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"The Real Ant Farm" is the 6th episode of Season 6 of the PBS Kids show Wild Kratts. It is the 140th episode of the series overall. It premiered on November 6, 2019.
Summary[]
Martin, Chris, and Aviva go on an adventure into the Amazon Rainforest, where they find a hidden world of busy leafcutter ants, farming for the colony. The team learns about agriculture in nature, and these ants must clip leaves to bring back food. But Zach has other ideas and wants to use them for robotic ants to take food from farms as means of harvest.
Plot[]
The episode opens with the Kratt brothers in the Amazon Rainforest, looking for a particular creature on the forest floor. That creature happens to be a leafcutter ant. And if you're looking leafcutter ants, you'll likely find a lot. Leafcutter ants are always hard at work. In fact, they even make paths from the nest to places with places lots of leaves. Everything about leafcutter ants is amazing from their strength to their social hierarchy. The bros then wonder what it would be like to have leafcutter ant powers and the show transitions into the cartoon segment.
In North America, Koki and Jimmy Z are helping Wild Kratts Kid Scarlett work on her family's farm. Right now, they're harvesting crops from carrots to tomatoes. However, Chris, Martin, and Aviva are in South America checking out a different kind of farm. But Jimmy claims that the three of them are just goofing off.
In the Amazon Rainforest, Chris Kratt is swinging through the forest canopy with Spider Monkey Power while Martin Kratt is miniaturized and flying in the Rocket Jet. They've brought Aviva with them to observe the leafcutter ant.
Characters[]
Animals[]
Animation[]
Note: Featured animals are in bold.
Mentioned[]
Note: Mentioned animals are linked to Wikipedia.
Live Action Images[]
Note: Live action animals are linked to Wikipedia.
Live Action[]
Note: Live action animals are linked to Wikipedia.
- Smoky jungle frog (called smoky frog)
- Southern tamandua (called tamandua anteater)
Trivia[]
- This is the first ant adventure in the series.
- When Zach's ant-bots take over the farm and capture Koki and Jimmy with their pinchers, Jimmy shouts "Hey careful, man! I've got a beverage." This is a reference to the movie The Big Lebowski.
Key Facts and Creature Moments[]
- Leafcutter ants cut leaves up with their jaws and bring the leaves back to the nest in order to use them like fertilizer to grow a special type of fungus for food.
- Leafcutter ants only eat the special white fungi they cultivate in their nests.
- Leafcutter ants have different roles in their society: Workers collect leaves, taking care of the larvae and cultivating fungi farms. Soldiers have huge heads and jaws for defending the colony from predators. Small workers for defence against parasites. Queen ants are the mothers of the colony and mainly produce eggs. Princess ants are future queen ants that will fly to start new colonies elsewhere.
- Ants will leave pheromone trails for other ants to follow.
- Leafcutter ants cutting leaves and taking them back to the colony.
- Ant predators include tamanduas, some birds, and reptiles.
- Leafcutter ants farming white fungus.