Ants are strong. They can lift something like eight times their own body weight, can’t they? But perhaps only the mighty weaver ant could attempt to lift a snake up a wall.
This baby python was spotted on Pearl’s Hill Terrace, a few 100 metres from the soon-to-be-bulldozed Pearls Centre shopping mall in Chinatown. His head and tail were seen being hoisted up the curb of the pavement at about 8am on Tuesday last week.
It was like watching a line of very well organised, hyperactive school children in matching red uniform lug a blue whale up a cliff.
A row of ants took it in turns to pull the snake up the curb from above. Once each had done its shift of lifting, they walked underneath the snake to join the back of the chain gang.
The cause of death of the snake is unknown. It had no visible injuries. But it’s not impossible that enough of these guys could have done it.
Weaver ants, also known as red ants, or Oecophylla smaragdina to entomologists, do not only possess Hulk-like strength but are aggressive when attacked and pack a powerful bite laced with formic acid. Maybe this python just wound up in the wrong neighbourhood.
They’re also extremely useful. Weaver ants are being studied by the robotics industry for their abilities to do complex things working in chain gangs. They build huge networks of nests in trees, pulling leaves together as a team, and then glueing their edges using super-strong larval silk. They’re also by farmers as pest control, scaring off anything that dares to eat the crops.
In less than two minutes, the ants had lifted the snake’s head and tail about a centimetre up the curb.
About an hour later, when Coconuts came back to take more pictures, the python was gone.
