watch out! ants?

I was recently in Zavala district of Mozambique. As we went to visit a local village leader at his home, I was standing next to a tree. One of the staff said sternly - watch out! He pointed to the tree. I was thinking maybe it was poisonous in some way.

No. That was not the danger.

What danger was looming behind me? An ant colony.

In a tree? Yup! Check it out.

This is the ant colony before we started messing with it. Sort of a web of leaves on a branch.

I didn't see ants. As a result, I kept saying in disbelief - "there are ants in there. really?" So, a staff member sacrificed himself and pulled apart the leaves of another colony on the same tree. Look at them scatter!

Ants everywhere! They did the same thing they do when you plug up their sand colonies (admit it, we've all done that) - they immediately start to rebuild. Fascinating!

Just another day in Africa...

NOTE: this is a different home than the barking dog.