Watch: How Matabele Ants Help Wounded Comrades Survive By Licking Them

A species of ant has shown life-saving behavior as they tend the wounds of fallen comrades, thus becoming the first known non-human animal to do so, researchers said Tuesday. The Matabele ants in sub-Saharan Africa lick the wounds of ants to help them survive, bringing the rate of death from 80 percent to 10 percent.

These species of ant live in dangerous conditions and often attack the nests of termites. During this practice, which is carried out by up to 600 soldier ants, many Matabele ants frequently lose one or more limbs as the termites fight back.

In a new study, Erik Frank of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, and his colleagues filmed “nurse” ants spending several minutes licking the ants who were wounded while attacking termite nests.

In the study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B on Feb. 14, researchers said the wounded ants sent out a distress signal by excreting chemicals that alerted the other soldier ants. After receiving the signal, these ants helped the wounded soldiers to be transported back to the nest for treatment by licking them. However, some critically injured ants refused to allow themselves to be rescued.

According to researchers, 90 percent of those who received the care survived while 80 percent of those who were not licked died within a few hours.

“We don’t know yet if the ants are just cleaning the wound and removing debris, as we do with our wounds to prevent infection, or if they are also applying antimicrobial substances with their saliva,” Frank said, adding that irrespective of what the reason behind the licking treatment is, it worked.

“The ants are able to reach running speeds similar to healthy ants, despite missing a leg or two,” Frank added.

Frank's team researching the phenomenon also tracked the ants’ raiding parties and found that it was possible to identify which injured soldiers were worth saving and which were in a critical stage.

“The ants were selective in who they picked up,” Frank said. “They didn’t want to help heavily injured ants who had lost 5 legs.”