Researchers conducted a study on the diet of urban ants. Clint Penick, a postdoctoral researcher at North Carolina State University, travelled to Broadway to collect specimens.

Penick was trying to find out whether city ants, like their human counterparts, were eating a junk food-heavy diet. The answer came out to be yes, as some of them are, finds the study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The study came to know that like humans, ants have nuanced eating habits. Researchers came to know that a diet heavy in grasses like corn and sugarcane will be reflected through the presence of carbon-13, a carbon isotope.

Penick and his colleagues checked for the levels of carbon-13 in 21 ant species that were gathered from different sites of New York City’s sidewalks, traffic islands and parks. The researchers came to know that the ants that lived in areas having a greater human presence had increased levels of carbon-13 than the species that were found in parks.

“Medians actually make a pretty good place for ants to nest because there's a little bit of dirt there, there's some trees and some other plants, and there's a trash can at either end — so there's some food sources there that humans are providing”, said Penick.

The researchers came to know that the pavement ant or Tetramorium Sp. E., most commonly found on sidewalks and medians were found to be having the highest levels of carbon-13 of any species.

Penick affirmed that pavement ants are significantly changing their diets to human foods. The level of the diet shift is considerably changing the chemical makeup of their bodies. For now, its effect on pavement ants is not known.

The researchers also affirmed that not all ant species living nearby people were so interested on eating garbage.