介绍： This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Susanne Bard.
The Sahara Desert, where daytime temperatures can reach 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Not many organisms can survive in this harsh environment. But an insect called the Saharan silver ant thrives. They scurry out onto the sand from their protected n...

介绍： This is Scientific American's 60-second Science, I'm Susanne Bard.
The Sahara Desert, where daytime temperatures can reach 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Not many organisms can survive in this harsh environment. But an insect called the Saharan silver ant thrives. They scurry out onto the sand from their protected nests to gather up the carcasses of less fortunate insects that have died from the heat.
"The hotter the day, the more insect bodies they will find. The more food they have."
Sarah Pfeffer, an animal behaviorist at Ulm University in Germany. She says that to avoid sinking into the Saharan sand dunes, where they could meet the same fate as their lunch, silver ants have to be fast.
To document just how quickly the ants move, Pfeffer and her colleagues set up high-speed cameras above a channel between the entrance to the hungry ants' nest and a food source.

这里是科学美国人——60秒科学系列，我是苏珊娜·巴德。撒哈拉沙漠白天的温度可达到华氏140度。没有多少生物能在这种恶劣的环境中生存。但一种叫撒哈拉银蚁的昆虫却在这里茁壮成长。它们从被保护的蚁穴中迅速跑到沙地上，收集死于高温的不幸昆虫的尸体。“天气越热，它们发现的昆虫尸体就越多，它们的食物也就越多。”德国乌尔姆大学的动物行为学家萨拉·费弗尔说到。她表示，为了避免陷入撒哈拉沙丘中，即避免遭遇与它们所找到的午餐一样的命运，银蚁不得不行动迅速。为了记录下银蚁的移动速度有多快，费弗尔和同事在饥饿银蚁的巢穴入口和食物来源之间的通道上方安装了高速摄像机。