A species of wolf in Ethiopia has been filmed unexpectedly licking flowers, suggesting the carnivores could play the role of giant earth-bound bees.
As the fuzzy red wolves scurry from flower to flower, lapping up the flower’s sweet stickiness, their white snouts are tinged with the yellow pollen of the red hot poker flower.
University of Oxford ecologist Sandra Lai and her team suspect that these normally strict carnivores may be spreading that pollen from one Kniphofia foliosa plant to another, making the Ethiopian wolf (A monkey dog) the first example of a large carnivorous pollinator.
“Wolves have been observed looking for nectar K. foliosa flowers, which deposited a relatively large amount of pollen on the proboscis, suggesting that it could contribute to pollination,” the team wrote in their paper, explaining that more research is needed to confirm successful pollination.
Video submitted in Additional Information from a very interesting paper by Lai and co-authors in Ecology, showing potential pollination by Ethiopian wolves of Kniphofia foliosa!
(@flowerlab.bsky.social) November 21, 2024 at 9:41 pm
If they contribute to the pollination of flowers, the endangered wolves would join an exclusive but lovely group of flightless mammals that pollinate plants. Examples of what is called therophilia include rodents, primates, shrews, and honey possums (Tarsipus rostrum) – the only fully nectarivorous mammal that is not a bat.
Over the years of field work, Lai and colleagues noticed wolves’ occasional preference for sugar. To investigate further, they tracked six different wolves from different packs over four days.
“I first became aware of the nectar of the Ethiopian hot poker when I saw shepherd children in the Bale Mountains licking the flowers,” explains Oxford University conservation biologist Claudio Silero. “I soon tasted it myself – the nectar was pleasantly sweet.”
During the study, the team observed that a single wolf visited up to 30 flowers in one attack.
Flowers that rely on mammalian pollination tend to be robust or have special adaptations, and the red-hot ember is no exception. Its flowers, known as racemes, cluster around heads that can grow on a stem that reaches up to a meter (about 3 feet) from the ground.
Nearly 90 percent of flowering plants on Earth depend on animal pollination, and these findings suggest that the role of lesser-known pollinators may be greater than we thought.
Most mammals involved in pollination are usually small to medium sized and usually arboreal like bats or sugar gliders. The few other meat-eating mammals known to eat nectar are small species like relatives of civets or raccoons, which makes the fox-colored wolf stand out.
Honey possum, the only known fully nectarivorous flightless mammal. (Oxford Scientific/The Image Bank/Getty Images)
With less than 500 individuals in the wild, the Ethiopian wolf is the most endangered carnivore in Africa.
Like many of Earth’s most endangered species, this unique wolf is a specialist feeder, eating mostly specific rodents found in the mountainous regions of Africa, likely followed by a floral dessert as a treat. Just like its primary prey, the wolf is also found only on seven mountain ranges, isolated at an altitude of 3,000 meters.
Genetics suggest that these wolves are a remnant of an ancestral group of canids that eventually became Gray Wolves.
The team wants to confirm whether pollination actually occurs and investigate whether there is evidence of coevolution between this unusual pair.
“These findings highlight how much we still have to learn about one of the world’s most endangered carnivores,” says Lai.
