In Ethiopia, a Weird Wolf Enjoys Getting His Snoot Full of Pollen

Dec 10

Dec 10 In Ethiopia, a Weird Wolf Enjoys Getting His Snoot Full of Pollen

We usually think of pollinators – the yentas of the animal kingdom that “marry” male and female plants by transmitting pollen between them – as flying insects, birds, sometimes bats. Biologists have now identified another unusual matchmaker in the field, the Ethiopian wolf.

Researchers from the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme have observed their beloved wolf – an endangered species (Canis simensis) and the rarest canid in the world – getting a snootful of pollen from the brilliant blooms of the Ethiopian red hot poker (Kniphofia foliosa).

The wolves are drawn to the sweet nectar produced by the flowering plant, and after a taste they’ll flit from bloom to bloom – kind of like a bumblebee – and inadvertently help fertilize the red hots.

“We followed several wolves feeding on the Ethiopian red hot poker flowers,” EWCP writes on its blog, “and discovered that some individuals could go to as many as 20 to 30 stalks during one single visit. Multiple wolves from different packs exploited this same resource, and there was even some evidence of social learning, with juveniles being brought to the flower fields along with adults.”

This marks the first time nectar-feeding behaviour has been observed in a large carnivore. The researchers say it shows how much we still have to learn about the rare wolf and its role in the ecosystem. Their study is published in the journal Ecology.

We wondered why this particular wolf, with fewer than 500 alive, is billed as “the world’s rarest canid,” when the American red wolf (Canis rufus) has far fewer – less than 20 individuals – clinging to existence. Apparently the scientists who decide these things regard the red wolf as a subspecies of the gray wolf, rather than a distinct species in its own right.

(As long as we’re fact checking, it should be noted that “yenta” doesn’t really mean matchmaker, “Fiddler on the Roof” notwithstanding. The Yiddish word for matchmaker is shadchan.)