in the lush forests of the tropics where
flowers bloomed throughout the year
animals that feed on nectar can always
find a drink somewhere but in other
parts of the world where perhaps the
winters are bitterly cold or here in the
parched deserts of Australia where
flowers only bloom after brief rains and
it was that rely on nectar have to have
some way of storing it to last them
through the hard times
these Marga trees produce nectar on
which ants feed and they have the most
extraordinary larders the calories of
their nests lie four feet or so below
the surface of the ground
these golden globes hanging from the
roof are their storage pots full of
honey each one is alive an ant with an
abdomen expanded to the size of a grape
the small dark flecks are the hard
plates which protect the body of a
normal-sized and it's the membrane
between them that is stretched these
bloated individuals are almost totally
inactive so they consume very little of
the honey that they hold it is drunk by
the busy workers who when there's little
food to be found above-ground come down
here and induce the honey pots to
regurgitate it
the workers also tend their swollen
bodies keeping them well-groomed and
clean during the good times the workers
collect all the nectar they can and take
it down to the ladders to top up the
colony's storage jars by feeding it to
them drop by drop
[Music]
the people who've roamed these deserts
for millennia the Aborigines have always
valued these answers one of the few
sources of sugar and they eat them just
as they are
mmm it's liquid warm and marvelously
sweet