John Carlos Baez on Nostr: I didn't know that *wolves* can pollinate plants. This is an Ethiopian wolf, the most ...
I didn't know that *wolves* can pollinate plants.
This is an Ethiopian wolf, the most endangered predator in Africa. These wolves like to lick sweet nectar off a flower called the Ethiopian red hot poker. And as they go from flower to flower, their muzzle gets dusted with pollen! So while it's not yet *proved* that these wolves are important as pollinators, it seems awfully likely.
Scientists think these wolves don't get much of their caloric intake from this nectar. The “dessert hypothesis” says the wolves just like the taste!
For more, check out this open-access paper:
• Sandra Lai, Don-Jean Léandri-Breton, Adrien Lesaffre, Abdi Samune, Jorgelina Marino and Claudio Sillero-Zubiri, Canids as pollinators? Nectar foraging by Ethiopian wolves may contribute to the pollination of Kniphofia foliosa,
https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.4470.
Published at
2024-11-29 18:16:07 UTCEvent JSON
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"content": "I didn't know that *wolves* can pollinate plants.\n\nThis is an Ethiopian wolf, the most endangered predator in Africa. These wolves like to lick sweet nectar off a flower called the Ethiopian red hot poker. And as they go from flower to flower, their muzzle gets dusted with pollen! So while it's not yet *proved* that these wolves are important as pollinators, it seems awfully likely.\n\nScientists think these wolves don't get much of their caloric intake from this nectar. The “dessert hypothesis” says the wolves just like the taste!\n\nFor more, check out this open-access paper:\n\n• Sandra Lai, Don-Jean Léandri-Breton, Adrien Lesaffre, Abdi Samune, Jorgelina Marino and Claudio Sillero-Zubiri, Canids as pollinators? Nectar foraging by Ethiopian wolves may contribute to the pollination of Kniphofia foliosa, https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.4470.\nhttps://media.mathstodon.xyz/media_attachments/files/113/567/570/989/471/532/original/d2ce7de2b4c9b05b.webp\n",
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