Leaf Cutting Ant Forum

Thought I'd add some photos of the Lakes Aquarium's colony for you. As far as I'm aware Andrew installed the enclosure and supplied the ants.

I've seen pictures of this set up before and it looks great, if you ever get a chance to take a clip when the ropes are in full flow I'm sure everyone would like to see that.

The modifications you made to the viewing sections look like they were necessary. Originally this enclosure was built for Acromyrmex but the Atta that was swapped for them has gone nuts and very quickly outgrew the enclosure. Access to the walk way section was a nightmare, not a great design, tbh. Changing the solid front and back fro a removable section was the right thing to do. How is the colony now?

The enclosure is actually completely open. Our guests are amazing and completely respect that they can't touch them, but it allows people to get up and close. Guests end up taking some amazing photos and it is our most popular exhibit, it beats all the aquatic exhibits by far.

The colony went crazy last year, but recently we've had significant reduction in population numbers. That however is for another post...

Oh yeah, I can see that it's open now you mention it. Nice touch, good idea..

It's got me thinking now about my set up now... I'd love to have an open section.... hmmmm... *fetches drawing board*

Chris, open is a great mod for this display. Most places I work do not like the open plan, they say their visitors will grab and disturb the display. You have definitely improved things. What is the reason for the population drop do you think?