Yet elephants always seem to avoid one particular type of acacia tree called Acacia drepanolobium, also known as the whistling-thorn tree. What sets these acacias apart is the ants that inhabit them.

Ants living in whistling-thorn acacia trees on the African savanna may weigh only 3 milligrams, but they can protect their trees from being demolished by elephants weighing a billion times more ...

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Ants known to defend certain species of Acacia trees from elephant predation deter the massive herbivores so effectively that they are impacting entire savanna ecosystems, according to a study ...

It all starts with the whistling-thorn acacia trees in the plains of Laikipia, Kenya. Their study, published in the journal Science, found that the big-headed ants had led to a threefold decline ...

Protecting acacia trees from large, tree-munching animals sets off a chain of events that ends up ruining the trees' partnership with their bodyguard ants. Skip to content Subscribe or renew today ...

Our story begins in Laikipia with its “tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of square kilometers” of whistling-thorn trees, “comprising >70% (and often 98 to 99%) of woody stems where it occurs.

Take the whistling-thorn acacia. This African tree forms partnerships with four […] As teenagers, we probably associate with different people to those whose company we keep as adults.