It's one of the most entertaining sights in the rain forest: leafcutter ants marching back to their nest in a bumper-to-bumper line, each carrying a leaf fragment held upright like a placard. These ants are cooperating in the oldest farming society onEarth: They use the leaves to produce the fungus that they eat. What may go unnoticed, however, is that many of the ants also carry another ant riding on top of the leaf.This piggybacking is an example of what scientists call "phoretic behavior," from the Greek for "being carried." In plain English, it's hitchhiking—one animal catching a ride on another, more mobile creature—and it's a surprisingly common behavior in the animal world, though for many different reasons.Carriers range from spiders and bats to three-toed sloths and elephants. For the passengers, motives include catching a ride to the next meal or mate, feeding off their free ride, hiding from predators, staying safe with mom, dispersing young or just gaining a new vantage point to hunt or scout the landscape.
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