When the ants first get to a territory, they’re exploring it for opportunities. Once they find an opportunity, a high-quality food source, they start to exploit that. But some percentage of them never stop exploring. That allows them to discover backup plans. Those backup plans are really good to have when the ants are forced to quit, when the ants get unlucky and the food source goes away.
Of we commit 100% to one path without continuing to explore other options, even at a reduced level because you are using some resources for the main objective, you might miss out on you next objective and/or an even better objective. This is an important part of the explore-exploit cycle and where it will be successful long term.
