December 3, 2024
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Nectar-eating wolves can be flower pollinators
There are less than 500 wolves in Ethiopia, and they may be the first large carnivore to act as pollinators.
An Ethiopian wolf (A dog from Simio) feeding among the blooming red Ethiopian poker flowers (Kniphofia foliosa).
An Ethiopian wolf’s diet is pretty basic: its proverbial meat and potatoes is a large rodent called the giant mole rat (which is flesh but vaguely resembles a potato). But it gives the endangered ones canids are also sweet. It regularly sips sugary nectar from a tall, fiery flower that adorns the animal’s high-altitude ecosystem. In the process, the wolf can serve as a pollinator, a role that is usually played insects, birds and flying mammals – not large carnivores.
This hypothesis comes from a team from the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Program, which published its observations on November 19 in the journal. Ecology. For years, observers of the group have noticed him occasionally drinking the nectar of a native flower called the Ethiopian poker hot (Kniphofia foliosa), which blooms from June to November and looks something like a large, fuzzy match lit on fire. (Its nectar is also popular with children and baboons, says Sandra Lai, an ecologist at the University of Oxford and the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Program, who co-authored the new study.)
Despite the well-known reports of nectar drinking, researchers were surprised by what they learned by systematically observing wolves. “Actually, they spend a lot of time foraging on flowers,” says Lai. “They can spend an hour and a half, for example, going from flower to flower. We saw an individual going to 30 flowers in a row.’ In addition, the researchers observed the behavior of members of different groups, suggesting that nectar-eating is a widespread habit, and not a local oddity.
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An Ethiopian wolf (A dog from Simio) licks the nectar of the hot Ethiopian poker flower (Kniphofia foliosa) (left) and with mucus covered in pollen after feeding on nectar (right).
The new report does not surprise Anagaw Atickem, an ecologist at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. He was not involved in the new research, but he has studied how domestic dogs compete with wolves in Ethiopia, and in the process noticed that the dogs like red poker flowers. Based on the new paper’s findings, he wonders if sharing flowers could allow disease to spread between dogs and wolves.
Both Atickem and Lai say there is much more to learn about the behavior and its importance. Wolves end up with pollen-covered clods, raising the possibility of transporting them between flowers and pollinating them in the process. If so, wolves would be among the first known large carnivores to facilitate plant reproduction. Pollination is usually associated with flying insects, birds and mammals, Lai says; scientists are beginning to consider ground-bound mammals such as mice and squirrels, monkeys and lemurs, and civets as potential pollinators.
Biologists need complicated experiments to determine that an animal is actually pollinating a specific flower species; however, they must confirm that the creature cannot. transport pollen, but also that the interaction produces fruits. “It’s not impossible, although it’s quite a challenge,” Lai says, adding that a first step in understanding the relationship between the wolf and the flower might be to catalog all the animal species that seem to be visiting the hot pokers.
The wolves’ sweet treats also raise conservation questions, given the challenges the region faces. Both wolves and hot pokers are native Ethiopiathe afroalpine ecosystem, which is only found in mountains around 3,000 meters above sea level. But as the nation’s human population grows, people and livestock are venturing to greater heights. Meanwhile, climate change is increasing the temperature in these mountain areas.
And Atickem now wonders if the nectar provided the wolves with any crucial food. If so, these flowers would be an essential part of the wolf’s diet and underline the need to maintain the flower in the landscape as habitat shrinks and warms. “Even small amounts of nectar can be helpful,” says Atickem. “Conservation of these flowers may be very important for the Ethiopian wolf.”
