Wolves that feed on nectar may pollinate flowers.

Wolves that feed on nectar may pollinate flowers.

Megan Bartels

The Ethiopian wolf’s diet is very basic. That proverbial meat and potatoes consists of a large rodent called the giant mole rat. teeth It’s meat, but it looks more like a fuzzy potato). But it turns out that endangered canids also have a sweet tooth. They regularly suck sweet nectar from the tall, fiery-hued flowers that decorate this animal’s high-altitude ecosystem. In the process, wolves may serve as pollinators, a role typically held by insects, birds, and flying mammals rather than large carnivores.

This hypothesis comes from a team from the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Program, who published their observations in an academic journal on November 19th. ecology. For years, the group’s wardens have occasionally noticed wolves feeding on nectar from a local flower called the Ethiopian Red Hot Poker (Kniphofia foliosa) blooms from June to November and looks like a large fuzzy matchstick lit on fire. (Sandra Rai, an ecologist with the University of Oxford and the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Program and co-author of the new study, says the nectar is also popular with children and baboons.)

Despite known reports of nectar drinking, researchers were surprised by what they learned from systematically observing wolves. “They actually spend a lot of time looking for flowers,” Lai said. “They can stay for about an hour and a half from flower to flower. I’ve seen one individual produce 30 flowers in a row.” Additionally, the researchers found that different Observations of behavior among group members suggested that nectar-eating is a widespread habit rather than a local habit.

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Ecologist Anagau Atikem of Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa University said he was not surprised by the new report. Although he was not involved in the new research, he is studying how domestic dogs compete with Ethiopian wolves, and in the process discovered that dogs have a taste for red poker flowers. I noticed that. Based on the new paper’s findings, he suspects that sharing flowers could spread the disease between dogs and wolves.

Both Atichem and Rai say there is still much to learn about this behavior and its importance. The wolf’s muzzle ends up covered in pollen, raising the possibility that it transports pollen between flowers for pollination. If so, wolves would be the first large carnivores known to promote plant reproduction in this way. Pollination is more commonly associated with insects, birds and flying mammals, Lai said. Scientists are just beginning to consider land-dwelling mammals such as mice, squirrels, monkeys, lemurs, and civets as potential pollinators.

However, biologists require complex experiments to confirm that an animal is indeed pollinating a particular type of flower, and that the interaction not only shows that the animal can carry pollen but also that the fruit It is also necessary to confirm that it is born. “It’s not impossible, but it’s very difficult,” says Lai, adding that the first step to understanding the relationship between wolves and flowers is cataloging all the animal species that appear to be visiting the poker frenzy. He added that it may become a reality.

Given the challenges facing the region, wolves’ sweet treats also raise conservation questions. Both wolves and red hot pokers live in the African alpine ecosystem of Ethiopia and are found only in the mountains about 3,000 meters above sea level. However, as the country’s population grew, people and livestock began venturing to higher elevations. Meanwhile, climate change is causing temperatures to rise in these highland regions.

And Atikem now thinks the nectar may provide some important nutrients to the wolves. If so, these flowers would become a vital part of wolves’ diets, underscoring the need to keep them in the landscape as habitat shrinks and temperatures warm. “Even a small amount of nectar may be effective,” Atikem says. “Preserving these flowers may have very important implications for Ethiopian wolves.”