There are an estimated 10000000000000000000 ants in the world. That’s a lot of ants! But how did scientists come up with that number?
It’s actually a pretty tricky question to answer because ants are small and live in a variety of habitats all over the world. But a few different studies have tried to come up with an estimate.
One study published in 2003 in the journal Nature used a “mark-release-recapture” method to estimate the number of ants in an area of rainforest in Panama. The researchers marked a certain number of ants released them back into the wild and then recaptured them after a period of time. By doing this they were able to estimate the total number of ants in the area.
Another study published in 2008 in the journal Biology Letters used a similar method but with a twist. The researchers didn’t just release the ants and let them go about their business. They actually followed them around to see where they went and what they did.
By doing this they were able to get a better idea of the average size of an ant colony and from there they estimated that there are approximately 1.6 million ants per square kilometer of land.
But these studies only looked at a small area of the world so how do we know that there are 10000000000000000000 ants in the world?
Well we don’t know for sure. But if we take the 1.6 million ants per square kilometer estimate and apply it to the entire land surface of the earth we get a pretty close estimate.
Of course this is just an estimate and there are probably a lot more or a lot fewer ants in the world. But it’s a pretty good guess!
How many ants are there?
How many ants are there in a colony?
How many ants are there on Earth?
How many ants are there in an ant hill?
How many ants are there in a nest?
How many ants are there in a swarm?
How many ants are there in an anthill?
How many ants are there in a supercolony?
How many ants are there in an ant mound?
How many ants are there in an ant pile?
How many ants are there in an ant heap?
How many ants are there in a formicary?
Are there more ants in the world than people?
How many ants are there per person on Earth?
How did scientists estimate there are 10000000000000000000 ants on Earth?
