![]() ![]() They’ve been collected and eaten for hundreds of years. “They work as one to ensure the survival of the whole. “These ants have a certain intelligence, a natural one,” said Jiménez, peering at the line of leafcutters carrying cuts of foliage above their tiny abdomens. Curiously, the queen of the nest can live for up to 15 years, but when she dies, the colony must move and build a new one. According to Jiménez, each nest contains many thousands of ants and can extend 5m underground in a vast labyrinth of tunnels that would stretch for miles if laid straight. Soon several irritated soldier ants emerged to investigate the disturbance, marching around in search of the perpetrator. When I visited, Alex Jiménez, a guide and ant expert from the area, prodded the entrance to a hormiguero, or ant nest, with a long tree branch. Population growth has seen the insects dig into the foundations of buildings and clash with farmers, whose crops are being eaten by ravenous leafcutters. “I want to promote their use and ensure that this tradition survives.”īut in recent generations, a combination of deforestation and urbanisation has led to problems between the ants and people in Santander. “Hormigas are an important part of Colombian cuisine,” said the restaurant’s chef Eduardo Martínez, who first tasted them on a family trip to Santander as a nine-year-old. Even experimental, high-end restaurants in the country’s capital, Bogotá, feature them seasonally – such as at Mini-Mal, where the ants are served alongside smoked Amazonian pirarucu fish or as part of an ant-infused black pepper sauce with roast beef to a daring clientele. Each spring, harvesters send truckloads of the queens to hungry buyers across Colombia. In recent years, a growing appetite for this crawling culinary specialty has seen the ants spread from a regional snack to something of a gourmet ingredient. “The ants give us a special strength – the ones with the juicy culonas (big butts).” “That’s the reason why us baricharas (locals) usually live long, healthy lives,” said Cecilia González-Quintero, a shopkeeper who has been preserving and selling the ants in glass jars for 20 years. Other research published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition has revealed that ants contain high levels of antioxidants and that regular consumption of them could help prevent cancer. The world's most densely populated isleĪs well as being an excellent source of protein, the atta laevigata species, also known as the South American leafcutter ant, is a rich source of unsaturated fatty acids, which prevent high cholesterol.A shipwreck worth billions off the coast of Cartagena.But the rewards are considerable, especially for diners. Villagers scattered in the fields deposit the mouth-watering queens into anything at hand – bags, jugs, pots, sacks – working frantically through the daylight hours. Wearing ankle-high rubber boots and long sleeves for protection, collectors must work quickly because the soldier ants of the colony, who are tasked with protecting the queens from predators, can inflict painful bites that draw blood. ![]()
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