Democracy Dies in Darkness

In Kenya, the king of the jungle faces a new challenge — ants

Researchers said big-headed ants started an ‘ecological chain reaction’ in a Kenya conservancy, impacting lions and other animals

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February 4, 2024 at 6:27 p.m. EST
Lions in Kenya's Ol Pejeta Conservancy have changed their hunting habits in the past few decades, a study says. (Victoria Zero)
4 min

Lions have long stood atop the food chain, but now a new enemy has forced the dominant carnivores in Kenya to change their hunting strategies and diets.

The threat? Ants that are smaller than a grain of rice.

The invasive insects that arrived in Kenya in the early 2000s, probably due to global shipping and international tourism, have caused an “ecological chain reaction,” according to researchers. Big-headed ants kill native acacia ants, which protect trees from elephants and other herbivores in Kenya — one of a few African nations with a sizable lion population — by swarming into the animals’ nostrils and biting when they try to eat the trees’ leaves, branches and bark.