinating to me. Around 9.20-9.25 when the ants are fighting the wasp you can see a poor ant with her body severed in half. Even in her completely devastating condition she still appears to try to bite on to its prey to help her sisters, for me showing how little " thought" she is putting on to her well being when an important item is being acquired for the colony. This for me shows the hive mentality this specie and many other possess. A couple of days I caught an ant queen but I've still been unable to identify her, I'm probably not too good at it xD if anyone has the knowledge to ID her I would be very pleased, there is a clip of her interacting with her test tube set up, it's the only video on the account (queen caught in Portugal near a river). Also if by any chance this comment manages to win the context and she manages to start a colony i'll put her on to the acrylic nest and do my best to update on her on another video to show you how she did! Thank you again for your amazing content and for the inspiration to learn more about, and appreciate the amazing creatures that ants are!!

In my opinion i find it the most interesting how the colony treats the queen and help other queens while they are starting their colony

What I find most interesting about meat ants is the way they treat foreign colonies and queens. I'm used to species being either super accepting of their own species and merging colonies all the time, or clashing and being completely at odds with one another. Seeing meat ants use civil battles to resolve territory disputes is fascinating and clever, and the way they treat new queens is possibly even more so. It's another incredible way some species can avoid dying when the queen does, alongside colony merging, cloning, and using gamergates. And I can only imagine the kinds of numbers meat ant colonies could produce when joined up with a dozen queens as you brought up in the video.

Giveaway: My favorite thing about meat ants is how like army ants, new queens will sometimes be assisted by workers from similar colonies.

I love how meat ants almost have their own community, they figgt to solve conflicts and have a huge interconecting city and they do everything together and there are different groups. Its almost like its own country/nation.

The Bull ant at 9:40 was a foraging Queen!

The thing I find most interesting about meat ants is honestly their nest structure. I think it is amazing how just one colony can spread out over many hundreds of meters, like one giant creature engulfing the landscape, or a huge city of little purple ants. Astounding. I must say, as a European, I am so jealous of your fauna over there. Keep on posting these fantastic videos!

You posted the perfect video for me at the moment. I’ve been looking for meat ant info for a little while because I was thinking of getting a colony for my self

A new video! Let’s go! 😁 keep up the good work and awesome videos. What I find most interesting about meat ants is the way they settle conflicts with other meat ant colonies. Instead of immediately trying to kill each other, they posture up giving their opponent opportunity to back away, like a warning. Then if neither ant backs away they proceed to “kickbox” which I find very cool and unique. It’s definitely a more civil way. Sadly, some people can’t even settle conflicts like that. It’s also very cool how the ants stay postured when they win as if bragging PS I am new in ant keeping and just caught five queens, I am not sure whether they are Tetramorium caespitum or pheidole megcephala

Thank you so much for captioning all your videos. It really helps deaf, hard of hearing, and those with auditory processing disorder really sit back and enjoy the ants without having to struggle to understand or fumbling with auto captions. It really shows you care, and I appreciate it SO much!! :)

You’re like an Australian David Attenborough of the ant world. I love your videos and how well they’re edited, and I was sooo happy to see a new one appear!! The thing I find so interesting about meat ants is their attitudes towards the queens. Helping them out if they land nearby is one thing, but helping them dig out a nest and actually sticking with them whilst they create a new colony? That’s adorable.

The "kickboxing" is like an anime fight where the fists are blurred because they're moving so fast. I wanna see slow-mo footage of an ant kick-box fight.

Ant contest and general rambling: Meat ants have always fascinated me mainly due their being a large abundance of them all around my neighborhood especially at my school, and their fierce and relentless desire to protect their colony, sisters and mother from anything. Near the main entrance right next to the path, there is a massive meat ant nest that stretches about three meters across full of millions of hungry ravenous worker ants that appear every time someone strays near there nest for too long or when school ends..... They swam the path every afternoon causing people who unfortunately have to cross paths with them them to sprint in fear and hope they didn't mange to collect any stowaways in their shoes. But if you, one of the rare and unlucky ones who manged to gather a few new.....friends.....then you will certainly know as they bite you and tear at the tender flesh of your ankles in a desperate fury to protect their colony from a potential danger that is you. I also find it interesting that they can have many satellite nests, like at the nests at my school. I always thought these were rival nests and was confused as to why the smaller nests weren't decimated by the larger one, until I saw this video (thanks for clearing that up). P.S: You make fantastic videos, especially the documentary's about all the weird and wonderful ant species. Also thank you for getting me into ant keeping as I have just got my first colony of adorable big headed ants in a test tube set up an i'm starting to build a all in one ant nest due to the tutorial you had post a while ago. If you find this story interesting I would love the helpful boost of winning that starter pack to move my ants into once they have got a few more workers. Thanks - Joseph

What interests me the most about meat ants is the way how they strategically choose the mutualistic relationships that benefit them the most. For example, when they stop protecting a tree and protect Its parasites instead because they give better amounts of food

Seeing the dreaded jack jumper (bull ant) run from anything is amazing.

You are such a cool ant youtuber and when you didn't upload I was very sad. pls upload more

It's my first time hearing of these meat ants, honest! Everything about them is very new and interesting to me, but I really like how they might adopt and take care of new, young queens of their own species. I've heard of other ant colonies doing this as well, but the chances of the queen actually getting adopted seems low in these other species. The meat ants seem more open about it to me, and the way they'll even help the queen make a new nest somewhat baffles me, and warms my heart haha I've also recently found your channel, and I've been waiting for a new video, and I really like the way you do your job I'll be patiently waiting for your next vid! Take care good sir

9:50 Ooooh, I've never seen actual ant mouth-parts in use before. This little ant nibbling the goop is adorable.

The thing that I find most interesting is their "kickboxing" I think it's hilarious to watch but also fascinating. Thanks for another great video.

What I found interesting about meat ants is not only their similar appearance to spider ants or wood ants but how they are keen in giving up time and energy to help a foreign meat ant queen dig out her burrow or tending to her young. The ants are personally helping in order to obtain higher worker forces which definetly explains why they can reach such a colossal size

Ant Giveaway: The fact I found most astonishing was that they would assist other closely related queens in the construction of their closreral chamber and assist to the tending of their young. P.s love your vids I'm 14 and think that your vids are amazing.

Likely the best ant youtuber there is. I really liked how the meat ants kick box, its a really unique behavior.

The thing I found most interesting about Meat Ants is how they can help new queens make nests and can become part of the colony! I really love polygeny so this is a really cool thing I learned! Thanks Ants Australia!

What an awesome fotage!!! Congratulations!

I find it very special that the meat ants will, instead of killing newly mated queens, will put in the effort to help raise their brood or even transport them to the main nest even with the risk for their own lives. That they will even start a satellite nest with these queens is really cool to see.

What a brilliant video. Outstanding production and such a quality find on RU-vid.

Dude I’ve just discovered your channel and I’ve binged watched most of your stuff, I effin love the variation between the species you keep!

Greetings from the AC Family! It's Ant Love Forever!

My favorite thing about meat ants is how they solve their territorial disputes in a mutualistic civilized way, benefiting both colonies at the expense of none. I wonder why other species don’t also use this method.

What I find most interesting about Meat Ants is that they change the colour of the stones on top of their nest depending on what the season is going to be like. If it's going to be hot they add lighter stones, if it's going to be cold they add darker stones. Amazing how they know. Great video. Love your work.

This is fantastic! Thank you so much for creating and sharing this.

definitely the most informative and well-shot video I've ever seen on ants! seriously dude, good job!

How smart are ants exactly. Like they just know wtf is going on all the time. Team work, problem solving, like do they have emotions? 😂

Been binging your channel for awhile now and I'm finally (and sadly) caught up. I very much enjoy your video style and clear presentation of information. From your hard work I've learned vast amounts on fascinating ant species across an entire ocean from me so I want to say thanks. These Meat Ants in particular blow my mind with how they tend to and adopt newly fertilized queens. The fact that they spread using these satellite colonies is incredible and a great way to optimize colony location assuming they favor more productive colonies overtime. Your tutorials are also amazing and gave me the confidence to take on starting a new ant colony myself. I've recently rescued a new queen from a pool, and am considering excavating a small corner of my raised garden bed where I noticed a new queen digging herself a chamber. TL;DR: You're videos are fantastic and inspired me to start my own ant colonies so massive thanks.

I own a colony (2 years old) of meat ants and keep them in a natural nest with a tree in the centre, I find it interesting how they will often take off small pieces of the bark and use them as scaffolding for they’re nest hills

Proverbs: Go to the ant - Consider her ways. Meat Ant: I say, we shall endeavor to settle this like Gentlemen - Put'm up!

Why arent there 10 like buttuns then I would have smashed all of them!

Man, I just stumbled onto this video, but I am hugely impressed with the quality of it. Way to go! I really enjoyed it!

Dude I just want you to know you’re documentaries are so cool, and I find their attacks are the coolest thing about them

Im amazed by their social network BUT how they treat queens!!!!

Its very hard to pick one thing specially interesting about meat ants because of the large amount of bizarre actions they perform. Personally I think the most interesting thing about meat ants could be how "smart" and creative their problem solving seems to be (helping other queens, kickboxing with their neighbours, ect) and how each ant appears to have such a surprising amount of personality for a creature that small. My dad thinks the most interesting thing about meat ants is how "they're the world's best traffic engineers because they never seem to have an ant traffic jam", lol😂.

I think it's really cool how aggressive these ants are, the fearlessness that it takes to gang up on a wasp is really cool. But honestly with them being so warlike, the care that they show when they come across a newly mated queen was astounding. The well rounded personalities of these ants was really cool to learn about.

The most fascinating aspect of meat ants? How civilly they act toward other meat ants. Not just the nonviolent conflict resolution by kickboxing, but the way they take in and care for new queens, even if they weren't from the same nest. It's fascinating social behavior towards others who are the same species, but not from the same nest/family. Thanks for a fascinating video! I just discovered you, and now I can't wait to check out your other videos!

Like playing a game with friends when I was younger were we would be see how long we could put your hands onto the nest for

Ants Canada: I am the best Ant RU-vidr Ants Australia: Hold my beer

Fantastic videography and editing, as per usual, Jordan. Love it! ❤️

Everyday I learn something new, today I learned a whole week of something new all in one video.

I could compare the sensation of finding out about a new Ants Australia video to watching as a queen gets her fist workers.

What a informative well made documentary! You have my like for sure! Since Ants Canada only does Clickbait and Fake-ant-drama nowadays you and nordic ants have become my favourite informative ant youtubers. Keep up the good work!

What I find most interesting about meat ants is how they will help other Meat ant Queens build founding chambers. I just find that so nice of them! I really need that’s founding nest for my tetramorium queen! Love the work you do!!

13:50 Lol they look like siblings slap-fighting

I really like ants, I love looking at them, I love observing them the ants is super smart, they are so brave, if it was me I would run away thanks for reading my comments!!!!😀

Keep up the great work I love your channel. Congratulations to tassie ants and Dave’s ants for winning! Thank you for giving me a heart! You are an inspiration to us all!

SO HAPPY YOU POSTED A NEW VIDEO!! You captured some amazing footage for this video. This must of taken hundreds of hours of work. Very impressed with the amount of time you put into your videos. I just recently started ant keeping for my kids. Our queen just hatched her first workers and the kids were so excited! I love being able to show them your videos and teach them how smart ants are and how they work as a team. The thing i love most about the Meat ants is how they can bully bigger insects away from their food. So funny to see that little guy scare off such a big ant haha. Love your vids man, you deserve a show on netflix. If we have some extra money in the next few weeks i will try to donate for the next video!

my favorite thing about the meat ants is the way the looser of the kick boxing match sort of bows down its a funny little movment isnt it.

I was about to compare to Ants Canada but there is no comparison this was well done sir i'm subbing

Damn, not even that much of an ant-guy, but I just finished watching a 27 minute video about ants. That was really interesting, great job dude! Subscribed as well, you might've just converted me to the religion of ants.

The thing i find so interesting about meat ants is their cooperation together in forming different colonies. Sometimes cooperation is very important in life

Unexpected that a 'smaller' channel would have such high quality. A really great video, thank you very much

LOL! 😂 (Subbed) 👍 I think this video came up in the 'recommended' for me because I have subscribed to Boxing & Martial arts channels... Go Aussie!

I think its really interesting how they kinda kickbox to resolve a conflict unlike other ant species

Super impressed with the quality of these videos! Thanks for educating!

One of the most interesting things that I think would be the way they interact with tree's to obtain the sugars needed for energy. It's really fascinating to learn how the tree has to cater to the ants needs so the leaf hoppers dont have the chance to degrade the health of the tree. It's like the tree has to find a perfect balance between sugars excreted and sugars that it keeps. Its really cool to see that a plant without a brain has evolved to pay ants in sugars and food for protection. If I wasn't living in the US I would happily keep these and other natives of Australia. It seems like you guys have really fascinating ants unlike any others. I really love your videos and your tutorial on building a nest helped me greatly in constructing a nest for my Camponotus Pennsylvanicus! You really deserve more subs for the amount of effort you put into each and every video. Keep up the amazing quality videos! :D

Well look who woke up Jk I know to have this amazing quality, u need a ton of time

Can you introduce myrmecocystus mimicus please Liker svp

thanks for posting again jordan i love your videos and you make me smile

Love your video quality!!! And love the amazing ants that you capture in your lens!!!!

The thing I found most interesting is how they have little kickboxing tournaments with other meat ant colonies to keep from injuring each other. I think it's cute

The way they eat seeds and kickbox they're amazing I love your channel

I love your new videos. Talk about a come back! Well done.

Absolutely great video, well done! I do love the fact that worker ants from closely related colonies adopt the young queens as one of their own and help them dig their nests and even stick around after that

My favorite thing is that they seem to regard other colonies even potentially other meat ant queens which could be competition later as friends and even help dig their claustrual chambers for them. That teamwork was amazing to watch when displayed by the ants. Great videos keep it up!

Excellent video. This is my first time watching a video of yours. Nicely done and professional. Good narration and music. Thumbs up. Five stars.

What I find most interesting about Meat Ants is how the queens of differing colonies can converse to make satellite nests a good ways away, or conjoin to create a larger nest. I am currently taking care of several egg laying Camponotus Queens, and a new acrylic starter kit could go a long way!! Great video and I love the closeups!! 😄

It was like a treasure trove of knowledge about ants and I appreciate every single soul who was a part of this amazing documentary. Totally loved it !!!