# Antscanada



## Ben02 (Jun 1, 2019)

Theres this guy on YouTube called Antscanada, he’s many different ant colonies and his videos can be quite controversial. He feeds them chicken heads, mice and just today he posted a video of his ants eating a turtle. He states that the animals died naturally, however I noticed that the turtles plastron had red spots on it possibly scepsis? 




Bit of a pointless post but I was just curious.


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## Tom (Jun 1, 2019)

Ants gotta eat.

I feed stuff like that to my roach colonies sometimes. Better than throwing it in the trash in some cases. Leftover hawk or snake food, etc...


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## Ben02 (Jun 1, 2019)

Tom said:


> Ants gotta eat.
> 
> I feed stuff like that to my roach colonies sometimes. Better than throwing it in the trash in some cases. Leftover hawk or snake food, etc...


Yep I fully agree with you, about half of his comments are people attacking him for it. 

I sometimes treat the crabs to a dead cricket, some good calcium in them


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## Tom (Jun 1, 2019)

Ben02 said:


> Yep I fully agree with you, about half of his comments are people attacking him for it.
> 
> I sometimes treat the crabs to a dead cricket, some good calcium in them


I find that there is mass public ignorance about how the natural world works, and the willful ignorance seems to be growing exponentially. I see it in food choices, dog training trends, ignorance of how hunting benefits the prey species and the environment, public outcry about any animal in captivity, etc...


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## Ben02 (Jun 1, 2019)

Tom said:


> I find that there is mass public ignorance about how the natural world works, and the willful ignorance seems to be growing exponentially. I see it in food choices, dog training trends, ignorance of how hunting benefits the prey species and the environment, public outcry about any animal in captivity, etc...


People tend to be a lot more sympathetic towards mammals such as rabbits and mice than they do with invertebrates and reptiles. They get quite shocked when they see cute fluffy animals getting killed and eaten by other creatures. 

I didn’t know you had hawks, have you got any pictures? 

They are beautiful animals.


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## Tom (Jun 1, 2019)

Ben02 said:


> I didn’t know you had hawks, have you got any pictures?



Here is my current girl:


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## Yvonne G (Jun 1, 2019)

"DON'T TOUCH MY RABBIT!!!!!!"

It never occurred to me to have an ant colony in a regular habitat. I wonder what he does when they grow wings and try to disperse on the wind. I notice a couple pictures showing the kind of ants that bite. Yipes! Right now, here in California's central valley, my red and black biting ants are swarming with the winged ones coming out of the mounds to fly away and start new colonies.


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## Ben02 (Jun 1, 2019)

Tom said:


> Here is my current girl:
> View attachment 273584
> 
> 
> View attachment 273585


She’s beautiful Tom, must be very interesting to watch her hunt.

I’ll be working with a Harris hawk next year at college, they only have a few birds of prey due to legal reasons of course.


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## Tom (Jun 1, 2019)

Ben02 said:


> She’s beautiful Tom, must be very interesting to watch her hunt.
> 
> I’ll be working with a Harris hawk next year at college, they only have a few birds of prey due to legal reasons of course.


Harris hawks are fantastic. I'll be getting two of them in August. They are being chamber raised by their parents right now.


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## Ben02 (Jun 1, 2019)

Yvonne G said:


> "DON'T TOUCH MY RABBIT!!!!!!"
> 
> It never occurred to me to have an ant colony in a regular habitat. I wonder what he does when they grow wings and try to disperse on the wind. I notice a couple pictures showing the kind of ants that bite. Yipes! Right now, here in California's central valley, my red and black biting ants are swarming with the winged ones coming out of the mounds to fly away and start new colonies.


That never occurred to me, whether their habitat is fully enclosed which might not be the case as he uses glue to stop them climbing out. We get flying black ants in July and August when it gets really humid. People used to say flying ants were a sign of an approaching thunder storm, sometimes it happened but I guess the ants like humid conditions.


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## Ben02 (Jun 1, 2019)

Tom said:


> Harris hawks are fantastic. I'll be getting two of them in August. They are being chamber raised by their parents right now.


I’m excited to begin working with her.

I’d love to see some pics when you get the two new arrivals.


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## lymcBoris (Jun 3, 2019)

Tom said:


> I find that there is mass public ignorance about how the natural world works, and the willful ignorance seems to be growing exponentially. I see it in food choices, dog training trends, ignorance of how hunting benefits the prey species and the environment, public outcry about any animal in captivity, etc...


When you say how hunting benefits the prey...Not all hunting. I hope you don't condone fox hunting done by a bunch of jolly ho's on horseback with a pack of dogs. I'm sure you don't, but just thought I'd say that fox hunting is barbaric and evil as well as Badger baiting with dogs and many many more. Also, some people who think they are fantastic by taking great pleasure in hunting big game with their whatever calibre big guns is pathetic and utterly sickening. Rant over. And I'm not ignorant, am not a vegan, have an honours degree in environmental biology and work for SEPA. I am quite aware of how the natural world works and the effects of man on our ecosystems.


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## Maro2Bear (Jun 3, 2019)

lymcBoris said:


> When you say how hunting benefits the prey...Not all hunting. I hope you don't condone fox hunting done by a bunch of jolly ho's on horseback with a pack of dogs. I'm sure you don't, but just thought I'd say that fox hunting is barbaric and evil as well as Badger baiting with dogs and many many more. Also, some people who think they are fantastic by taking great pleasure in hunting big game with their whatever calibre big guns is pathetic and utterly sickening. Rant over. And I'm not ignorant, am not a vegan, have an honours degree in environmental biology and work for SEPA. I am quite aware of how the natural world works and the effects of man on our ecosystems.




This case here (in Scotland) comes to mind regarding “trophy hunters” - https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/24/uk/scotland-goat-hunting-switlyk-intl/index.html


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## lymcBoris (Jun 3, 2019)

Maro2Bear said:


> This case here (in Scotland) comes to mind regarding “trophy hunters” - https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/24/uk/scotland-goat-hunting-switlyk-intl/index.html


Exactly. An island that I regularly work on and live near. A domestic goat! Hardly wild at all on the Island of Islay. This woman and her big gun antics are pathetic.


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## Ben02 (Jun 3, 2019)

lymcBoris said:


> When you say how hunting benefits the prey...Not all hunting. I hope you don't condone fox hunting done by a bunch of jolly ho's on horseback with a pack of dogs. I'm sure you don't, but just thought I'd say that fox hunting is barbaric and evil as well as Badger baiting with dogs and many many more. Also, some people who think they are fantastic by taking great pleasure in hunting big game with their whatever calibre big guns is pathetic and utterly sickening. Rant over. And I'm not ignorant, am not a vegan, have an honours degree in environmental biology and work for SEPA. I am quite aware of how the natural world works and the effects of man on our ecosystems.


Thankfully fox hunting is banned in the UK now, people still go out on horse back with loads of dogs but they don’t kill any, still quite odd how they want to keep that tradition alive. Have you heard of Chris Packham? He recently tried to make it illegal to kill certain birds, this led to him getting death threats and dead birds put on his property. I agree it is barbaric for people to enjoy killing living things


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## lymcBoris (Jun 3, 2019)

Ben02 said:


> Thankfully fox hunting is banned in the UK now, people still go out on horse back with loads of dogs but they don’t kill any, still quite odd how they want to keep that tradition alive. Have you heard of Chris Packham? He recently tried to make it illegal to kill certain birds, this led to him getting death threats and dead birds put on his property. I agree it is barbaric for people to enjoy killing living things


Yes, they are allowed to still go out and "hunt" foxes but they must be flushed out to the gun and shot, not ripped apart by the dogs. Still cruel and unnecessary in my opinion. Makes me sick. Yes, I'm a big fan of Chris Packham. I admire him very much. There's conflict with RSPB and gamekeepers who deny illegally killing birds of prey on their land, but lots of birds of prey mysteriously disappearing on game bird estates. Radiotags completely vanish. It's in the Scottish news a lot. Plus the whole mountain hare cull on game estates, badger culls for TB prevention in England. Oh don't get me started! We all need to eat less meat and plant more trees. All I see is farms, estates for shooting and private land owners who own most of Scotland's land. Things are changing on the land reform for the greater good in Scotland though. Which couldn't come soon enough.


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## Yvonne G (Jun 3, 2019)

We're gettin' a bit off track here. Let's remember the subject of this thread, shall we?

If you want to vent about hunting we have an off topic section where you can start your own thread.


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## TechnoCheese (Jun 3, 2019)

I used to be a big fan of Antscanada, before his channel grew. He really got me interested in ant colonies, and I do hope to have one some day.

However, now his videos are a little too over the top and dramatic, and most of the problems in his videos are easily avoidable and likely just there for an interesting title.

I don’t really have problems with the turtle, though. It was already dead, and if anything, they’re just putting use to the body. It’s like people getting mad at someone for feeding their snake, lol.


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## Ben02 (Jun 3, 2019)

TechnoCheese said:


> I used to be a big fan of Antscanada, before his channel grew. He really got me interested in ant colonies, and I do hope to have one some day.
> 
> However, now his videos are a little too over the top and dramatic, and most of the problems in his videos are easily avoidable and likely just there for an interesting title.
> 
> I don’t really have problems with the turtle, though. It was already dead, and if anything, they’re just putting use to the body. It’s like people getting mad at someone for feeding their snake, lol.


I have to say, he does use certain techniques to attract views now but I enjoy his videos, they are very relaxing to watch sometimes.


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## Tom (Jun 5, 2019)

Ben02 said:


> I’m excited to begin working with her.
> 
> I’d love to see some pics when you get the two new arrivals.



Please post about it when you do. I'd love to learn anything and everything about them.

Mine are the bigger two in the back in this pic. Look at them eyeballing the camera. They hatched about a month ago:


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## dmmj (Jun 5, 2019)

You won't find a lot of intelligence in the Youtube comment section. Weird & unusual but nature is nature.


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## Tom (Jun 6, 2019)

dmmj said:


> You won't find a lot of intelligence in the Youtube comment section. Weird & unusual but nature is nature.


Intelligence? No. But entertainment... Now we're talkin'!!!


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## Tortoise MasterMan (Dec 26, 2019)

I wholeheartedly agree!


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