But the big-headed ant changed all that. Thought to have originated on an island in the Indian Ocean and brought to the area by the movement of people and goods, these invasive marauders arrived ...

Big-headed ants kill native ants of the genus Crematogaster and eat their eggs, larvae and pupae. Unlike Crematogaster, however, big-headed ants live underground and do not defend trees against ...

It all began 20 years ago, when invasive big-headed ants first arrived near the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Laikipia, in southern Kenya. The ants are considered one of the worst invasive species ...

But the invasive, big-headed ants are still encroaching at a rate of about 160 feet each year, and it's not clear if they can be stopped.

While the lions have adapted thus far, the big-headed ants could spell trouble for other species that rely on the whistling-thorn tree, like giraffes or the critically endangered black rhino.

Lions in big-headed-ant territory are still making some zebra kills; where their diet needs supplementing, they’re filling in the gaps with buffalo.

As detailed today in the journal Science, the researchers found that the invasion of big-headed ants at Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy makes lions less effective at killing zebras, their primary prey.

The big-headed ant species, which originated on the island of Mauritius, is one of the most invasive insects in the world, with colonies found at 1,600 locations, from East Africa to states across ...

At the moment, there’s no clear strategy for controlling the big-headed ants, he says. In his years studying this system, Palmer says he’s seen parts of the landscape totally transform.

Zebra kills were 2.87 times higher in uninvaded areas, compared to areas with the big-headed ants. The lions responded by shifting their prey to include more African buffalo.

These big-headed ants, as they are more commonly known, started to set up shop in the local whistling-thorn trees, where they kicked out the local native acacia ant population.