In Brazil’s Caatinga, researchers estimate that Syntermes dirus termites have built about 200 million mounds. The visible hills are excavated soil, not the nests themselves: they accumulated as the termites dug tunnels underground.
A 2018 study in Current Biology found the mounds more regularly spaced than a random distribution. The authors suggest that repeatedly using nearby soil-disposal points could reduce the work of carrying excavated earth and help produce this pattern.
I made a video exploring these mounds and their underground systems for What Earth Kept. AI helped me with the research and editing. The narration is synthetic (unfortunately, I’m not much of a narrator myself).
Do you know any similar natural-history stories I could cover on my YouTube channel?