The Zombie Fungus Explained How Cordyceps Control Ants and Shape Ecosystems 1

Transcript (Auto translated can have spelling mistakes)

And then the other ones, the really interesting ones are parasites. So you talked about this before, the ones that are growing in Nepal up in the Himalayas, the Cortiseps mushroom. So this is the very long one. Exactly. The Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I say very common. It's not very common. This is very rare mushroom to to have, but it's very common in um traditional Chinese medicine. Uh the most valuable ingredient in all of the world. This can be up to $200,000 US per kilo. Very very very expensive. Yeah. And people go all the way up. This is this is really I I saw I saw this in Nepal actually. Like you know we can get this stuff. Wow.

Yeah. very lucky if you find this because some people spend a few a few weeks a year going to hunt this mushroom and they make more money in those few weeks than they make the entire year doing anything else because it's so valuable. Yeah. And in Nepal, uh Bhutan uh on the other side in Ching Dao um you know in China. So all through the Himalayas, these are a very high alitude um moth that that that inhabits this high altitude and the fungus must consume the larae of the moth. So you see what I'm that that's a larae.

It's like a worm. The fungus has consumed the worm. So it's no more any worm material there. It's totally converted to fungus. So they call this the zombie mushroom because before the mushroom consumes the worm, it first gets into its brain and drives it around like a zombie. So this is called zombie fungus and there are lots of different u interesting cultural things that have come from the zombie fungus. Um have you heard of the the show or the game The Last of Us?

Um not so sure. That's that's this game. It's the most popular uh Sony PlayStation video game ever. And they turned it into a um a uh HBO um uh uh series. So, it is a postapocalyptic zombie game and it is now a zombie series. It's called The Last of Us, but it's based on Cortiseps infecting humans. Now, there are no cortiseps mushrooms that can infect animals, but right now they can infect any of the insect world. Um, could you see um if I were to play this, could you see and hear that? Because this is a very very good video.

Okay. Okay. Let's try. Yeah. Can you hear that? Uh, no. I think you opened it in another tab. Okay. So, let me close this tab and then I'll open that other one. So, let's stop sharing here and then we will do a share on the next one. Let's see if we can get that here.

Incredibly, 80% of all insects live in jungles. Few are more successful than the ants. There can be 8 million individuals in a single hectare. But jungle ants don't have it all their own way. Can you hear the audio? Yes.

Yes. Yes. Okay. These bullet ants are showing some worrying symptoms. Spores from a parasitic fungus called cortiseps have infiltrated their bodies and their minds.