WEBVTT - From the Vault: Do Ants Make Traps? 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:09.920 Hello, and welcome to the Stuff to Blow Your Mind Podcast. 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:14.040 My name is Joe McCormick. Today we had originally planned 0:00:14.080 --> 0:00:16.439 to have an all new interview for you, but due 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:20.280 to some holiday scheduling mayhem, that had to be delayed. 0:00:20.360 --> 0:00:23.800 So instead the door is creaking open and we're going 0:00:23.880 --> 0:00:26.880 down down into the vault to bring you an episode 0:00:26.960 --> 0:00:33.239 of Yesteryear. This episode originally aired January, and it is 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:37.400 about allegations that ants, as in the insect, build structures 0:00:37.400 --> 0:00:44.680 that could be called traps. Please enjoy Welcome to Stuff 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:53.920 to Blow Your Mind production of My Heart Radio. Hey 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:56.360 are you welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind? My 0:00:56.440 --> 0:00:59.640 name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and today 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:03.840 we're to be talking about traps. I think I've mentioned 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:07.120 this in some Weird House Cinema episodes, but for some reason, 0:01:07.680 --> 0:01:10.600 ever since I was a little kid, I have always 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:15.200 loved movie scenes where the protagonists build a trap to 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:18.760 use against the villain or the monster. I remember like 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:20.760 Home Alone when I was a little kid, that that 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:24.120 that whole sequence was great. It sort of expands to 0:01:24.200 --> 0:01:27.080 fill my whole childhood impression of what the movie was. 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:29.640 And if you go back and watch it as an adult. 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:31.680 It's kind of weird that it's only like fifteen or 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:35.880 twenty minutes of the runtime in In Home Alone. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.320 it does seem like that's the main thing. I remember 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:42.039 the traps, the traps, and and certainly people feel certain 0:01:42.160 --> 0:01:46.240 nostalgia for them. My heart swells at the thought of 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:50.600 a nail going into Daniel Stearn's foot. Um. But but 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:53.360 also yeah, I remember other ones, like you know, Arnold 0:01:53.360 --> 0:01:57.160 Schwarzenegger builds a bunch of traps in Predator um. And 0:01:57.240 --> 0:01:59.200 but like this wasn't just when I was a kid. 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:02.280 It's still works on me. I remember there was a 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:05.640 sequence I just loved in the more recent horror movie 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:09.240 It follows where the characters build a trap for the monster. Yeah, 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:11.960 that's right. They that is very They have a very, 0:02:12.080 --> 0:02:15.040 very much a kind of Home Alone's set up that 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:17.720 they do there, because it's not only the heroes that 0:02:17.720 --> 0:02:19.760 that have traps. I always love a good villain trap 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:24.280 as well, especially the trap door. Um. The trap door 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:27.400 sequence is always a lot of fun. Um uh you know, 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:29.960 be it something like in in Lynn Labyrinth. I love 0:02:30.000 --> 0:02:33.639 the trap when the trap door springs on our hero 0:02:33.760 --> 0:02:37.600 and that. But actually Tomorrow's Weird House Cinema also has 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:42.160 a fun trap door sequence. Oh yeah, so look forward 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:45.680 to that. Well yeah, on the side of the protagonists 0:02:45.720 --> 0:02:48.680 getting through trap set for them. Another one of my 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:51.400 favorite movie sequences as a child was the beginning of 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:54.520 Raiders the Lost Art. Oh yeah, and when Indies going 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:56.760 through all the traps, something about it is just like, 0:02:56.919 --> 0:03:02.720 deep in the brain, it's very satisfying. Wall to wall traps. Yeah, 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:06.280 that's that's a great sequence as well. Um, and all 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:08.320 of these are great sequences in spite of the fact 0:03:08.480 --> 0:03:11.519 that when you when you can, when you really think 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:14.640 long and hard about any of these scenarios, uh, you know, 0:03:14.680 --> 0:03:18.360 the cracks definitely show would would all of these traps 0:03:18.360 --> 0:03:21.760 still be working in this ancient ruin that Indiana Jones 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:24.440 finds himself in. I don't know, It's it's a hard 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:27.600 argument to make there, right, How did the spring trap 0:03:27.680 --> 0:03:30.520 operate by you sticking your hand through a shaft of 0:03:30.600 --> 0:03:34.600 light when it was made like thousands of years ago? Yeah, 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:37.560 Or you know, if it's Duke and predator, like, how 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:40.600 does he, um, how does he make this super powerful 0:03:40.680 --> 0:03:44.080 compound bow just in the space of a few hours 0:03:44.120 --> 0:03:47.360 on an afternoon in the jungle. That's just standard survival training. 0:03:48.880 --> 0:03:51.840 And all these other various ewok traps that he builds. 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:54.680 Didn't didn't you go to that camp? Did I build 0:03:54.720 --> 0:03:57.320 a bow like that at a cat camp? Now? I 0:03:57.320 --> 0:03:59.720 think we sharpened sticks, you know, that would be that 0:04:00.000 --> 0:04:02.840 would be more believable. Right, he makes a spear to battle. 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:05.880 That's most of the way there. But you know, I 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:08.800 think it probably speaks volumes for humans to be, you know, 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:11.200 to be saying all of this about traps and especially 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:13.920 about you know, loving these cinematic treatments of traps, because 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:17.919 because what are traps? Ultimately, very broadly speaking, they're clever, 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:22.000 tactical and or technological innovations that level the playing field 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:26.080 against predators, against prey, and even against fellow humans. Traps 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:28.200 are the sort of things that humans have been up 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:31.240 to since prehistory. So of course we love traps, and 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:34.599 of course we admire things like traps that we find 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:38.120 another species. Right, So today we're going to be focusing 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:43.560 on some allegations of insects with the ability to build traps, 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:47.279 specifically ants that do things that may in fact be 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:53.120 biological evolutions that allow them to trap prey. Now, there 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:55.719 are some other animals that I think we could say 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:59.320 more more clearly and and famously create traps. I think 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:03.600 the obvious uh example here would be spiders. Yes, yes, 0:05:03.720 --> 0:05:06.919 spiders are the trap builders par excellence. Uh. You know, 0:05:06.960 --> 0:05:09.480 there are no finer trap builders in the animal kingdom. 0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:13.520 Maybe you could make a case for human beings, um, 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:16.120 but personally I'm not in favor of that. I think, 0:05:16.160 --> 0:05:19.400 you know, well, web building spiders especially are just such 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:23.440 highly evolved trap masters. Every detail of their anatomy and 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:27.320 behavior enhances their trapping ability, and the trap is very 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:30.240 much an extension of their own bodies in so many ways. 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:33.160 And we've covered this, and we've covered spiders in general 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:35.640 numerous times in the show before, and we'll likely keep 0:05:35.680 --> 0:05:38.120 coming back to them. But yeah, that the spider, the 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.359 spider is the trap maker. There's nothing else that the 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:45.320 spider really does. Um In anything else it does, the 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:48.280 web building spider is going to do in close proximity 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:52.279 to the web that it has built. Yeah. Another example 0:05:52.360 --> 0:05:55.760 that's come up before, I think in our Sarlac episodes 0:05:55.920 --> 0:06:00.440 was the ant lion. Yes. Yeah, uh, this is a 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:04.320 case where we have predatory larvae that in some species 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:06.960 of antline anyway, set up at the bottom of sand 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:10.240 pits that they dig, ready to lash out at anything 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:13.479 that disturbs their grains, and you know, ventured down into 0:06:13.520 --> 0:06:17.200 the trap. Um. Again, not all ant lion species dig 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:19.960 trap pits, but some of the most famous ones do. 0:06:20.520 --> 0:06:23.080 I remember. One of the great things we learned about 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:26.600 the ant lion was that, like you say, the it 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:29.279 is the ones that make traps. It is just the 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:33.520 larval period of their lifespan, their life cycle that they 0:06:33.560 --> 0:06:37.560 make the traps. Then they later metamorphosed into into another form. 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:40.200 But while they're in that larval stage, I think at 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:45.920 least some of them never poop. So yeah, catching ants 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:48.160 and eating them and just like waiting and it's like 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:50.520 if you had to wait until you turned eighteen to poop. 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:55.240 We'll go back and listen to that Sarlac episode if 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:57.240 you'd like to hear more about the ant lion. There's 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:01.480 also um the species of creat known as the worm lion, 0:07:01.600 --> 0:07:04.560 and this is this is unrelated to the ant lion. 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:08.000 It's just a matter of convergent evolution that ends up 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:12.760 utilizing largely the exact same method again when it's a larva. 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:15.840 Uh though, the pit itself in this case is generated 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:19.720 via site a slightly different method, so it digs its 0:07:19.760 --> 0:07:22.520 pit in a slightly different method, but it it's still 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:25.160 consumes its prey in the same manner. But for me, 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:28.400 at least, if you ask me to make a list 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:31.560 of non human animals that make traps, I could obviously 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:33.480 go spiders. I would have thought of the ant lion, 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:38.440 maybe by association the worm lion. But there before I 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:40.560 was reading up for this episode, I think I would 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:42.800 have drawn a blank. I wouldn't know what to go 0:07:42.880 --> 0:07:46.280 to next. Yeah, and part of it comes down to 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:50.360 just how are you going to going to define a trap? Uh? 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:55.160 For example, here's here's an interesting potential example. Uh. We 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:58.200 can discuss that I read across read read about when 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:02.400 I was reading Gilbert Walled Bowlers How Not to Be Eaten, 0:08:02.960 --> 0:08:05.840 which which is largely about insects. But there's a part 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:09.760 where the author is discussing the burrowing owl. So these 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:14.280 are small birds native to the Great Plains in southern Florida. Um, 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:16.440 I think they're about the size of for robin. I'm 0:08:16.440 --> 0:08:18.480 to understand that. You know, they're small, little little guys, 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:22.640 but they make their home and burrows that they did themselves. 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:26.080 And one of the interesting things that they do in 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:30.240 addition to this, if this wasn't you know interesting enough already, 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:33.920 is the burrowing owl will scatter horse or cow dung 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:37.320 around the entrance to their burrows. And in you know, 0:08:37.400 --> 0:08:41.080 times before European contact, this would have probably been bison dung. 0:08:42.120 --> 0:08:45.120 And the dung does seem to be important because if 0:08:45.320 --> 0:08:48.760 if researchers remove the dung from the vicinity, the birds 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:50.880 will just the bird will just go out and obtain 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:53.839 more dung and place it in the vicinity. Uh So 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:57.160 it's it seems to be doing this intentionally. The theory 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:00.840 is that they place the dung to bait dung beetles, 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:03.840 So they put the dung out, dung beetles come, and 0:09:03.920 --> 0:09:07.800 indeed researchers have been able to tell that the owls 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:11.120 eat ten times more dung beetles than usual when the 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:14.199 dung is out. Well, this will in fact mirror one 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:18.200 of the two examples of potential ant trap making that 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:20.560 I want to talk about later. Yeah, I mean, it's 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:22.920 but but this is a great example. It's certainly clever. 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:26.280 I like it, but it kind of forces us to 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:29.240 ask the question of a trap, like what is a trap? 0:09:29.360 --> 0:09:33.400 Is just merely baiting a trap? Um? That is a 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:37.040 good question, yeah, because and um, how much does the 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:40.400 trap structure have to be separate from your body in 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:43.000 order wount as a as a constructed trap? And how 0:09:43.040 --> 0:09:44.840 much does it have to how much work does it 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:47.840 have to do for you? Yeah? And at what point 0:09:48.080 --> 0:09:52.200 does an animal's behavior stop being a trap and just 0:09:52.280 --> 0:09:57.520 become sneaky behavior, sneaky tactics, or or simply ambush predation, 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:00.600 Because obviously there are plenty of example as of ambush 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:03.680 predators on land and in the sea, and these include 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:06.520 everything from well, the trap door spider for one, which 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:09.360 I think is is definitely a case of of trap 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.959 building because it's it's an ambush predator, but it builds 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:16.800 a silk hinge trap door to aid in those ambushes, right, 0:10:16.840 --> 0:10:19.440 so the trapdoor hides it. I think you could count 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:23.520 that as like infrastructure necessary to constitute a trap. Yeah, yeah, 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:26.640 I think that, Yeah, definitely with the trapdoor spider. But 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:30.120 then you also have just various camouflage predators, including things 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:34.600 like frog fish, praying mantis is, chameleons, and more, which 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:38.800 are not building anything. They're not altering their environment. But 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:42.240 they've evolved to look like a part of their environment. Uh, 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.600 and they have, you know, often tremendous abilities of camouflage 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:49.080 then enable them to quickly ambush something that they want 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:52.560 to eat. Okay, that probably doesn't That doesn't really seem 0:10:52.600 --> 0:10:55.280 like a trap to me, because they're just evolved to 0:10:55.360 --> 0:11:00.280 look that way and they do the actual hunting themselves, right. 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:02.520 And then of course we have various birds and cats 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:05.560 and big cats even, uh, that are just very stealthy, 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:09.280 that are just very good at not being observed by 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:12.080 the things they want to kill. So I was reading 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.600 a little bit about this in Douglas j Imland's excellent 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:17.960 book Animal Weapons that have referenced on the show before, 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:21.440 and he points out that creatures such as this generally 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:24.960 depend on quote, a quick strike weapon that immediately incapacitates 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:29.080 its victim. And of course these bioweapons might be enhanced 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:32.360 by special features, such as in various deep sea ambush 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:36.000 predators a bioluminescent lure, which again is not something they 0:11:36.000 --> 0:11:38.720 have created or engineered out of their environment, but it 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:40.720 is a part of their body. So when we come 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:42.280 back to this idea that what needs to be something 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:44.880 that's built. It needs to be something that's engineered, or 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:47.960 just a whole dug in the in the ground. Even Um, 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:50.520 we come back to that same question, why don't we 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:53.640 find more of this? And I actually found an interesting 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:56.960 paper title out there, why are pitfall Traps so Rare 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:00.679 in the natural World? By G. D Ruxton and M. H. 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:04.280 Hansel And it appeared in Evolutionary Ecology in two thousand 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:08.800 and nine. Interesting question. Yeah, So the authors here point 0:12:08.800 --> 0:12:10.800 out that in order to lay a trap, you generally 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:15.520 need either advanced cognitive powers as with humans obviously, or 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:20.720 you need specialists self secreted materials as with spiders and 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:25.800 catis fly larvae um thing which the Catasta catass fly 0:12:25.920 --> 0:12:28.800 larvae use that their their secretions to create a net 0:12:28.800 --> 0:12:33.240 like even meshed trap like a silk um trap in 0:12:33.360 --> 0:12:37.760 order to filter catch their prey. That makes sense. So 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:40.800 humans can create all kinds of traps because we have, 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:44.000 you know, cognitive powers that allow us to imagine what 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:46.880 could be done. How you know, other materials in the 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:51.400 environment could be repurposed to uh to passively ensnare or 0:12:51.480 --> 0:12:54.880 kill prey animals and spiders and stuff. That that's just 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:56.880 the trap you could almost say, is a part of 0:12:56.880 --> 0:12:59.080 their body, even though the web is a built thing 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:02.280 there of of to secrete the silk for the web 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:05.720 out of their bodies. And they have very instinctually driven 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:09.280 behaviors for how they extrude that silk where and in 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:16.800 what patterns? Right, So Ruxton enhansl here ultimately point out that, okay, 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:18.640 we have the ant lion though, and of course the 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:23.000 worm lion. Uh, these are exceptions to the rule. Um 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:25.560 they make use of a pitfall trap. And so the 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:29.199 authors asked, why is this basic tactic not more common 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:32.040 in the animal world? How hard is it, after all 0:13:32.240 --> 0:13:36.400 to dig a hole? They're easy, they're cheap um, And 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:39.720 yet you don't see this technique used by virtually anything 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:44.679 outside of of some ant lions and wormlons. Apparently, the 0:13:44.760 --> 0:13:47.320 lack of more pitfall traps in nature was something of 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:50.199 a mystery or and remains something of a mystery. Yeah, 0:13:50.240 --> 0:13:52.720 that that is interesting. Okay, so I it took me 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:54.680 a second to get the distinction they're making. But they're 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:57.400 saying that the ant lion and the wormline would be 0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:01.040 kind of an outlier because they don't have complex intelligence 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:04.480 and imagination like humans. So they're not inventing traps with 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:08.880 cognitive powers, But they also don't secrete a material that 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:12.160 constitutes the basis of the trap like a spider. They're 0:14:12.200 --> 0:14:14.960 literally just building a trap out of the dead environment 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:17.960 around of them by digging a conically shaped hole in 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:20.400 such a pattern that that ants get stuck in it 0:14:20.440 --> 0:14:23.640 when they fall down the side. But and why is 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:25.680 that so rare? Because it would seem like that that 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:30.840 should be a strategy that lots of animals could easily employ. Right, yeah, again, 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:36.280 holes are ultimately easy to make, low energy. Why not? Why? Why? 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:38.320 Why is why is this cat not making a hole 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:41.320 and using that as part of its hunting tactics? So what? What? 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:43.800 What are their thoughts on this? Like, why would why 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:47.040 wouldn't we see this more often? Well, they proposed to 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:50.200 speculative reasons for the lack of pitfall traps in nature. 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:54.000 The first one is pitfall traps may require a specialist 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:57.240 micro habitat. In other words, you can't do this just anywhere. 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:00.520 Conditions have to be just right, uh, such as you know, 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:02.040 we can look at the ant lions, they have to 0:15:02.040 --> 0:15:03.760 be kind of sandy conditions, you know, you have to 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:07.520 have that kind of granular environment um. So it's the 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:11.720 kind of tactic that a potential trap builder would not 0:15:11.920 --> 0:15:14.080 necessarily be able to employ all over the place. You 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:16.760 would have to depend on us again, on a specialist 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:19.880 micro habitat. I think I recall from our Starlac episode 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:22.600 where we had a segment about the ant lion that 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:24.840 they needed the grains of soil to be of a 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:29.760 particular size, like the sandy grains above or below a 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:33.320 certain diameter threshold would not work very well for making 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:37.440 the traps. Yeah, yeah, Now the second point is that 0:15:37.480 --> 0:15:41.239 with the ant lion in particular, the trap targets small prey, 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:43.680 and since they may be more functionally tied to their 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:46.600 trapped than spiders are, traps of this nature could serve 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:49.960 as like basically a major bull's eye for potential predators. 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:52.480 And indeed the main predators of ant lions and worm 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:56.240 lions are birds who know what to look for. That's 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:58.400 a really good point. So by building a trap and 0:15:58.440 --> 0:16:00.640 then sitting in it and waiting for your prey to 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:03.480 fall in, you were also usually going to be making 0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:06.600 a structure that makes it easy for things that want 0:16:06.600 --> 0:16:08.840 to eat you. Two, I defind where you are. You 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:10.440 know they don't have to look too hard because you've 0:16:10.480 --> 0:16:13.160 made a big hole in the ground, right and UH 0:16:13.160 --> 0:16:15.600 and spiders just have a little more leeway with the situation. Now, 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:18.480 I should point out Hansel also wrote an entire book 0:16:18.600 --> 0:16:20.360 which I'm going to reference here in a minute. He 0:16:20.400 --> 0:16:23.360 spends a lot of time in that book talking about 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:26.600 spiders and how, you know, some sometimes spider webs are 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:30.720 very visible, in other times they are not, and how 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:33.440 that plays into the you know, ultimately kind of complex 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.960 relationship between spiders and UH and the creatures that would 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:41.680 eat spiders. Um. But but just thinking about this as 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:45.840 the trap being this conspicuous thing. This we actually see 0:16:45.880 --> 0:16:48.440 this in a lot of our fantastic trap fiction. You know, 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:51.240 that moment when the target of the clever cinematic trap, 0:16:52.000 --> 0:16:55.560 especially if it's laid by the protagonists, uh, the the 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:59.680 enemy almost sets it off, right, like the predator almost 0:17:00.000 --> 0:17:03.880 triggers the trip line you've prepared. But then something happens 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:07.520 right the uh, the monster deduces that the trap is there, 0:17:07.600 --> 0:17:10.280 or it suspects that something is a little off. Oh, 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:13.879 and maybe even the presence of a trap is how 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:16.680 the hero knows that they have stumbled across the bad 0:17:16.680 --> 0:17:21.320 guys hideout. Yeah. Yeah, um. It even reminds me a 0:17:21.320 --> 0:17:23.919 bit of our recent weird house selection The Lift. This 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:27.240 was the Killer Elevator movie. Uh, the Killer Elevator in 0:17:27.280 --> 0:17:30.560 this or I guess you were more specifically the weird 0:17:30.640 --> 0:17:33.440 bio brain that's been installed in the elevator shaft to 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:39.040 power on these elevators. It's kind of an obligate trap predator. Um, 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:42.200 but it's so tied to that environment that it's a 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:44.200 little tricky. Like it, it's not able to pull off 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:47.639 every kill and it's eventually destroyed by prey that is 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:51.960 too clever for it. Brilliant analogy. This, this is true. 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:56.800 The Killer Elevator is an obligate trap predator. I also 0:17:56.880 --> 0:17:58.639 have to point out, speaking of the Star Lack, is 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:02.440 that recent mandalor In episodes have also, you know, sort 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:04.600 of played with this idea. Yeah. Yeah, the Mighty Star, 0:18:04.760 --> 0:18:06.800 like the Sun. It's pretty impressive, but they make it 0:18:06.800 --> 0:18:09.080 clear that even these great trap predators can be a 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:12.439 consumed by the mighty crate dragon that lives in the 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:17.199 deserts of Tattooin. Uh. So, knowing you're there being you know, 0:18:17.240 --> 0:18:20.119 this identifiable organism in the sand that can have a 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:22.440 huge downside to it. Now, I was trying to think 0:18:22.440 --> 0:18:26.000 of counterpoints to the idea that Okay, so uh, sitting 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:28.439 at the bottom of a pitfall trap and waiting for 0:18:28.480 --> 0:18:30.679 prey to fall into you and then eating that that 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:35.720 makes you vulnerable to two predators that want to find you. Well, well, 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:37.960 what if you just make pitfall traps and then you 0:18:38.000 --> 0:18:40.280 go away and then you you know, leave them there 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:42.240 and then come back like a human hunter might do, 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:43.800 you know, leave a trap out in the woods and 0:18:43.800 --> 0:18:46.919 then come and see what it collected, lobster traps or something. 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:50.240 But but I can see downsides to that as well, 0:18:50.280 --> 0:18:53.240 because if it's just a pit trap, you can imagine that, well, 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:55.760 something might fall in there, but then something else might 0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:59.199 eat it before you get to it, um so, or 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:01.200 it might you know, if you have to make these 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:02.960 all over the place, you might spend a lot of 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:05.639 energy going around from one to the other. So is 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:08.760 that really all that much better than just hunting? Well, 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:10.600 and then it kind of comes back to this idea 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:15.320 that that the trap laid by an animal, especially um 0:19:15.440 --> 0:19:18.439 still requires the lethal mechanism, and in the case of 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:21.439 the antline, the lethal lethal mechanism is itself. It is 0:19:21.440 --> 0:19:26.640 still essentially uh an ambush predator. Like again, like Emlyn says, 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:30.440 quote a quick strike weapon that immediately incapacitates its victim. Yeah, 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:31.880 that I can't believe. I didn't think of that. That's 0:19:31.920 --> 0:19:33.399 of course a good point. You have to find a 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:37.440 way to kill the prey, right. So I mentioned that 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:39.960 that Henzel has a has a whole book that deals 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:41.600 with with with some of this a little bit, but 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:44.560 just sort of the broader picture of animals building things. 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:48.280 It's titled Animal Architecture, and I was reading through this 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:50.879 a bit. He contends that we're not looking at traps 0:19:50.880 --> 0:19:54.520 when we're looking at cases of an animal baiting another animal, 0:19:54.880 --> 0:19:58.320 because traps are a kind of subset of animal architecture, 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:02.560 an engineered space that aids and capture. Okay, So by 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:06.760 his metric here, what the burrowing owl does by by 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:10.400 leaving dung out around its nest and having this attract 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:13.280 insects to it, that would not count as a trap 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:15.640 because it is not a structure that in any way 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:19.560 aids and capture. It just attracts prey to a site. Oh, 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:21.399 by the way, I want to also speak speaking of 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:23.800 the burrowing owl again, I want to throw in that 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:27.280 that while some burrowing owls do build their own burrows, 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:32.399 they're also burrowing owls that acquire the burrows of other creatures. Anyway, 0:20:32.440 --> 0:20:34.520 I want to read this quote from Hansel here. I 0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:38.479 think he puts it rather well uh concerning the animal 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:42.199 architecture and traps quote. Whereas a house can just be 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:45.040 a barrier between the builder and the outside world, a 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:48.920 trap has a dynamic relationship between itself and the prey. 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:52.040 The prey needs to approach the trap in a particular 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:55.560 orientation to it, and then needs to be restrained by it. 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:59.240 Traps are therefore more complex than homes and need to 0:20:59.240 --> 0:21:02.320 be more precise icily engineered. And then he goes on 0:21:02.359 --> 0:21:04.679 to point out the quote Among the vertebrates, trap builders 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:08.480 were apparently absent until the recent history of man. Now 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:12.080 he cites human mental capacity once more for the construction 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:15.800 of such traps, noting quote, Virtually all non human trap 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:20.240 builders use self secreted materials, and the capture principle they 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:24.160 adopt is the net. The exceptions are simple in design 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:27.480 and operation, as well as rare. And then he goes 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:32.080 on to specifically mentioned ant lions, UH, worm lions, UM, 0:21:32.280 --> 0:21:42.200 and larval dip Tira. But anyway, a large takeaway here 0:21:42.359 --> 0:21:46.719 is that trap building is not as widespread in the 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:49.440 animal kingdom as you might expect. Humans make a lot 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:53.879 of traps. There are some very specialized animals, especially some invertebrates, 0:21:53.920 --> 0:21:57.520 that use traps made of materials that they secrete from 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:02.080 their own bodies, But generally, trap building is not a 0:22:02.200 --> 0:22:06.600 very widespread hunting strategy among animals of planet Earth, in 0:22:06.640 --> 0:22:09.240 which case it would be very interesting to find examples 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:12.520 of animals such as ants, that make traps in order 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:15.040 to get their nutrition. And I guess that's a good 0:22:15.040 --> 0:22:18.800 segue to what I to the main focus of today's episode, 0:22:18.800 --> 0:22:20.800 which was a couple of examples I came across of 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:26.160 ants that do something that could be interpreted as building 0:22:26.200 --> 0:22:29.360 traps as a hunting strategy. Yeah, and I mean it. 0:22:29.359 --> 0:22:31.919