7 Animals That Know How to Farm

If at that place's one trait that distinguishes humans from animals, it's the ability to grow food.

Merely you might personify surprised to learn that humans were non the archetypal farmers. A number of astonishing animals unconcealed Agriculture Department long before humans evolved as a species. There are insects that practice husbandry, fish that farm, and straight-grained jellyfish horticulturalists.

Farming was once believed to atomic number 4 a exploit reserved single for big-brained hairless apes, merely IT turns stunned that animals father't need a central nervous system to tend crops. Hera's our list of cardinal awful hawklike agriculturalists.

Flip-Cutting tool Ants

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Leaf-cutter ants aren't just farmers; they are factory farmers. They gather leaves to cultivate a fungus that grows on the leaves. Leaf-cutter ants protect the crops from pests and mold. They then feed the fungus, non the leaves, to their larvae. Many people believed these ants from Central and South America Ate the leaves they collected. Instead, they farm and sometimes, like humans, have difficulty with work failures.

Termites

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Much ilk leaf-ship's boat ants, many termite species are fungus farmers. The gigantic mounds built by some termite colonies are complex, temperature-harnessed structures. These structures are essential for maintaining the nonpareil growing surroundings for their plant life intellectual nourishment source. The termites start by chewing the plant material and feeding it to the fungus. The fungus and so grows into mushrooms, creating a food rootage for the termites.

Though considered household pests, termites form some of the well-nig complex societies in the animal kingdom.

Demoiselle

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These spirited farmers are the only angle known to engage in agriculture. Damselfish are algae-growers. They are then protective of their crops that they have attacked other creatures that swim too faithful — even imperfect divers.

The algae they favour is a species that is weak and quickly over-grazed, compared to other species of algae. If it weren't for so much dedicated farmers, the alga would be difficult to find. IT tends to survive lone within the protective territories of the demoiselle.

Ambrosia Beetles

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Named afterwards the fungus they cultivate, ambrosia beetles are bark borers that spring u their crops within decaying trees.

A common misconception is that these beetles eat the wood. In realism, they bore through the wood and introduce the ambrosia fungi that they eat. In one case a chamber is complete, the beetles carefully lean to their browse, which feeds both adults and larvae. The beetles often leave a ring of what looks same sawdust around the tree as they push the wood shavings down of the holes they eager.

Ants

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Several pismire species crowd aphids in often the same fashio that humans keep cattle for milk. Instead of Milk, aphids excrete a sugary liquid called honeydew that the ants devour.

Ants go to uppercase lengths to care for their aphids, often training them to defecate in a way that makes it easier for the ants to gather and eat the honeydew. In fact, the well-trained aphids will much deduct their honeydew until they are stroked and "milked" by ants.

Even more fascinating, ants wish typically carry their aphids to new pasture lands and protect them from predators. In intense cases, ants volition clip disconnected their domesticated aphids' wings to prevent them from flying away when they mature. They even encourage a mixture of aphids, and so they have a balance between types.

Ngaio Marsh Periwinkles

Mary Hollinger, NESDIS/NODC biologist, NOAA / Flickr / CC Away 2.0

Fenland periwinkles (Littoraria irrorata), a type of snail typically found throughout the Southeastern USA, prefer to feast happening a fungus that they farm in wounds on cord grass leaves.

These wise snails use their rugose, spit-like radula to cut grooves into cord grass leaves, creating the perfect biological process environment for their favorite fungus.

Scientists give birth even spotted snails have fertilizing their Fields by defecating in the grooves, further helping the fungus grow.

Spotted Jellies

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Spotted jellies, a.k.a. lagoon jellies, grow algae food inside their tissues.

During the solar day, spotted jellies typically orient themselves doorbell side down and tentacles raised. This position ensures the photosynthetic range in their tentacles gets plenty light. They pass most of their time chasing the daytime and tending their national gardens.

Yeti Crab

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Abominable snowman crabs grow bacteria along their hairy claws. Geological researchers found the crabs when superficial for methane seeps in the sea off of Costa Rica; the bacteria bring fort their Energy from the inorganic gases coming from sea vents. The crabs wave their claws to create movement in the water — this, in turn, feeds the bacteria with the oxygen and sulfide it needs to grow. When the crab is ready to eat, it uses comblike mouthparts to harvest its meal from the bristles.