An Ethiopian wolf’s diet is pretty basic: its proverbial meat and potatoes consists of a large rodent called a giant mole rat (which is meat but looks more like a fuzzy potato). But it seems that the endangered canid also has a sweet tooth. It regularly laps up sugary nectar from a tall, fiery-hued flower that adorns the animal’s high-elevation ecosystem. In the process the wolf may be serving as a pollinator, a role usually occupied by insects, birds and flying mammals—not large carnivores.
That hypothesis comes from a team at the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Program, which published its observations in the journal Ecology. For years the group’s monitors have noticed the occasional wolf drinking nectar from a local flower called the Ethiopian red hot poker (Kniphofia foliosa), which blooms from June to November and looks something like a large, furry matchstick set aflame. (Its nectar is also popular with children and baboons, says study co-author Sandra Lai, an ecologist at the University of Oxford and the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Program.)
Despite the reports of nectar drinking, Lai and her colleagues were surprised by what they learned through systematic observation. Wolves “spend a lot of time actually foraging on the flowers,” Lai says. “They can stay, like, an hour and a half, going from flower to flower. We’ve seen one individual going consecutively to 30 flowers.” The scientists also observed the behavior among members of different packs, suggesting that nectar feasting is a widespread habit, not a local quirk.
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An Ethiopian wolf (C. simensis) licks nectar from an Ethiopian red hot poker flower (K. foliosa) (left), and its muzzle is covered in pollen after feeding on the nectar (right).
Adrien Lesaffre
The new report doesn’t surprise Anagaw Atickem, an ecologist at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. He was not involved in the research but has studied how domestic dogs compete with Ethiopian wolves, and he says he has noticed that the dogs have a taste for this same nectar. Based on the new study’s finding, he wonders whether sharing the flowers may even spread diseases between the two species.
Both Atickem and Lai say there’s a lot more to learn about the behavior and its importance. The wolves end up with a muzzle covered in pollen, raising the possibility that they could transport it between flowers and pollinate them in the process. If they did, the wolves would be among the first known large carnivores that facilitate plant reproduction in this way. Pollination is more commonly associated with flying creatures, Lai says; scientists are only beginning to consider ground-bound mammals such as mice, squirrels, monkeys, lemurs and civets as potential pollinators.
Biologists require intricate experiments to determine whether an animal really is pollinating a specific species of flower, however; they need to confirm not only that the creature can transport pollen but also that the interaction results in fruit. “It is not impossible, although it is quite challenging,” Lai says, adding that a first step toward understanding the relation between wolf and flower might be to catalog all the animal species that appear to visit the red hot pokers.
The wolves’ sweet treats also raise conservation questions, given the challenges that the region is facing. Both the wolves and the red hot pokers are native to Ethiopia’s afroalpine ecosystem, found only in mountains some 3,000 meters above sea level. But as the nation’s human population grows, people and livestock are venturing to higher altitudes. Meanwhile climate change is raising temperatures in these highland areas.
Atickem now wonders whether the nectar provides a crucial nutrient. If so, it would underscore the need to keep the flower on the landscape as the habitat shrinks and warms. “Even small amounts of nectar may be helpful,” Atickem says. “The conservation of these flowers may be very relevant for the Ethiopian wolf.”