Ants are one of the most heavily preyed-upon creatures on Earth. Their sheer abundance, estimated at more than 20 quadrillion individuals worldwide, makes them a reliable food source for hundreds of species across nearly every animal group. Mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, spiders, other insects, and even fungi all feed on ants.
Mammals Built to Eat Ants
The giant anteater is the most iconic ant predator. Found across Central and South America, it swallows roughly 35,000 ants and termites whole every single day. It has no teeth. Instead, it relies on a tongue that can extend over two feet, flicking in and out of ant nests up to 150 times per minute. Its claws are powerful enough to tear open hardened termite mounds and ant colonies buried underground.
Anteaters and pangolins evolved on separate continents but arrived at strikingly similar body plans: elongated skulls, no teeth, long sticky tongues, and oversized salivary glands that produce the thick saliva needed to trap ants. Both groups also developed specialized enzymes to break down chitin, the tough material that makes up an ant’s exoskeleton. Anteaters produce multiple versions of these enzymes across their salivary glands, stomach, liver, and pancreas. Pangolins rely on a single version of the same enzyme but express it at extremely high levels throughout their digestive system, especially in the stomach. These parallel adaptations allow both animals to extract nutrition from prey that most mammals couldn’t efficiently digest.
Other ant-eating mammals include aardvarks in Africa, echidnas in Australia, and several species of armadillo in the Americas. Sun bears and sloth bears also raid ant and termite nests regularly, using long claws to rip them open and lips shaped for sucking insects out of crevices.
Birds That Specialize in Ants
Many birds eat ants opportunistically, but a few species have made ants a dietary centerpiece. The northern flicker, a woodpecker found across North America, eats more ants than any other bird on the continent. Unlike most woodpeckers, it forages primarily on the ground, digging into soil with a slightly curved bill and using a long, barbed tongue to lap up ants from their tunnels.
In tropical forests, antbirds (a family of over 230 species in Central and South America) follow army ant swarms, though not to eat the ants themselves. They feed on insects and other small creatures flushed out by the advancing swarm. Some antbird species depend so heavily on army ant colonies that their breeding success drops when local ant populations decline. Green woodpeckers in Europe are another ground-foraging specialist, feeding almost exclusively on ants during warmer months and using their sticky tongues to extract larvae from nests.
Reptiles and Amphibians
Horned lizards in North America are perhaps the most ant-dependent reptiles. Some species get over 90% of their calories from harvester ants. Their flattened bodies, short snouts, and specialized stomachs are all adaptations to a diet heavy in armored, venomous prey. They sit near ant trails and pick off workers one by one with quick flicks of the tongue.
Poison dart frogs in Central and South America have an even more remarkable relationship with ants. These brightly colored frogs eat fire ants, along with mites and other small arthropods, and absorb the toxic compounds from their prey’s bodies. They don’t produce their own poison. Instead, they collect alkaloids from the ants they eat and store them in glands on their skin. Researchers at the USDA found that the main alkaloid produced by tropical fire ants shows up directly on the skin of the strawberry poison dart frog, confirming that the frog is eating those specific ants. This chemical armor protects the frogs from predators and, notably, from the ants themselves. Dart frogs raised in captivity on alkaloid-free diets lose their toxicity and are readily attacked by predatory ants when exposed to them.
Other Insects and Spiders
Some of the most effective ant predators are other arthropods. Antlion larvae dig conical sand pits and wait at the bottom for ants to tumble in, then seize them with oversized jaws. Several spider species specialize in ants. Jumping spiders in the genus Zodariidae hunt ants almost exclusively, using speed and precision to avoid being swarmed. Some of these spiders even mimic the appearance of ants to get close to their prey without triggering alarm signals in the colony.
Phorid flies, sometimes called ant-decapitating flies, lay eggs on or inside ants. The developing larvae consume the ant from the inside, eventually causing the head to fall off. These flies have been used as biological control agents against invasive fire ant populations in the southern United States. Certain beetle larvae also infiltrate ant nests by producing chemical signals that trick worker ants into carrying them inside, where they feed on ant brood.
Fungi That Consume Ants From Within
Not all ant predators are animals. The fungus Ophiocordyceps, often called the “zombie ant fungus,” infects carpenter ants and hijacks their behavior. After infection, the fungus manipulates the ant into climbing vegetation and clamping its jaws onto a leaf or twig in a location ideal for fungal growth: humid, the right temperature, and positioned above ant trails where spores can rain down on new victims. The ant dies in this locked position, and the fungus consumes its body before sprouting a stalk that releases spores to infect more ants. Research suggests the fungus achieves this behavioral control by secreting specific proteins and exploiting the ant’s sensitivity to light cycles. Each Ophiocordyceps species typically targets just one ant species, making this a highly specialized form of parasitic predation.
Fish and Aquatic Predators
Ants that fall into water become easy meals. Archer fish knock insects off overhanging vegetation with jets of water, and ants are frequent targets. Many freshwater fish, including trout and bluegill, readily eat ants that land on the water’s surface. Fly fishers have long used ant-shaped lures because ants are such a consistent part of the diet of stream-dwelling fish, especially in summer when winged reproductive ants swarm near waterways.
Why So Many Predators Target Ants
Ants make up an estimated 15 to 20% of terrestrial animal biomass in tropical forests. That abundance, combined with the fact that they live in dense, predictable colonies, makes them an unusually efficient food source. A predator that locates one ant has likely found thousands. Ants also contain a reasonable amount of protein and fat relative to their size, and their larvae are especially nutrient-rich, which is why many predators preferentially raid nests for brood rather than targeting adult workers.
The tradeoff is that ants fight back. Many species bite, sting, spray formic acid, or swarm aggressively. This is why the most successful ant predators have evolved thick skin or scales, rapid feeding strategies that minimize time at the nest, or chemical defenses borrowed from the ants themselves. The giant anteater, for example, spends only about a minute at each nest before moving on, cycling through dozens of colonies per day to avoid being overwhelmed by defensive swarms.