All language subtitles for Empire of the Desert Ants BBC Natural World 2011 1080p HDTV EN Sub

Like all good stories, this one has
a dark and stormy beginning.

THUNDER RUMBLES

Arizona's blistering summer has come
to an earth-shattering end.

This is the first rain
to fall here in six months.

It heralds the birth
of a new empire.

Imagine a world deep underground,
ruled by a ruthless queen.

Over eight years, she and her armies
will unleash a reign of terror.

Building an empire
of epic proportions.

Eliminating rivals
with brutal efficiency.

Thousands will perish
in defence of her realm.

This is the story
of her rise to power.

The morning after the storm,

a lone honey ant queen wanders
the still-damp desert.

Triggered by the rain, she emerged
from a distant underground nest

just a few hours ago.

Chance has carried her
to Horseshoe Canyon,

a dramatic backdrop
for her first faltering steps.

The rain has softened
the hard-packed soil

just enough for her
to begin digging a nest.

Where she digs is perhaps the most
crucial decision of her life.

If she picks a good spot,
these excavations will become

the foundations of a great empire,
but if she makes a bad choice,

she won't last for long.

With the odds stacked against her,
she needs help.

It comes in the shape of another
newly-emerged ant queen.

She is inspected with the formality
her regal status requires.

The new recruit is allowed to join.

Usually aggressive
towards one another,

co-operation like this is very
unusual for most ant species.

There's something about
the founding queen

that seems to attract others to her.

A third queen appears.

These few short hours spent digging

is the only time these queens
will ever see their desert home.

They could spend the next
twenty years deep underground.

More recruits are drawn
to the scene,

perhaps attracted by pheromones.

In just a few hours, the queens have
sealed themselves into their bunker

and a life of perpetual darkness.

For the founding queen,

sharing her nest with all these
rivals seems like madness.

But the economics of desert survival
is a numbers game.

And for the moment at least,

this communal life is the key
to her future.

Each queen now lays
her first batch of tiny eggs,

each no bigger than a pinhead.

Many new nests contain
two or three queens,

limiting the initial brood
to less than 100 eggs.

But these ten queens have produced
well over 300 eggs.

And when they hatch, the colony will
become an instant superpower.

For the founding queen, this is the
main advantage to taking in lodgers.

If the eggs are not kept clean
and coated with antibiotic saliva,

they would quickly be smothered
by fungi and rot away.

The eggs soon hatch.

Fed by the queens, the voracious
larvae grow quickly and then pupate.

A few weeks after the eggs
were laid,

the first tiny, pale workers
emerge from these silky cocoons.

All ant workers are female
and sterile.

Unable to reproduce themselves,

their sole purpose in life
is to serve the queens.

They darken as their bodies
become harder

and then they are ready
to take up their duties.

Some stay underground,

tending to the queens
and to the remaining brood.

Others head for the surface
for a first look

at their strange new world.

The founding queen picked
a good spot to stake her claim.

The nest is in an old corral
at the mouth of Horseshoe Canyon.

It's the water in the old tanks

and the nearby stream
that makes life possible here.

Creating an oasis in the desert.

Smaller than a grain of rice,
the tiny ants

from the Corral colony take their
first tentative steps above ground.

Their entire kingdom encompasses
just a few square metres.

They must get everything they need
to survive from this territory.

While it's no Garden of Eden,

from an ant's perspective,
it has a lot going for it.

There's plants to provide food.

And shade from a nearby oak tree.

But there is a down side -
it comes with noisy neighbours.

COWS MOOING

The old corrals are still used
by local ranchers

who graze their herds in the canyon.

They're a tough breed.

The cows depend on the water

pumped from deep underground
into the tanks at the corral.

And the new nest is close
to one of the main trails.

So the cattle are never far away.

But it's not the cows
that are a real danger to the ants.

There are predators lurking
much closer to home.

Concealed beneath the sand is
a stealthy hunter. An ant lion.

Unseen, they dig traps
to snare their victims.

First, the ant lion larva scribes
a circle on the ground.

then, digging deeper, it spirals in
towards the centre.

Once finished, the predator
buries itself at the base

and waits.

The angle of the slope is just
the right side of unstable.

put one foot wrong and it becomes
a slippery slope

to a nightmarish end.

The ant lion toys with its prey.

Manoeuvring the ant into position
to administer the killer bite.

Paralyzed by the injected poison,

the victim is dragged underground
and its vital juices sucked out.

But in the struggle for survival,

the odd worker is expendable.

The fledgling Corral colony
is all that matters.

In the darkness, the queens
are slowly starving to death.

They have been breaking down
their own muscles to stay alive.

So any food the tiny workers
can bring home is crucial.

They struggle with huge loads.

These meagre supplies
allow the queens

to regain some of their strength
and to start laying more eggs.

By pooling their resources,

the queens have survived
their first major challenge,

but this coalition can't last.

Tensions are already on the rise
as the queens jostle for position

within the royal court.

The weaker crouch submissively
before the more dominant,

including the founding queen.

So begins the delicate manoeuvring

that will soon take on
a deadly significance.

Those at the bottom
of the hierarchy

have little chance of surviving
the coming trials.

Another struggle for control
is also beginning above ground.

The Corral nest is not
the only one in Horseshoe Canyon.

The desert floor is littered
with similar sized colonies

and there's not enough room
for all of them.

Now the darker side
of honey ants emerges.

It's time for the Corral colony
to mount a pre-emptive strike

on its nearest neighbours.

Flush with victory,
they're ready to take on all comers.

Harvester ants are big
and heavy-jawed.

But honey ants punch
well above their weight.

Their weapons of choice?

Nipping jaws and formic acid
sprayed in fine droplets

from the tips of their abdomens.

This has a devastating effect
on anything it touches.

Still only a few hundred strong,

the Corral colony is starting
to flex its muscles.

For the queens, the real benefits
of joining the coalition are clear.

There's strength in numbers

and the nest with the most firepower
always wins.

Soon, the Corral colony
has destroyed

all the other honey ant nests
in the neighbourhood.

The foundations of the empire
have been laid.

Underground too,
events have taken a darker turn.

One of the queens lies dead
in the royal chamber.

It's not clear why, but the workers
have started singling out

the weaker queens
for special attention.

At first, it's all very subtle -

one isn't fed so often
or cleaned as diligently.

But then, the workers start bullying
and harassing their chosen victim.

Finally, it spills over
into direct attack

and the workers tear
the chosen queen to pieces.

Nothing can go to waste,
even a royal carcass.

Workers carry hungry larvae over
to feast on the dead queen,

including many that must have been
her own offspring.

As the weeks pass,
the revolution continues.

Only the most dominant royals
seem immune to attack.

They just watch and wait

as the workers go about
their gruesome business.

Winter means hard times
for all the canyon's inhabitants.

To conserve energy, the colony
has more or less shut down.

No-one ventures above ground
to gather food,

few eggs are being laid and
the workers go onto reduced shifts.

They could be down here
for six months or more,

eking out a living
on the most meagre of supplies.

By winter's end, only the two
strongest queens are left standing.

In some honey ant nests,

multiple queens can
work in coalition for years.

But not in this one.

It's time for the final reckoning.

Perhaps sensing some weakness
in one of the queens,

the workers move in for the kill.

Compared with the slow,
lingering death

of the queens purged
earlier in the winter,

this is a swift and brutal
assassination.

The founding queen now has
complete control of the nest

she began to dig
all those months ago.

All the workers, no matter
who they are descended from,

must be loyal to her.

But to be absolute ruler
is not enough.

She needs to produce heirs,

and to do that, she first needs
to build up her empire.

The spring rains have transformed
Horseshoe canyon.

The flush of desert flowers provides
a rich supply of nectar.

Hummingbirds are one of the canyon's
more exotic visitors,

jetting in with the sun.

It's time for the Corral colony
to resurface

after their winter of deprivation.

The swelling ranks of workers leave
the nest each day to gather food.

They now range over an area

the size of a tennis court,
and nectar is their main food.

Honey ant workers
have expandable abdomens,

reservoirs that allow them to carry
liquid food back to the nest.

It's crucial they gather
as much as they can

during this brief period of plenty.

As well as being foragers,
honey ants are also farmers,

tending small herds of aphids.

Aphids feed on plant sap.

Any excess is excreted as
a sugary liquid called honeydew.

The honey ants 'milk' the aphids by
stroking them with their antennae.

In return for this reward,
the ants provide protection.

All this activity around the nest

has attracted
some very unwelcome attention.

A horned lizard has taken up
temporary residence

on their doorstep.

It can eat hundreds of ants
in a single sitting.

It will only move on
when the sun gets too hot

or it's eaten its fill.

But for the queen,
these losses are more than offset

by the production
of new workers deep underground.

And now she's starting
a new strategy.

The queen is putting together
an army of specialists

that will form the backbone
of her growing empire.

Pumping out an egg every hour, the
colony now numbers over a thousand.

Her kingdom is co-ordinated
largely by pheromones,

cocktails of complex chemicals
passed from mouth to mouth.

They are used to direct
every activity within the nest.

Under the influence of these royal
commands, some larger workers

are about to take on
a very special role in the colony.

Returning foragers seek them out

and force-feed them
load after load of nectar.

Their abdomens become distended

until they are the size
of garden peas.

As they fill, these super-sized ants
called repletes haul themselves

onto the chamber roof
to avoid being damaged.

They become prisoners
in their own nests.

Once hanging,
they refine the nectar,

removing water, concentrating it
into a thick honey.

Then, when supplies run low

during the long winter
or in drought years,

these living larders
regurgitate their contents

to feed the hungry colony.

It's the honey ant's elegant
solution to desert survival.

Repletes are the largest honey ant
workers, most are much smaller.

The smallest of all devote
themselves to caring for the queen.

Others must keep the larvae
meticulously clean.

Some organise the creches, sorting
out the broods by age and size.

Larger midwives help cut
the young ants from their cocoons.

But the most demanding underground
job is playing nursemaid,

and these larvae are always hungry.

The amount and type of food
they receive determines their size

and hence, their position
in the workforce.

The queen now heads a formidable
and efficient machine.

But as the riches of spring
dwindle away,

this machine is stalling.

This time of year can be ferociously
hot in southern Arizona.

Despite the intense heat, the
topside workers must keep foraging

to feed the queen's soaring
ambitions.

With the flowers gone,
there are few easy meals left.

The oak trees near the nest
now become the focus of activity.

Gall wasps have infected
the oak's acorn crop.

Their larvae use
the plant's own tissues

to create for themselves
a protective nodule, a gall.

The growing galls
secrete a sugary liquid

that the worker ants can't resist.

By attracting the ants in this way,

the gall wasp larvae
gain a degree of protection

from predators and parasites.

But these few precious drops
will never be enough

to satisfy the colony's
spiralling demands.

The Corral colony workers need
to look further afield.

Casting the net wider
means taking bigger risks,

but holds out
the possibility of huge rewards.

The gatherers are about
to become hunters.

Scouts soon stumble upon another
honey ant colony.

The Corral colony
sends in a raiding party.

It's a fast, co-ordinated attack.

The smaller colony doesn't
stand a chance.

The spoils of war are dragged
out into the sunlight.

Not everyone gives up
without a struggle.

But resistance is futile in the face
of such overwhelming odds.

Nothing is left behind.

Eggs, larvae, workers, pupae are all
carried back to the Corral nest.

Loaded with honey, the repletes are
the most valuable plunder of all.

Some are dismembered
and drained underground.

Others are dragged to the surface

and hauled back
to the victors' nest.

But they can be a real challenge
to manoeuvre across no-man's land.

This is how most clashes between
honey ant colonies are played out.

Invariably, the winner is the one
that has the superior numbers.

Sometimes, captured broods are added
to the victorious colony's nursery

to be raised as their own.

But not here, not today.

Everything pillaged
from the raided nest

is processed for long-term storage.

The difficulty with captured
honey-pots is getting at the honey.

The workers are forced to chew
through the body, removing the head

and thorax,
leaving behind an open 'barrel'

to be drained at leisure.

The raid couldn't have come
at a better time.

It's filled the Corral colony's
larders,

ensuring its 2,000 inhabitants
will be well-fed

through the approaching winter.

But just as importantly,

a rival nest that could have
threatened the queen's reign

has been eliminated.

For the next few years,

life in the canyon follows its own
particular course.

The seasons ebb and flow.

But through it all, the Corral queen
continues to build her empire.

Even though the colony is now
six years old,

the nest entrance is still
an unassuming hole in the ground.

But this is now a portal
into a magical subterranean world.

A honey ant super-colony.

Home to several thousand workers.

And hundreds of honey-filled
repletes.

The queen now reigns over
a formidable force

that dominates this part
of Horseshoe Canyon.

Together, they have built
a complex underground city.

Just beneath the surface
is a network

of chambers and linking tunnels.

From these, a single,
vertical chimney extends two metres

down into the concrete-hard earth
to reach the colony's nerve-centre.

This deep, the soil is still moist,

the air cool, despite the soaring
surface temperatures.

This is the very heart
of the queen's empire.

Others too have been drawn
to this underground oasis.

This beetle has made its way

down into the deeper recesses
of the labyrinth.

As it pushes on
into the royal chambers,

the imperial guard
immediately attack.

But their jaws and acid-sprays make
little impact on its heavy armour.

After a while, they start
to ignore the intruder.

Perhaps the beetle begins
to take on the colony smell

and no longer arouses
the guard's suspicions.

But the ants leave it alone
at their peril.

Now passing itself off
as a colony member,

its true intentions become clear.

A beetle this big needs lots of food

and this nursery chamber is proving
to be a rich hunting ground.

This year, the colony has reached
a tipping point.

For the first time
in its six-year history,

there are male as well as
female ants in the nest.

The Corral queen
has finally succeeded

in producing her first generation
of winged princes and princesses.

All the work of the queen
and her army over the last few years

has been to reach
this one pivotal moment.

Soon, these winged royals
will fan out across the desert

to establish new colonies.

They have already been
packed in down here for weeks.

Workers keep them fuelled up

and their wings in prime condition
for their maiden flight.

All they need now is a trigger
to send them on their way.

And that trigger is brewing
high in the desert sky.

THUNDER RUMBLES

The summer rains finally arrive.

Around here, it's called
the monsoon season.

These torrential downpours
can dump several centimetres of rain

in just a few hours.

The normally hard ground
is softened by the deluge.

Over 180 ant species are found here

and this is the moment most of them
have been waiting for.

The air is filled
with millions of flying insects...

..as virgin queens and male consorts

seek each other out.

The mass emergence continues
throughout the afternoon.

As the day begins to cool,
the time has finally come

for the Corral honey ants
to put in an appearance.

Workers pour out to secure
the perimeter of the nest-hole,

creating a protected launch pad.

The queens and much smaller males
move up through the tunnels

towards the surface
and out into the light.

Still deep underground,

the queen won't witness
these momentous events,

but her winged sons and daughters
are about to spread the royal line

far across the desert.

In a few frenetic minutes,
hundreds take to the skies...

..mate with the other honey ants
emerging from nests

along the canyon.

And then tumble back to earth.

Most will perish within a few hours.

They can meet their end
in many different ways.

The massive rate of attrition
is why the Corral queen

must produce
so many winged offspring.

Like so much else in honey ant life,

starting new colonies
is all about numbers.

Some even get picked off
by other ants.

The weak and the injured
are quickly recycled.

Even those badly damaged
during the emergence

are driven to try
and complete their mission.

Despite such heavy losses,

hundreds of new honey ant nests
will be excavated along the canyon.

These queens are the lucky ones,

retracing the steps the Corral
queen took six years earlier

when she first landed here.

But few will last as long
or be as successful.

For now, their main concern
is to get themselves underground

before the soil dries
and becomes unworkable.

Some queens seem less willing
to share than others.

Which doesn't bode well for
their future together underground.

As dusk settles,
the emergence slows.

Under cover of darkness,
predators start to appear.

The emergence marks a brief
boom-time for many in the canyon.

Just a few metres
from the Corral nest,

another species of honey ant
ventures out

and immediately starts
gathering up the fallen.

Although they are
next door neighbours,

they will never meet,

because these honey ants
only come out after dark.

By working at night, this large
honey ant nest can co-exist

right next to the Corral colony,
without conflict.

Other than this time-shift, the two
species lead identical lives,

occupying a massive nest,

lined with honey-filled repletes,

and overseen
by an-all powerful queen.

By the next morning, the emergence
in Horseshoe Canyon is over.

There won't be another
until it rains again next year.

This summer, the Corral queen
has played the numbers game
to perfection.

There's a good chance some of her
daughters will have survived

long enough to start
their own colonies,

and her reign is far from over.

With luck, she could live
for another 15 years.

But after this year's triumph,

the Corral queen's luck
is about to change.

By the eighth year, the colony's
fortunes have plummeted.

The rains have been
sporadic and light.

The streams have run dry.

The vegetation parched.

The canyon is held tight

in the grip of drought.

The intense heat is making life

almost impossible
for the Corral colony.

The workers run the risk
of being cooked alive

if they stay out foraging
for too long.

The only way to survive
is to take repeated time-outs

from the lethal heat.

Temperatures a few centimetres
above ground

can be several degrees cooler
than at the surface.

So the ants must climb or die.

A few minutes up here

and they've cooled enough to risk
venturing back down

to resume their search for food.

Even the wind brings no respite
to the hard-pressed colony.

As the scorching air swirls around
the canyon, getting back

to the sanctuary of the nest
can become a life or death struggle.

With so little rain, the food supply
has dwindled to almost nothing.

The canyon is slowly
turning into a dustbowl.

After enjoying years of success,

the queen is now facing
her most severe challenge.

No winged ants
have been produced this summer.

Egg-laying has slowed to a trickle.

Under the intolerable stress,

even the precious larders
are being drained.

The Corral colony
is no longer the force it was

and for the first time,
the queen is vulnerable.

By late summer, the Corral tanks
contain the only standing water
for miles around.

The canyon's more mobile insects
are drawn to this one last oasis.

For those able to travel,
this water is a life-saver.

Bees and wasps can carry the water
back to their distant nests.

But this tiny pool of water
lies just beyond the boundary

of the Corral colony's territory.

With no end in sight,

such desperate times
call for desperate measures.

As the search widens,
a small group of Corral workers

head towards the trough.

This is unfamiliar ground for them

and they are heading
toward disaster.

Near the trough,
they stumble across other honey ants

and then a nest entrance.

It's only 40 metres
from the Corral colony,

but that's been enough to keep
the two nests in mutual ignorance

for all these years.

These new honey ants
are unlike any the Corral workers

have encountered before.

They are big and aggressive.

Instead of backing down,
they meet the challenge head-on

and the encounter
begins to escalate.

They begin the delicate posturing

that allows them to assess each
other's strengths and weaknesses.

It soon becomes clear

that this Trough colony
is the stronger.

Perhaps living close
to permanent water

has given them a crucial advantage.

For the first time in its history,

the Corral colony
may have met its match.

This is not good news.

Increasingly excited,

one of the Corral workers
fires poisonous spray at the nest.

But this only galvanizes
the Trough ants

into launching
an all-out counter attack.

Sensing the worst,

the Corral workers begin
to fall back towards their own nest.

The Trough workers
go on the offensive.

The retreat quickly turns
into a rout.

Stragglers are picked off.

The fight is carried right to
the entrance of the Corral colony.

Even here on their own doorstep,
they can't hold their ground.

The attacking Trough workers
drive on into the nest.

As news of the attack reaches
the Corral queen,

she withdraws
to the deepest chambers,

her entourage of nurses in tow,
carrying the valuable brood.

The battle spreads
down into the tunnels.

Slowly, inexorably,

it spreads down through the shafts

towards the deeper part of the nest.

The repletes are slaughtered.

Or dragged away to be eaten later.

Some dead workers
are carried off for processing.

The invaders take everything,
from eggs to newborns.

Many are eaten where they fall.

Only a trespassing beetle
seems immune to attack.

They empty chamber after chamber.

Finally, the invaders
overcome the last resistance

and break through
into the royal bunker.

The Corral queen and her broods

are trapped and completely helpless.

Held by each leg,
the queen is on the rack.

First stretched,

then dismembered.

It is a gruesome and ignominious end

for this once-great ruler.

In just a few hours, the Corral
colony has been annihilated.

The nest emptied.

Too late for the Corral colony,
the drought finally breaks.

THUNDER RUMBLES

A great storm heralded the start
of the Corral queen's story

and now, eight years later,

another marks its brutal end.

But somewhere out in the desert,
the queen's royal daughters

are fighting their own battles,
continuing her dynasty.

The queen may be dead,
but her empire lives on.