What you thought was an ant isn’t, they’re a delicacy in some parts of the world—and bears love them, too!
Did you know?
• Leaf cutter ants don’t eat the leaves they cut. Instead, these farmer ants cultivate an edible fungus on the decaying leaves, which they then feed to the entire colony.
• If you see a rather large ant with thick red fur scurrying across the ground, stay clear. It’s a velvet ant, which is not an ant at all, but a wingless wasp that has a powerful sting.
• Each spring the eggs of large black ants are gathered in Mexico to create escamoles, a traditional delicacy. The ant eggs are cooked and seasoned, resulting in a dish with a sweet, nutty flavor.
• Eurasian brown bears in Sweden have been known to get 20 percent of their digestible energy from ants. Asian sloth bears specialize in eating ants; they vacuum them up with their specially adapted lips.