[FRIAM] Ants and Outsourcing

[Jochen Fromm]

I have listened to a podcast in German today where the host interviewed Susanne Foitzik. Mrs Foitzik is a professor of evolutionary biology specialized on ants. She explained that some ant colonies have developed a sophisticated form of slavery. They conduct violent raids on the nests of other ants, kill the ants including the queen, kidnap the brood and carry it to the own colony. When the brood hatches in the own nest, it is tricked into slavery, i.e. into defending and feeding the colony of the raiders although it is not their colony. An ant colony that outsources the dirty work to slaves from another colony.In a sense the Roman Empire which was based on slavery did the same. Even our modern economy is still doing the same sort of outsourcing, isn't it? We have outsourced the dirty manual work to India and China, and enjoy leisure time because other countries do the dirty work for us (like building our smartphones, TVs or sport shoes that are shipped in large container ships to us).More about slavery among ants can be found in the book from Susanne Foitzik and Olaf Fritsche named "Empire of Ants - The Hidden Worlds and Extraordinary Lives of Earth's Tiny Conquerors"https://theexperimentpublishing.com/catalogs/spring-2021/empire-of-ants/-J.
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