How did the ant steal the lion’s dinner? This isn’t the beginning of one of Aesop’s Fables. It’s the finding of a new study showing how the disruption of one tiny mutual relationship on the African savanna has big impacts on the food web — all the way to the lion’s den.
When big-headed ants (Pheidole megacephala) invade the savanna, they kill off native acacia ants (genus Crematogaster), robbing local whistling thorn trees of their valiant defenders against hungry elephants. Without ants to bite them, the elephants rip up the thorn trees, opening up the grassland, which makes it harder for lions to catch their preferred zebra meals. Lions
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