Ants go marching using vector navigation

ZURICH, Switzerland, July 22 (UPI) -- Ants traveling in the desert's relentlessly featureless terrain use vector navigation to plot their course, researchers at the University of Zurich found.

The strategy allows desert ants to integrate direction, distance and incline as they travel, the scientists said in an article published in Frontiers in Zoology.

In their study of desert ant locomotion performed on differently slanted surfaces, the researchers said they wanted to examine what mechanisms ants used to estimate step length and inclination.

In a related experiment with ants foraging on slippery surfaces, researchers said they were able to separate the relationship between stepping frequency and step length to examine the ants' ability to gauge distances covered those adverse conditions.

Once they removed the effect of speed, the researchers said they demonstrated slope had only a "marginal influence" on their travels.

The researchers said they think sensing mechanisms on the ant's legs could provide the correlation in monitoring inclination and step length.