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by late summer the corral tanks contain the only standing water for kilometers around [Music] the canyon's more mobile insects are
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drawn to this one last oasis for those able to travel this water is a lifesaver [Music] so
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[Music] bees and wasps can carry the water back to their
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distant nests but this tiny pool of water lies just beyond the boundary of the coral colony's territory with no end in sight such desperate times
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call for desperate measures as the search widens a small group of corral workers head towards the trough this is unfamiliar ground for them
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and they are heading toward disaster near the trough they stumble across other honey ants and then a nest entrance it's only 40 meters from the corral colony
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but that's been enough to keep these two nests in mutual ignorance for all these years these new honey ants are unlike any the corral workers have encountered before
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they are big and aggressive instead of backing down they meet the challenge head-on and the encounter begins to escalate for the first time in its history
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the corral colony may have met its match sensing the worst the corral workers begin to fall back towards their own nest the trough workers go on the offensive
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the retreat quickly turns into a route stragglers are picked off the fight is carried right to the entrance of the corral colony even here on their own doorstep they can't hold their ground
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the attacking trough workers drive on into the nest as news of the attack reaches the corral queen she withdraws to the deepest chambers her entourage of nurses in tow
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carrying the valuable brood the battle spreads down into the tunnels slowly inexorably it spreads down through the shafts towards the deeper part of the nest
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[Music] the repletes are slaughtered or dragged away to be eaten later some dead workers are carried off for processing the invaders take everything from eggs
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to newborns [Music] many are eaten where they fall [Music] they empty chamber
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after chamber [Music] finally the invaders overcome the last resistance
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and breakthrough into the royal bunker the corral queen and her broods are trapped and completely helpless held by each leg the queen is on the rack
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first stretched then dismembered it is a gruesome and ignominious end for this once great ruler [Music]
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in just a few hours the corral colony has been annihilated the nest emptied too late for the corral colony
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the drought finally breaks [Music] a great storm heralded the start of the corral queen's story and now eight years later another marks
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its brutal end but somewhere out in the desert the queen's royal daughters are fighting their own battles continuing her dynasty the queen may be dead
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but her empire lives on [Music]
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you
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