Detouring while foraging up a tree: What bull ants (Myrmecia midas) learn and their reactions to novel sensory cues.

Many animals navigate in a structurally complex environment, which requires them to detour around the physical barriers that they encounter. Although many studies in animal cognition suggest that they are able to adeptly avoid obstacles, it is unclear whether a new route is learned to navigate around these barriers and, if so, what sensory information may be used to do so. We investigated detour learning in traveling up a tree in the Australian bull ant, Myrmecia midas, which primarily uses visual landmarks.