A new research synopsis entitled “Risky trade-offs alter ant movement” has been published on CIDDTV. The synopsis covers results from a study from CIDD researchers Natalie Imirzian, Christoph Kurze, Raquel Loreto, and David Hughes with collaborators at the University of Notre Dame.
The researchers investigated forager ant behavior the rainforests of Southeastern Brazil, as these forager ants are exposed to predators and pathogens as they leave the nest. The group used cameras to capture ant behavior on the main foraging trails and developed a deep learning model that tracks ants frame-by-frame in the videos to generate a detailed dataset of ant movement in a natural setting. What they observed is that there is a trade off in the ants’ behaviors for avoiding disease vs. food acquisition.
Link to the synopsis: http://epidemics.psu.edu/articles/view/risky-trade-offs-alter-ant-movement
Past synopses can be found at http://epidemics.psu.edu/
If you would like your research featured on CIDDTV, please send an email to Ellen Brandell, our Research Synopsis Coordinator.
Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics Graduate Student Association 