Special Object 3003 Templewo is an abandoned Soviet military bunker buried under the woods in Poland. It once was a storage and assembly site for conventional and nuclear weapons, and has been empty and unused since 1992. But the ants who make it their home inadvertently play out an illustration of heaven and hell.
On top of a ventilation pipe that juts out from the mostly underground facility, there is big, mound-like nest of wood ants. It is a perfectly normal place for wood ants to live. They feast on the sweet honeydew secreted by aphids dwelling in nearby pine trees, and soak up the rays of post-Soviet sun.
But within the bunker, in a small room at the bottom of that shaft, there was a second colony of ants. These ants had no sun, no warmth, no light, and no honeydew. So they survived on the flesh of their fellow ants. Their colony was the wretched result of individuals falling from the healthier colony above, and with no way to climb out of the bunker, they could never return. It feels like a mirror-horror that could have come straight out of the mind of Jordan Peele, except that instead of a commentary on race and class in America, it’s a testament to one population’s sheer will to survive.
Scientists have known about the ants since 2013. The ants in colony two do not reproduce, but go about their ant lives as best as they can until they die and become food for others. There will always be more new ants that fall from above. But does it have to be this way? Read about the scheme to save the cannibal ants from their unnatural fate at Atlas Obscura.
(Image credit: Stephan Wojciech)