When you think of a pollinator, flying insects like bees and butterflies probably spring to mind. Birds and bats are also well-known pollinators, while some plants can be pollinated by the wind or through self-pollination.
Biologists were already aware that small carnivores occasionally pollinate flowering plants, allowing them to produce seeds and fruits. Yet evidence of a large carnivore pollinating a flower hadn’t been documented until last year. A team of researchers, led by ecologist Sandra Lai of Oxford University, discovered that the Ethiopian wolf has a sweet tooth – and a penchant for licking nectar from red hot poker flowers. The researchers noted that when the wolves lick the blooms to get their nectar, their muzzles get covered with pollen, which they inadvertently transfer among the flowers. One wolf was observed feeding on 30 blooms during a single visit to the flower fields.
Consuming nectar is unusual for large carnivores, which lack the long tongues needed to extract the sweet liquid from flowers. And most flowers are too delicate or offer so little nectar that they’re not attractive to large animals. Ethiopian red hot poker flowers are an exception, as they are robust and offer a significant amount of nectar, especially from the mature flowers that grow at the bottom of the stalk. They offer so much sweet nectar that people sometimes use them to sweeten their coffee or to spread on bread.
The researchers learned that Ethiopian wolves across various packs all drank nectar, though certain wolves appeared more interested in the flowers than others. Red hot poker nectar, which is known to be very sweet, is more of a treat than a nutrition source for the wolves, though it does provide them with some energy. They tend to seek out the flowers after consuming meat from hunting. The behavior appears to have been learned from other wolves, with adults bringing young cubs to the flowers.
Although the wolves apparently dislodge pollen onto their muzzles while drinking nectar, the researchers want to conduct further studies to determine whether they are actually pollinating the flowers, resulting in fruiting.
More about an unlikely pollinator:
- Native to the Ethiopian highlands, Ethiopian wolves (Canis simensis) are endangered, with less than 500 remaining in the wild. They are the world’s rarest wild canid and the most threatened carnivore in Africa, with a population that has been decimated by disease and the encroachment of agriculture into their habitat.
- Although they clearly love licking nectar, the Ethiopian wolf’s main food source is small mammals like giant mole rats and common grass rats.
- Bears, which are omnivorous rather than carnivorous, have been observed feeding on nectar, though this does not occur regularly, unlike with the wolves. Because it happens sporadically, they cannot be considered true pollinators.
