Ants fleeing jarrah forests as rainfall dries up ENTOMOLOGIST Jonathan Majer has some disturbing news from the jarrah forests of southwest Australia: ants are moving out. For 37 years, Professor Majer has tracked the presence of a hundred species of ants in the native forests, in one of the longest studies of its kind in the world. He has found the forest is changing; the ant species that prefer shaded and cool forest habitat have gone.