Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
From the magical cloud forests of Maquipucuna, a short video of an Eciton raiding party transporting their prey back to the bivouac:
Recording these clips entailed several hundred stings, so I’ve removed the original soundtrack of me cursing heavily and have replaced it with soothing ambient sounds of the Ecuadorian forest.
A personal blog by Illinois-based biologist and photographer Alex Wild.
Myrmecos- derived from the ancient greek word for "ant"- hosts Alex's musings about these and other little creatures that share our planet.
Questions? Email alwild [at] myrmecos.net; or follow @Myrmecos on Twitter.
Very cool and well done! And though the ambient sound is nice and all, I think there are some good chuckles (for us) tucked away in the original soundtrack.
Awesome footage – looks like the pain was worth it.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Amy Schnebelin, Photo-Twitt. Photo-Twitt said: Sunday Night Movie: Returning home with the booty http://bit.ly/g8qQc0 #phototwitt [...]
Wow! Impressive! I am glad that you were willing to get stung for the video because it’s beautiful.
(Your original soundtrack probably sounds about like my average encounter with ants! Obnoxious little buggers sting me ALL THE TIME… I wouldn’t have dared try to film this!)
My soundtrack suggestion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9pN4RXOp2Y&t=0m20s
Great choice!
[...] back to the bivouac, so that by mid-day the swarm from above looks rather like the figure at left. Last night’s video featured one such trail. By nightfall the ants are back in the bivuoac, where, depending on the [...]
[...] just because something can’t kill and eat you doesn’t mean it’s entirely benign, as Alex Wild well knows: Recording these clips entailed several hundred stings, so I’ve removed the original [...]
I would have thought, given the enormous jaws, that the word ‘bites’ might be more accurate.
There are some very large ants who live in the fence of my garden. When a large object (like my hand or knee or foot) approaches the territory that they are protecting, they bite me. (This is severely unpleasant when they get inside garden gloves, clogs, socks, pants, shirts, …)
They aren’t stinging me: they are taking a good solid chunk out of my flesh.