Overview

Ants number in the ten quadrillions, and they have been here since the Jurassic era. Inside an anthill, you'll find high drama worthy of a royal court; and between colonies, high-stakes geopolitical intrigue is afoot. Just like us, ants grow crops, raise livestock, tend their young and infirm, and make vaccines. And, just like us, ants have a dark side: They wage war, despoil environments, and enslave rivals--but also rebel against their oppressors. Engineered by nature to fulfill their particular roles, ants flawlessly perform a complex symphony of tasks to sustain their colony--seemingly without a conductor--from fearsome army ants, who stage twelve-hour hunting raids where they devour thousands, to gentle leafcutters cooperatively gardening in their peaceful underground kingdoms. Acclaimed biologist Susanne Foitzik has traveled the globe to study these master architects of Earth. Joined by journalist Olaf Fritsche, Foitzik invites listeners deep into her world--in the field and in the lab. (How do you observe the behavior of ants just millimeters long--or dissect a brain the width of a needle?) Empire of Ants will inspire new respect for ants as a global superpower--and raise new questions about the very meaning of civilization.

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The Empire of Ants adopts a playful tone, cycling through factoids about the more than 16,000 ant species on Earth with evident glee. -- Smithsonian magazine Highly informative...[This] new book explains all you ever wanted to know about these tiny conquerors. -- Psychology Today Offers a view into parallels between seemingly out-of-this-world ant societies and our own...The authors' scientific rigor is matched by their joy in their subjects. -- Wall Street Journal The authors' admiration for ants is evident throughout Cat Gould's narration of this audiobook...Stories of ants doing things like building vertical cities to rival Manhattan are fascinating. -- AudioFile

Author Information

Susanne Foitzik is an evolutionary biologist, behavioral scientist, and international authority on ants. After completing her PhD in ant evolution and behavior and conducting post-doctoral work in the US, she became a professor at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. She now holds a chair at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, where she studies the behaviors and social evolution of ants, with a particular focus on slavemaking ants. Her findings have been published in more than 110 scientific papers. Olaf Fritsche is a science journalist and biophysicist with a PhD in biology. He was previously an editor at the German-language edition of Scientific American, is the author and coauthor of many books, and has been published in a wide variety of newspapers and magazines. He lives in Germany. Cat Gould grew up in Sydney, Australia, and after extensive travel moved to the United States in 1990. A classically trained actress with a BFA from Southern Oregon University, she has performed in many regional productions.

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