Ants Trapped in a Soviet Nuclear Bunker Survived for Years

Summary

Even in a hopeless place, ants will find a way. No food, no light, no escape? No problem.In the woods of western Poland lies a dismantled Soviet nuclear base, complete with two underground bunkers where nuclear ammunition was once kept. After the military complex was abandoned, these eerie human-made caves became great roosting places for overwintering bats.In early 2010s, volunteers started visiting the bunkers to monitor the bat population in winter, and made a discovery of a different sort: A large mass of wood ants (Formica polyctena) trapped on the bunker floor, surviving without a queen or any of their usual creature comforts.The bunker 'colony' with a 'cemetery' against the far wall. (Wojciech Stephan/Czechowski et al., Journal of Hymenoptera Research, 2016)When it was first found in 2013, this 'colony' of underground ants already included up to a million live workers and several more million dead. They were not reproducing, though. Instead, the population was being replenished through sheer accident.In the ceiling of the bunker sat a rusted ventilation pipe, connecting the dark cavern to the forest above. There, a giant ant colony had built a mound right above the bunker; as the metal rusted through, some of their ranks started falling into the concrete cavern below.The ventilation pipe. (Rutkowski et al., Journal of Hymenoptera Research, 2019)"In total darkness, they have constructed an earthen mound, which they have maintained all-year-round by moulding it and keeping the nest entrances open," researchers wrote in a study in 2016, noting these ants are "a far cry from a fully functional colony". Investigating the limits of ant living conditions is a subject of keen interest for some entomologists. So, for several years, researchers made repeated trips to the bunker and watched in fascination as this isolated population continued to grow and survive despite a lack of light, heat, or obvious nourishment.Now, scientists finally know how these trapped insects ...