Day 2 - Getting Physical With The Ants

Day 2:

At the beginning of the day we went out in the field looking for leaf cutter ants. This was a great chance to feel what its like to be a real scientist working in team groups. Today we also took out fungus gardens from the leaf cutter ant colonies to take back and do lab work with them. Towards the end of the day we watched some short movies on leaf cutter ants to help us understand a little more about them. This was great because some of the facts that were in the video I did not know about. Atta ants can have over five million ants in one colony. A great surprise was seeing doctor Adrian in one of the short movies describing how a fungus can take over a bullet ant. 

The food at Finca La Anita is absolutely incredible. It is all produced here at the farm. Every day there is a new juice of the day which is very exciting. There is also a lot of new flavors that i have never tried before and in all is very fun.

Will Mullen  

Students observing a leaf cutter ant highway.

Sam, Will, and Brendan handling their first Atta ants.

Brendan and his team are extracting their first Atta colony fungus garden.

Dr. Adrian Pinto looking into a possible ant colony for extraction.

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