Steep slopes with very little soil cover; rugged rocks, snow, and ice are the habitat in high mountains. Although the plant cover above the tree-line is scanty, you can still find animals living there. In the Alps, we find the climbing chamois, ibexes, and groundhogs.
Most of the forest ants build hills at sunny forest edges from needles, twigs, and moss. The well-organized huge colonies of ants are called ‘hills’. Several hundred queens live with their ‘community’ in these hills. The ants divide the work among themselves. While the queens lay eggs, the soldier ants must provide protection for the eggs and the worker ants get food for the larvae. In the month of June, the winged male and female ants hatch. The males die after the nuptial flight. The impregnated young queens look for a new ground or return to the old one to lay eggs.