I Added Animals Into My Giant Rainforest Vivarium
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00:00 with its stunning array of tropical plants, and even a fully automated climate.
00:05 It's a personal project of mine of great scientific value, as my goal has been to recreate a real
00:12 rainforest ecosystem within glass, and my, has it been an epic biological journey thus
00:18 far!
00:19 But the real action was just about to begin!
00:23 I've been eagerly awaiting the big day that I could stalk the vivarium with animals.
00:29 That day has arrived.
00:30 I call this monumental event, Gaia, i.e. the Great Animal Integration Advent, where I would
00:38 release an initial team of creatures to jumpstart the ecosystem, but little did I know, when
00:44 I finally did fulfill my animal fantasies by adding in all the creatures, my seemingly
00:50 fun experiment and rendezvous with Mother Nature would quickly turn out to be an eye-opening
00:56 Pandora's Box, and the sequence of events that occurred after throwing in a bunch of
01:01 animals together in a vivarium shook me to the core.
01:06 This is the craziest story of what happened when I finally added animals into my ecosystem
01:13 vivarium, Part 6 of my Ecosystem Vivarium series, when our rainforest vivarium Pandora officially
01:20 becomes Mother Nature's Game of Thrones.
01:24 Welcome to the AC Family, on the AntsCanada Ant Channel.
01:29 Please SUBSCRIBE to my channel, and hit the BELL icon.
01:35 Welcome to the AC Family.
01:38 Enjoy!
01:39 I approached Pandora, overflowing with anticipation and a bit of nervousness.
01:44 I opened the doors to the vivarium and looked around.
01:47 I couldn't believe the moment to add in more animals had come.
01:50 I say more animals, because as shown in the last episode, I had already placed in a house
01:56 gecko earlier that day, as a test introduction, and just two days prior, was surprised to
02:01 discover that a large array of creatures had already taken up residence in the vivarium,
02:06 introduced via the vivarium's decor and plants.
02:09 From spiders, to termites, to beetles, millipedes, a baby grasshopper, and colonies of ants that
02:16 had begun to compete for resources and wage war against one another, these very primal
02:21 lands we created were already teeming with life.
02:26 But to effectively recreate a rainforest ecosystem within glass, I knew I needed the biodiversity
02:33 saturation that exists in a real rainforest, and so my initial selection of animals were
02:40 all waiting in their containers to be placed inside.
02:43 AC Family, let's do this!
02:47 First, I started with the largest group of animals I'd be placing in, detritivores.
02:52 These creatures would work hard in the ecosystem to break down rotting vegetation and material.
02:58 First up, isopods.
03:00 Whether you call them roly polies, sowbugs, pillbugs, or potato bugs, these amazing crustaceans
03:06 were my top choice for detritivores.
03:09 I had several varieties, I placed them into Pandora one by one.
03:13 Oreo Crumble, in you go!
03:16 Red Panda, in!
03:19 Anemone, go!
03:23 Murina, be free!
03:25 Panda, I love their little panda eye spots!
03:31 Red Koi, in you go!
03:35 Whiteout, in!
03:38 And papaya.
03:41 When they were all in, I marvelled at the sight of all of them exploring their new forest
03:46 floor.
03:47 It was neat to see their different colour patterns.
03:49 There's a red koi with a whiteout and a papaya, and there's an anemone getting butt pushed,
03:55 and another red koi running through.
03:57 The isopods instantly went straight to work munching on decaying leaves and vegetation,
04:02 just as I'd hoped they would.
04:03 Yes, my beloved isopods, feed and go forth to multiply in these vast lands, now yours
04:10 to populate and live fruitfully.
04:12 Next, in this container, one of the scariest, most disgusting creatures on Earth in my books,
04:19 but also important detritivores in the ecosystems.
04:23 Earthworms!
04:24 Yuck!
04:25 Ah man, I'm so wormphobic!
04:29 It's not even funny, nor does it even make sense, as they're harmless.
04:33 They slithered like a disgusting organ out of sight, thank goodness.
04:37 I dropped several of these huge earthworms around Pantora, and they instantly burrowed
04:43 into the ground.
04:44 Go forth and consume organic material in Pantora, you dreadful creatures of the soil abyss.
04:50 Their waste would also be excellent fertilizer for all the plants, but yuck!
04:56 They give me the heebie jeebies.
04:59 I also added these cuties, not worms, but beetle grubs.
05:03 Not sure what species they are, but they're probably rhino beetles, as grubs they feed
05:08 on root systems and decaying wood, so they will have a great time maturing in Pantoran
05:12 soils before emerging as adult beetles above ground, perhaps several weeks from now.
05:18 Can't wait for that to happen!
05:21 Up next, moving up the food chain, are semi-detritivores/herbivores.
05:26 Herbivores are some of the top players in forest ecosystems that fill this niche, helping
05:32 in breaking down organic material and vegetation.
05:35 These are Turkestan roaches, and beside them, Dubia roaches, some of my favourite feeders
05:41 for insectivorous pets.
05:44 These roaches breed very quickly and will eat a lot of vegetation and organic matter
05:49 within the vivarium.
05:50 In my beloved roaches, go forth and be fruitful!
05:55 Beta is yours to discover now.
05:57 I also have one large mama.
05:59 She is a Madagascar hissing cockroach, also a tropical forest roach.
06:04 She's also pregnant, so she'll be seeding a new generation of Madagascar hissers within
06:10 the lands.
06:11 Go forth, my lady, enjoy your new home and seed it with thine offspring.
06:15 Oh, but the cockroach fun is not over yet, AC Family!
06:19 I have left the coolest roaches for last.
06:23 These are Pseudoglomeris magnifica, metallic emerald cockroaches.
06:28 Look at them!
06:29 They're literally like shiny jewels!
06:31 Aren't they stunning?
06:33 These roaches love decaying material and wood, and will make excellent players in our rainforest
06:38 ecosystem.
06:40 Now these are just youngsters.
06:41 They will get bigger than this, but I think they win the award for most beautiful roaches
06:46 in the world.
06:47 They scuttled away to various parts of Pandora.
06:50 It was then that it occurred to me that the roaches look more like shiny beetles, which
06:55 is possibly what these roaches are mimicking in the forests they're from, seeing as a lot
06:59 of animals have a distaste for hard to eat beetles, but love a juicy roach!
07:05 Go forth, my shiny roach jewels!
07:07 Hey, there's our gecko!
07:10 Up next on the food chain are true herbivores, and for that, I have Orthopterans, basically
07:16 the order of crickets, grasshoppers, and katydids.
07:19 First up is this interesting looking grasshopper.
07:22 This is a slant-faced grasshopper, which gets its name from its elongated face, which you'll
07:28 see better in a bit.
07:29 Let's place you inside, little one!
07:31 I prodded it with my finger and it hopped, grabbing onto a vine.
07:35 Great target accuracy!
07:37 It swung on the vine like Tarzan!
07:39 See its face?
07:40 How funny, right?
07:42 Next is this gorgeous big brown lady.
07:45 She is a brown leaf katydid and feeds on vegetation and tree material.
07:51 She gets her name of course, because her body looks like a dead leaf, allowing her to camouflage
07:55 well among the foliage of a forest.
07:59 Come with me, my fine lady katy.
08:01 That's her name.
08:02 I opened her container and allowed her to crawl out on my hand.
08:05 What a giant!
08:07 She then suddenly took a leap and landed right on the back of the hallelujah tree stump.
08:12 Against the wood, she looked right at home.
08:15 Enjoy Pantora, my brown leaf girl!
08:17 I had a normal green grasshopper.
08:19 It crawled out of the container and with a little tap on its butt, it jumped and landed
08:24 on a far end asparagus fern.
08:26 Finally, some of the noisiest of orthopterans, crickets!
08:31 These are native forest crickets, and they're also a favourite food for many insectivorous
08:36 animals.
08:37 They eat all kinds of things, from vegetation, to decaying organic material, to even other
08:43 insects and each other.
08:45 Crickets are savage and I really wanted them to be part of Pantora, too, so I placed them
08:50 in.
08:51 Now you might be wondering what that tub of soil is for.
08:55 Well, that tub is full of eggs!
08:58 If you fill a little container with moist soil and place it into a cricket enclosure,
09:03 the females with their long ovipositors will almost immediately begin laying their eggs
09:08 into it, as you can see them doing here.
09:11 Those long ovipositors are used like needles stabbed into the ground, so the eggs can be
09:16 buried at just the right depth.
09:19 So I buried this cricket egg tub so that the next generation of crickets could be Pantoran
09:24 natives.
09:25 Alright, and now that all the herbivores were in, it was now time for what I'm sure a lot
09:30 of you are waiting for.
09:32 We're moving up the food chain now to the predators.
09:35 Arachnophobes, look away and just listen until I say it's safe, starting with this baby huntsman
09:42 spider.
09:43 Now when I say baby, I mean baby.
09:45 I also have an adult huntsman, which is an absolute monstrosity of a spider, but for
09:50 now I'll be adding this baby.
09:52 The moment I opened the container, it ran out and jumped for its dear life.
09:57 Luckily it jumped into the tank and not out of it.
10:00 Based on the angle of the jump, it was about a 50/50 chance.
10:04 I also placed in a gorgeous male jumping spider I found hopping around my home.
10:09 Hi there, little guy!
10:11 There are already a couple jumping spiders in here.
10:14 Hope you managed to find Eve.
10:16 Good luck!
10:17 After looking around, it attached a lifeline web and began to check out his new home.
10:23 OK, arachnophobes, you can look now.
10:26 Now along with the house gecko I added in earlier, these were all the lower level predators
10:31 I would be adding for now, because I wanted the prey animals to start breeding and establish
10:36 first before unleashing the higher level predators/apex predators.
10:41 Hang in there, my predatory beasts!
10:43 You will be joining them soon.
10:45 I would be coming back for them, starting with the ant colony.
10:48 Yes, I'll be adding a stealthy predatory species of some very giant ants by the end of this
10:55 video.
10:56 You'll see them soon.
10:57 But the first phase of Gaia was complete, as the rains began to roll through baptizing
11:03 Pandora and all its new creatures with life-giving, invigorating waters.
11:07 I closed the doors, feeling a sense of gratification and excitement to see how Pandora's ecosystem
11:14 would take shape thereafter.
11:16 But little did I know, what would surprise me the most over the next couple of days,
11:21 was how many of these creatures would actually be dying at the mercy of Pandora's now
11:27 amped up ecosystem.
11:30 Nothing could have prepared me for the chain of events that would ensue starting the first
11:35 night after Gaia.
11:40 It was the first night after Gaia, and at first glance, you wouldn't suspect that Pandora
11:45 was now hosting a new plethora of life forms.
11:48 All was still and the forest was placid.
11:51 I would soon discover that these lands had truly transformed now into something different,
11:57 taking on a whole new forest soul upon closer inspection.
12:01 The mist filled the late cool night air with humidity that enveloped the entire forest
12:06 floor, creating the perfect haven for its quiet rainforest soil creatures.
12:12 Have a look!
12:13 The isopods were wide awake on this their first night in Pandora, as they moved from
12:18 place to place, feasting on the most delectable of decaying organic matter, mostly leaf litter,
12:24 laid out in abundance on the forest floor of Pandora.
12:28 Cool to see the isopods enjoying the buffet!
12:30 For the most part, right now these isopods don't have predators, which is as planned,
12:36 because I want them to establish a good colony first before I start placing in creatures
12:40 that eat them, and turns out, they already were!
12:44 See that baby?
12:45 Shh!
12:46 It's sleeping!
12:47 I find the isopods to be really cute and almost alien or robotic looking in anatomy.
12:53 I love them as the tridivores!
12:55 The humid forest floor also offered a perfect environment for mushrooms that also fed on
13:01 decaying matter, and a snail which slipped its way around, searching for tasty plants
13:06 to munch on.
13:07 This snail was probably also another one of those many creatures introduced from the plants.
13:13 Arachnophobes, look away again!
13:15 A baby spider, also probably unknowingly introduced, crawled on its web, not noticing the huge
13:21 huntsman, also a baby, that lay in ambush.
13:26 The huntsman youngster had found the perfect location to catch the humidifying fog as it
13:31 rolled through.
13:32 I spotted a herd of termites moving in the distance, probably foraging for new wood.
13:38 The resident orbweaver spider's wheel-shaped web gathered water droplets, creating a stunning
13:43 artwork piece signed by Mother Nature.
13:46 The Madagascar hissing roach was climbing the side mesh in search of a suitable place
13:50 to retire before sunrise.
13:53 Up in the canopy, our brown-leafed katydid was awake and feeding.
13:57 It was eating vine material and skin, but stopped when it saw I was filming.
14:02 No need to be camera shy, my lady katy!
14:04 Up on the vines, the marauder ants were trailing and busy at work.
14:08 Surprisingly, the ants leave the katydid alone and don't bother her as they crawl across
14:13 the vines.
14:14 The marauders who had been up all night were still up and about.
14:18 They never seemed to stop working.
14:20 They had lots of prey animals to feast on now, and sure enough, I would discover they'd
14:25 be getting their fair share of the feast soon.
14:29 But enemies were waiting on the sidelines, hoping to steal their share of Pandora's now
14:35 enriched resources.
14:37 On the western end of Pandora, up on the moss wall, an encampment had been cut out into
14:43 the soils.
14:44 The black crazy ant nest had been positioned right at one of the bromeliads.
14:49 The sight gave the black crazy ants the perfect vantage point to plan their next move within
14:55 Pandora.
14:56 And look!
14:57 The colony was already producing males!
15:00 See it with wings?
15:02 This black crazy ant colony surely had queens, too, and I say queens because black crazy ants
15:07 are polygynous, which means their colonies possess many egg-laying queens, and what makes
15:13 things worse is the queens possess the ability to clone their previous ex-lovers, meaning
15:19 their sons are genetic replicas of their previous mates with none of the queen's DNA.
15:25 So technically, these males can mate with their biological sisters and there would be
15:29 zero inbreeding happening.
15:31 It's a genetic hack, and why this invasive species of ant has become a major pest in
15:37 many parts of the world.
15:38 This black crazy ant colony was about to explode in numbers, and it worried me greatly, especially
15:44 because it looked to me like these black crazy ants were gearing up for something big.
15:49 I wasn't sure what yet, but little did I know I was about to find out what these black crazy
15:54 ants were secretly plotting.
15:57 Anyway, I noticed they, too, were trailing across the upper vines.
16:01 I could make out their signature crazy sporadic movements.
16:04 Like the marauders, they also used the extensive vine network to access various parts of Pandora.
16:11 It seemed a lot of animals depended on these vines for both travel and sustenance, as I
16:15 spotted a jumping spider stealthily travelling across, hunting for its next meal.
16:21 The vines themselves were now taking on a life of their own.
16:25 Check out their new air routes, which the banyan vines were now sending out.
16:30 Crazy to think that these vines were alive, and soon an entire banyan tree would be growing
16:35 here.
16:36 All parts of the vine were sending out these fresh pink air routes towards the ground.
16:41 It made me a bit nervous, though, to know that the vines were cloning themselves into
16:45 a tree, because banyan vines are very powerful creatures, and would surely burst out of my
16:51 tank once it had a stronghold footing in the soils and decor.
16:55 On the other hand, I was excited to see a true canopy with full out leaves at the top
17:00 of the tank, and look!
17:02 In fact, the leaves have started to sprout!
17:06 Super cool!
17:07 The banyan tree had begun to make its presence known.
17:12 It was the first day after Gaia, I spotted life in various unexpected corners of Pandora.
17:18 Look!
17:19 Our pretty house gecko, the first animal member to be intentionally placed into Pandora.
17:25 Look at those beautiful wavy slit eyes!
17:28 Judging from the slit, she was asleep now, as these geckos don't have eyelids.
17:33 The slits just kind of close when they sleep.
17:35 She snoozed hugging the driftwood.
17:38 What's cool about these house geckos, is their species is almost entirely composed of females,
17:44 and they end up laying eggs without having to mate, which hatch into more females.
17:49 They're capable of a process called parthenogenesis, which is kind of like a type of cloning.
17:54 I couldn't wait for her to start laying eggs in Pandora.
17:57 I'm sure she was enjoying all the new prey animals available to her now.
18:02 Speaking of prey animals, our herbivores were out and about once the sun was out.
18:07 The metallic roaches were up and exploring Pandora with great curiosity.
18:12 This roach explored the Hallelujah tree stump.
18:15 I spotted another one climbing the vines by the pond.
18:18 It feasted on the skin of the vines, as highways of ants crawled by.
18:23 I found it interesting that the marauders weren't actively stalking and killing other
18:27 insects like I thought they might.
18:29 This metallic roach sure wasn't worried.
18:32 After all, it was a hard-armoured beetle, right?
18:35 Wink wink!
18:36 Our green grasshopper was out to warm up and greet the morning sun.
18:40 So was the slant-faced grasshopper.
18:43 Cool to see it had chosen to pair itself with this philodendron, obscuring its form from
18:48 predators.
18:49 Great choice, wouldn't you agree, AC Family?
18:51 It looks like it's part of the plant.
18:54 The crickets by far were the most active of the herbivores, and I watched this cricket
18:59 graze on the various mosses in search of the tastiest buds to munch on.
19:04 She taste-tested different species of moss until she found the tastiest bunch that met
19:08 her standards.
19:09 She loved the flavour of this moss species.
19:12 Mmmmm!
19:13 I noticed since adding these herbivores in, that a few chunks had been taken out of various
19:18 leaves all around Pandora, perfect to see the herbivores were doing their thing.
19:23 I wasn't worried though because new plant growth was happening all over the territories.
19:28 Various mini-plants were sprouting from the soils everywhere, plants I personally didn't
19:34 plant, but that were also introduced unintentionally through the soils.
19:38 In terms of the plants I did actually plant in Pandora, many had now grown to establish
19:44 new root systems within the soil, and as I'd hoped, new growth was appearing everywhere.
19:51 Remember the tiny baby grasshopper from the last episode?
19:53 I spotted him again, but this time he seemed bigger.
19:58 They grow up so fast, don't they?
20:00 It was then that a movement caught my eye in the nearby driftwood.
20:06 Oh man, the Black Crazy Ants were trailing on the Hallelujah tree stump!
20:14 What were they doing so close to the Marauder's Nest now?
20:18 Look, there was the opening to the Marauder's Nest, and just a few inches away, the Black
20:24 Crazy Ants were trailing, seemingly excited over something.
20:28 I was certain these Black Crazy Ants were surely up to something now.
20:32 I wasn't sure what they had planned, but it all felt very concerning.
20:36 I tried to imagine what these Black Crazy Ants might be up to, but was suddenly distracted
20:41 when I stumbled upon a mass death at one end of Pandora.
20:47 Look!
20:49 Drowned crickets!
20:50 Many crickets had sadly drowned overnight, despite there being a life-saving stick in
20:55 the pond.
20:56 I was afraid this pond might be a death trap for crickets and other insects.
21:00 I'll have to add something into these waters to eat these dead bodies, once the waters
21:04 have completely cycled in a couple more weeks.
21:07 Any suggestions on what fish or other animals I could add to deal with drowned bodies?
21:12 I left most of the bodies in the water, as they would help accelerate the cycling process,
21:17 to build up the bacteria in the filter that would help with neutralizing the water for
21:21 aquatic life later, but I placed one of the cricket bodies on the rock shelf, and AC Family,
21:28 soon enough, check out what that led to!
21:31 It took 5 minutes for the marauders to come trailing out of their nest.
21:36 Let's follow it, and keep your eye on that major!
21:39 I love following marauder trails!
22:03 And success!
22:26 The marauders would be having a feast today on a cricket!
22:30 I was sad that we lost a lot of adult crickets in one fell swoop due to the pond, but I knew
22:35 more were on the way, and this was all part of the ecosystem doing its thing to achieve
22:40 balance, but what I didn't expect was who else I discovered would be losing their lives
22:47 at the harsh hands of Pandora the next day.
22:53 The second night brought rains to Pandora's territories.
22:57 I loved how peaceful Pandora was every time it rained.
23:01 This was one of my favourite views within this tank.
23:04 There was something so magical about watching it storm within it.
23:08 Therapeutic and calming, nature was truly amazing in these very serene and beautiful
23:14 moments in Pandora, and it was an honour to experience it with you guys.
23:20 The rains had caused the vines to really start growing.
23:23 Look at the budding leaves now!
23:25 By sunrise, behind this rock wall, I chuckled spotting this Dubia roach, who had tucked
23:30 itself into the soft, giant mossy duvet behind the rocks, perfectly dry from the storms.
23:37 Now that's some 5-star accommodation!
23:39 Look at how comfy it looks!
23:41 But sadly, it wasn't all a bed of mosses for all the Pandoran creatures, as overnight more
23:48 animals had lost their lives.
23:50 A supermajor was making its way back to the nest along the hugely active marauder trail.
23:56 Why were the supermajors dispatched?
23:58 I soon found out why.
24:01 Massive food catch coming through!
24:03 The grasshopper had either died naturally or was seized by the ants and was now being
24:07 hauled all the way home to the tree stump.
24:10 Wow!
24:11 This AC Family is another one of my ultimate favourite things to witness.
24:16 Seeing a swarm of ants cooperatively carry a huge prey item back to their nest.
24:22 Let's just sit back for a moment and watch this awesome scene that happens every day
24:26 for these ants in the wild, but was now taking place here in Pandora for all of us to actually
24:32 Enjoy!
24:33 [Music]
24:36 [Music]
24:39 [Music]
24:45 [Music]
24:51 [Music]
24:58 [Music]
25:06 The ants rejoiced in a festive clamor as they paraded their new catch along their hunting
25:12 trail cut out in the soil.
25:15 I couldn't wait to see them lug this huge grasshopper up the wood.
25:29 Remember that this grasshopper is many times the weight of these ants, so carrying it home
25:35 was truly a mind-boggling feat, much like a bunch of humans carrying a bus home.
25:41 A swarm of black crazy ants watched from the summit of the Hallelujah tree stump at the
25:47 marauders below.
25:48 I assumed they were jealous of the marauders, but I would soon discover that jealousy wasn't
25:53 on their minds at all.
25:56 The marauders had made their way to the foot of the tree stump now, and in an amazing display
26:00 of strength and coordination, the ants began to lift the grasshopper carcass up the wood
26:06 towards the opening of their nest.
26:11 Wow!
26:15 These ants were truly a colony of some muscled beasts!
26:19 I loved every moment as they brought the grasshopper higher and higher up the wood.
26:24 I was afraid they might lose their footing and drop it at any moment.
26:27 I continued to watch with bated breath.
26:41 And then finally, the ants managed to lug the huge grasshopper into the opening of their
26:58 nest, and I burst out laughing as I spotted a Dubia roach come rushing out from an upper
27:11 opening, smelling death wafting from below it.
27:14 It did not want to become the marauders' next meal.
27:17 It needed to find a mossy duvet somewhere.
27:20 But as awesome and fun as this moment was for the marauders, I couldn't believe what
27:24 I would be spotting next.
27:28 With all this new food, no marauders had a reason to leave their nest, and their once
27:32 very busy trails were now for the first time, empty, which set up the perfect opportunity
27:38 for the Black Team to make their next strategic chess move.
27:42 Check!
27:43 Some white sporadic movements caught my eye up the back of the Hallelujah tree stump.
27:49 What is that?
27:51 No way!
27:52 My heart sank when I realized what was happening.
27:56 The Black Crazy Ants moved swiftly, but silently, carrying their brood to the top of the Hallelujah
28:01 tree stump, where they had found a darkened cavern somewhere to call their new home.
28:06 Ah!
28:07 The Black Crazy Ants were moving into the stump, too?
28:11 This was crazy!
28:12 While the marauders lived in the apartments below, the Black Crazy Ants had claimed the
28:16 penthouse suite.
28:18 I wasn't sure what to make of all this, but this strategic move by the Black Crazy Ants
28:23 was very worrying.
28:24 Seeing all the brood also confirmed to me that indeed the colony had queens, and how
28:30 smart of them to seize this opportunity when the marauders were busy preoccupied with their
28:35 food.
28:36 Did this lead to the demise of our marauders and the sure victory of these invasive Black
28:40 Crazy Ants in the Great War of the Ant Superpowers?
28:43 I knew only time would tell, but nature has a funny way of surprising you with her plans,
28:49 and what ended up happening the next day was an even greater plot twist I could never have
28:55 anticipated.
28:58 The next day, the marauders were out trailing again, but when I discovered why, I felt so
29:04 sad.
29:05 A dead body lay at the foot of the stump.
29:09 Upon closer inspection, I was heartbroken when I discovered that it was our house gecko.
29:14 Oh no!
29:16 She had died overnight!
29:17 I doubt the ants would have been able to catch and kill her, so my guess was she had died
29:21 of natural causes.
29:23 The marauders began to delicately pick her body apart, piece by piece.
29:27 They had already successfully begun to dissect her abdominal area.
29:31 Looking at her eyes, I knew she was now at peace and had given up her life and body to
29:38 the creatures of Pandora.
29:40 The sight disturbed me, but I knew it was all part of the legendary circle of life,
29:46 and a truth I had to be able to accept if a true ecosystem was what I wanted to achieve
29:52 in these lands we created.
29:54 In her memory, I released another house gecko into Pandora to take over her important place
30:00 in the vivarium.
30:02 When I looked up to our banyan tree above, sprouting even greater than ever, I was reminded
30:08 that new life needed energy to come into being, and that in an ecosystem, energy came from
30:14 sunlight but also at times, needed to be borrowed from other life forms.
30:21 In dying, our gecko, prey animals, and dead insects offered their life-giving energy to
30:26 the Pandoran ecosystem so it could continue on to thrive.
30:31 All of life on Earth was like this, and Pandora was just a microcosm of the huge biological
30:36 tapestry to which we all belong.
30:39 The next day, I was surprised to find that the huge bud of vine leaves I watched grow
30:43 over the past few days, had been eaten, probably by our brown lady katy.
30:49 Its remains were left on the forest floor for other animals to eat.
30:52 Even the vines were lending itself to the ecosystem.
30:56 With no worries, though, as a new sprout was on the way, I felt grateful to learn and witness
31:01 all of this.
31:03 Over the next few days, I monitored the activity of the Black Crazy Ants, and surprisingly
31:08 they didn't attempt to go to war with the Marauders.
31:11 In fact, it almost seemed as though the Marauders knew the Black Crazy Ants were camped above
31:16 them, but didn't care, and that the Black Crazy Ants actually respected the space of
31:21 the Marauders, as they went on with their business around Pandora.
31:25 Could these two species of ants be allies?
31:28 I wasn't sure, but only time would tell.
31:30 This made me realize that even invasives are just out there trying to survive as best they
31:36 can and aren't always plotting the demise of other similar species.
31:41 It wasn't the fault of the invasives that they were so successful in the ecosystems
31:45 they found themselves in.
31:46 I realized invasives weren't necessarily the bad guys.
31:52 And speaking of ants, several days after Gaia, I decided it was time to finally release into
31:58 Pandora, the ant colony I had waiting on the sidelines.
32:03 Within this tub was a giant trap-jaw ant queen.
32:07 They're called trap-jaw ants because of their huge jaws that open 180 degrees and snap shut
32:13 with lightning force to capture and instantly kill any prey item to befall its jaws.
32:19 This queen was caring for her initial brood pile of giant trap-jaw ant workers.
32:25 I placed her and her tub with an opening into Pandora, away from the Marauder and Black
32:30 Crazy Ants, so she could focus on rearing this first generation of workers to adulthood.
32:36 She will need to hunt for small prey items in Pandora and feed them to her larvae over
32:40 the next few weeks.
32:42 Meanwhile, I made sure to bury her right next to the cricket egg bed, so that when they
32:47 arrive, the queen will have a good supply of prey to feed her young.
32:51 It was all up to her now to survive the wilds of Pandora.
32:55 Let's hope she does, and we start seeing giant trap-jaw ants wandering these soils.
33:02 But now that the initial team of animals and creatures I placed in had a week to settle
33:07 in, I felt it was the perfect time to finally add one of our higher predators.
33:16 An apex predator to patrol Pandora and do its important work at controlling populations
33:23 of prey animals.
33:24 I approached Pandora with my chosen apex predator, and proceeded to release it into Pandora.
33:33 My heart was racing as I laid its container den onto the soil.
33:39 Come out, my beloved beast!
33:42 Welcome to your new home!
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34:02 It's ant love forever!
34:04 Thanks for watching!