Zombies Some organisms use mind control to get ahead.


zombie ant


Zombie Ant A line of ants marches through a rain forest. One by one, the ants climb a tree trunk. T ey’re headed up to their warm, dry nest. Suddenly, one ant stumbles out of line. It


twitches a little. T en it drops to the ground. Something is wrong. T ese ants usually never step out of line. Near the ground, the ant finds a leaf. It


crawls under the leaf where it’s damp and shady. T en it bites into the leaf. T e ant’s jaws lock. T e ant can’t let go. It can’t even move. T e ant hangs from the leaf, slowly dying. T is ant is acting odd for a scary reason.


It’s a zombie. You can’t see it, but a killer now controls the ant.


6 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC EXTREME EXPLORER


T e ant was fine only hours earlier. T en


it picked up a tiny hitchhiker. It was a fungus spore smaller than a grain of sand. T e spore stuck to the ant. T en it dug its way into the ant’s body. T e ant doesn’t feel a thing. Inside its body,


though, the spore goes to work. It reproduces and spreads. T e spores take over the ant’s brain. T ey make the ant find a damp, shady place. T at’s where a fungus grows best. T e fungus sprouts from the ant’s head.


T e ant looks like it’s growing antennae. By now, though, the ant is dead. T e fungus isn’t. It keeps growing until it explodes. New spores splatter. Soon, they’ll make new zombie ants.


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