Few animals bother to resist army ants. Almost none eat them. Like wasps, each army ant species has its own culture and preferred diet, and they’ve been terrorizing the residents of tropical forests since the Jurassic. They’re as feared in real life as Hudson’s imaginary “hunting-leopards,” and creatures of all sizes drop everything and run when they see (or smell) them coming. The stream of panicked spiders, scorpions, cockroaches, centipedes, and lizards fleeing the ants, in turn, provides a feast for predatory songbirds who specialize in consuming refugees—not unlike the chimango caracaras
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