Forget House of the Dragon, I am watching ant wars on YouTube

Proper now, House of the Dragon followers are settling in for a season of backstabbing, violence, and betrayal.

And so am I, as a result of I’m watching a YouTuber build a 1,000 gallon vivarium full of hostile ant colonies.

Over the final six months, Mikey Bustos, who goes by AntsCanada, has been cultivating biodiversity in a 12-foot lengthy vivarium that he retains in his residence in the Philippines. The newest addition is a six-inch lengthy child caiman, which he plans to ultimately transfer to a separate swamp vivarium after which to his yard. The ethics and legality of this are unclear to me, however it’s compelling viewing nonetheless.

Bustos, who has lengthy been what I guess I would name an ant YouTuber, makes use of a 4K digital camera to seize the residents of the vivarium, a world that he’s named Pantdora. Sure, with a “t.” There are tree frogs, geckos, many species of ants, crickets, cockroaches, guppies, spiders, the aforementioned caiman, shrimp, and extra.

Over extremely high-definition footage of the creatures, Bustos narrates at a clip, his voice taut with pleasure. “Ah, I love when fish school! There’s just something beautiful and hypnotic about it!” he exclaims after including guppies to Pantdora’s blackwater pool, Aqua Noctis.

IMAGE: AntsCanada

A tree frog will get a equally poetic introduction. “When I spotted her out and about in Pantdora, I was awestruck how beautiful she was in the misty moonlight,” Bustos tells us. “I named her Miss Piggy.”

The rhythms of the movies makes me really feel calmly insane. I am fairly certain they’re made and paced for youngsters. The picture high quality is beautiful, however they’ve the narrative simplicity and deranged cadence of one thing like CoComelon, and Bustos’ narration is much less David Attenborough, and extra Dora the Explorer.

However the Drama. Oh, the Drama.

IMAGE: AntsCanada

At the starting of the sequence, Bustos realizes that a number of ant colonies have by chance ended up in Pantdora, after stowing away in an enormous salvaged tree stump and soil from his yard. He’s thrilled to see a energetic colony of marauder ants — however wait, what’s this?

Two invasive ant species have additionally made their residence in the vivarium: fireplace ants and black loopy ants.

A quick, bloody skirmish between the marauders and the fireplace ants ends with casualties: Bustos watches sadly as a marauder main dies, locked in battle with a fireplace ant. The surviving marauders bury the our bodies, whereas the fireplace ants retreat to their tunnels, presumably to breed and shore up their numbers.

However the black loopy ants appear to coexist with the marauder ants in the tree stump (formally dubbed the Hallelujah Tree Stump). Till in the future.

A whole lot of black loopy ants — with a number of queens — come pouring out of the stump, carrying eggs and transferring the colony from the center to the prime of the stump. Bustos realizes that inside the stump, a conflict could have been raging between the loopy ants and the marauders — who haven’t been as plentiful these days. Additionally, the loopy ants have in some way infiltrated the hardened poop tunnels of a colony of termites who share the Hallelujah Tree Stump! Can the colony survive? Or have the king and queen, and their worthwhile eggs, been killed?

As Bustos says, “Mother nature is just stunning, isn’t she?”

I can’t wait to seek out out what occurs in the ant conflict. Or what havoc the new praying mantis will wreak. Or what’s going to occur after Bustos’ huntsman spider, Woman Deathstrike, is launched to the ecosystem — alongside together with her egg sac.

IMAGE: AntsCanada

The factor is, regardless of the overdramatic voiceover, I genuinely consider in Bustos’ enthusiasm for his creatures. When he exclaims over a child grasshopper crawling up a vine, praising its knowledge in transferring slowly in order that predators (like tree frogs Kermit and Miss Piggy) gained’t see it, I get it! It’s fairly cool, and I’ve by no means been so engrossed in the difficult and harmful lives of bugs earlier than.

I’m undecided what number of different adults will have the ability to put up with the child-like narration of Bustos’ movies. Come to that, I’m undecided what number of different adults might be compelled by watching two huntsman spiders have intercourse in beautiful 4K. However I have to know what occurs subsequent in Pantdora, and I might be tuning in.