Overview

• Researchers observed ants performing amputations on severely injured nestmates, improving their survival chances.
• The ants can diagnose the severity of wounds and decide whether amputation or wound care is necessary.
• Amputations are performed only on upper-leg injuries to prevent infections from spreading.
• Lower-leg injuries are treated with extensive wound cleaning instead of amputation.
• This is the first recorded instance of non-human animals performing purposeful amputations to save lives.