# Are ants more intelligent than chimpanzees? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [December 22, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ants-more-intelligent-than-chimpanzees/775384 "2016-12-22T17:38:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Calico\_Jack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calico_jack/32/7320_2.png) [@Calico\_Jack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calico_Jack)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ants-more-intelligent-than-chimpanzees/775384/1 "2016-12-22T17:38:06Z")
Fascinating article. Even though chimpanzees are believed to be the most intelligent species other than humans, apparently ants have the knowledge to build mounds which are the equivalent of giant cities complete with plumbing and traffic systems, despite having such small brains: > **[Concrete Cast of Ant Nest Reveals Huge Underground Metropolis](https://www.iflscience.com/concrete-cast-ant-nest-reveals-huge-underground-metropolis-25869)** > > Concrete Cast of Ant Nest Reveals Huge Underground Metropolis ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ants-more-intelligent-than-chimpanzees/775384/2 "2016-12-22T18:10:05Z")
Individual ants? No. Colonies? I’ll also go with “no,” until I see a [chimpanzee spiral of death](https://www.google.com/#q=ant+spiral+of+death). ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ants-more-intelligent-than-chimpanzees/775384/3 "2016-12-22T18:22:57Z")
No. Even simple “queue behavior” can give the illusion of intelligence. Are the individual cells in your body smarter than you are? After all, they can construct a kidney and you can’t. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ants-more-intelligent-than-chimpanzees/775384/4 "2016-12-22T18:38:38Z")
Have ants ever shown any ability to solve problems? Or to learn? I could be wrong, but I don’t think so. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ants-more-intelligent-than-chimpanzees/775384/5 "2016-12-22T20:51:55Z")
**astorian** : Tricky… Ant colonies do solve “problems,” such as building a mound on rocky soil, or tilted and uneven ground, or around tree roots. They don’t use “intelligence” to do so, however. ( **ZonexandScout** gives a good example in cells working together to make a kidney.) ---
**Author:** ![Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a8b319/32.png) [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disgruntled_Penguin)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ants-more-intelligent-than-chimpanzees/775384/6 "2016-12-22T21:57:43Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > No. > > Even simple “queue behavior” can give the illusion of intelligence. Are the individual cells in your body smarter than you are? After all, they can construct a kidney and you can’t. In my case specifically sadly enough, yes I believe that they are. ☹ I don’t believe in general that this is the case though. ---
**Author:** ![Calico\_Jack](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calico_jack/32/7320_2.png) [@Calico\_Jack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Calico_Jack)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ants-more-intelligent-than-chimpanzees/775384/7 "2016-12-22T22:01:55Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > Have ants ever shown any ability to solve problems? Or to learn? > > I could be wrong, but I don’t think so. Well unless they’re born with all this knowledge pre-progammed into them like a piece of computer software, I would’ve guess they would’ve somehow had to learn this via trial and error. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2016, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ants-more-intelligent-than-chimpanzees/775384/8 "2016-12-22T22:19:55Z")
> [@Calico\_Jack](#): > > Well unless they’re born with all this knowledge pre-progammed into them like a piece of computer software They are. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ants-more-intelligent-than-chimpanzees/775384/9 "2016-12-23T04:19:11Z")
> [@Calico\_Jack](#): > > Well unless they’re born with all this knowledge pre-progammed into them like a piece of computer software, I would’ve guess they would’ve somehow had to learn this via trial and error. > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > They are. And, of course, that information came into existence by a VERY long process of trial and error, known as evolution. So the real joy of this is that it’s a little (a lot!) of both! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ants-more-intelligent-than-chimpanzees/775384/10 "2016-12-23T08:20:14Z")
> [@Calico\_Jack](#): > > Well unless they’re born with all this knowledge pre-progammed into them like a piece of computer software, I would’ve guess they would’ve somehow had to learn this via trial and error. It’s both. The programming is called heredity, and the ‘programmer’ (because seriously, we all know where this is heading) is Natural Selection - in the previous generations of ants. Traits that work better tend to persist. Traits that don’t work so well tend to die out. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ants-more-intelligent-than-chimpanzees/775384/11 "2016-12-23T10:53:49Z")
You can potentially destroy an ant colony by giving its workers stilts. That doesn’t fill me with confidence. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2016, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ants-more-intelligent-than-chimpanzees/775384/12 "2016-12-23T11:11:23Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > You can potentially destroy an ant colony by giving its workers stilts. That doesn’t fill me with confidence. I can almost understand _why_ one would do this, but I’m not entirely sure _how_ one would do this. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2016, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ants-more-intelligent-than-chimpanzees/775384/13 "2016-12-25T19:50:10Z")
Grad students, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ants-more-intelligent-than-chimpanzees/775384/14 "2016-12-26T13:33:10Z")
[Here’s](http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060629-ants-stilts.html) an article on the ant stilt study. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ants-more-intelligent-than-chimpanzees/775384/15 "2016-12-26T22:19:57Z")
Here’s an article about (simulated) ants solving the Travelling Salesman problem; > **[Smart ants solve travelling salesman problem](https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg14219280-700-smart-ants-solve-travelling-salesman-problem/)** > > To find the shortest round trip to 50 chosen cities in Europe a mathematician would usually recruit a massive computer, a complex program and set aside plenty of time. Researchers at BT, however, found the solution in record time, with a workstation... This has been mentioned on this board before. Ant colonies appear to be able to solve a different set of problems to humans; they don’t have the answers preprogrammed into their brains, but they do have behaviours which can apparently search for solutions. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2016, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ants-more-intelligent-than-chimpanzees/775384/16 "2016-12-26T23:09:36Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > This has been mentioned on this board before. I googled for some of the earlier threads, and found [this one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=713196) that mentions sea cucumbers “just staying down there eating” (at which I immediately thought of sea pigs.) Later in the thread there is a link to a Scientific American article on ants–one of the recommended links over on the right side of that page happened to be…[an article about sea pigs](https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/why-are-juvenile-crabs-hitching-rides-on-sea-pigs/), published today. Funny how coincidences like that can pop up. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_great_unwashed/32/4791_2.png) [@The\_Great\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Great_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2016, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-ants-more-intelligent-than-chimpanzees/775384/17 "2016-12-31T00:18:46Z")
Ants are stupid!