Nigel R. Franks (born 21 August 1956) is an English emeritus professor of Animal Behaviour and Ecology at the University of Bristol.
[1] After receiving his BSc in 1977 he began his PhD, during which he spent two years doing field work in Panama on army ants with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute.
In a 2009 profile in Science he discusses his pioneering use of radio-frequency identification tags (RFID) glued to the backs of each ant for tracking individuals in their society.
[2] His book Social evolution in ants with Andrew Bourke was an important contribution to the understanding of kin selection theory and sex ratio theory with respect to social evolution in insects,[3] while his co-authored book Self-organization in biological systems has been cited well over 3000 times[4] Temnothorax albipennis ants have been observed teaching each other through a process known as tandem running.
An experienced forager leads a naive nest-mate to a newly discovered resource such as food or an empty nest site.