Chaos–order transition in foraging behavior of ants

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1407083111
• Publication Date: 2014-05-28T06:22:54Z
• Authors: Lixiang Li; Haipeng Peng; Jürgen Kurths; Yixian Yang; Hans Joachim Sche...
• Keywords: 0301 basic medicine; Appetitive Behavior; Ants; Age Factors; Feeding Behavior; Models, Biological; 03 medical and health sciences; Homing Behavior; Exploratory Behavior; Animals; Computer Simulation; Social Behavior; Algorithms; Problem Solving

Significance We have studied the foraging behavior of group animals that live in fixed colonies (especially ants) as an important problem in ecology. Building on former findings on deterministic chaotic activities of single ants, we uncovered that the transition from chaotic to periodic regimes results from an optimization scheme of the self-organization of such an animal colony. We found that an effective foraging of ants mainly depends on their nest as well as their physical abilities and knowledge due to experience. As an important outcome, the foraging behavior of ants is not represented by random, but rather by deterministic walks, in a random environment: Ants use their intelligence and experience to navigate.