Ants: Tiny Creatures, Big Lives brings visitors eye to eye with nature’s minuscule and marvelous super-insects. For every person on Earth, there are 2.5 million ants. These tiny dynamos form societies, construct complex homes, stockpile and cultivate food, and go to war with other colonies. Ants: Tiny Creatures, Big Lives zooms in on our ubiquitous insect neighbors, using scaled-up models and macrophotography to provide a close-up view of the miraculous variety of ant body shapes, behaviors and habitats.

Visitors will also learn about the many ecosystem services that ants provide, ranging from pollinating crops to aerating and improving soil to serving directly as a food staple in some societies. Guests begin their journey by walking through a scaled-up ant tunnel. As they emerge, they are greeted with a five-foot-long model of a giant Amazonian ant. The model illustrates the fine details of ant anatomy like compound eyes, serrated mandibles, and venomous stingers. Smaller models showcase the tremendous diversity of ants pointing out features like the scissor-like mandibles of leaf-cutter ants, the pincher-like mandibles of army ant soldiers and the loss of eyes in some subterranean ant species.

Activities abound in Ants: Tiny Creatures, Big Lives. Children are invited to use a giant slot machine-like spinner to select heads, midsections, and rear sections to create their own ant species, choosing adaptations like leaf-slicing mandibles, protective spines, or venomous stingers to help their ant survive different environments. Chemical communication in ants is brought to life with a smell-based interactive, highlighting the range of odors ants use to mark trails, raise alarms, and ward off enemies. A towering “Sting Meter” helps guests visualize the pain level of various ant stings, ranging from the mild heat of a fire ant to the debilitating punch of the bullet ant.