Page 111 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #10

OURWILD WORLD
ECOLOGY
What is nectar robbing?
The ancient relationship between
A flowering plants and pollinators
is based on cooperation: one is given
help with reproduction, while the other
earns a high-energy meal. Delve deeper,
though, and it becomes clear that this
is a complicated relationship.
Flowers use an astounding array
of shapes, colours and scents to
entice their preferred pollen porters;
for example, deep, tubular flowers
are accessible to only the longest
tongues. However, many short-
tongued bees have learned to sidestep
this inconvenient anatomy. These
October 2018
3 questions on
RACCOONS
DO OTHER SPECIES CARRY
RACCOON ROUNDWORM?
Raccoon roundworm
Baylisascaris
procyonis is a
widespread
parasitic worm
found across
North America.
Its definitive host
Having chewed is the raccoon, and it
a hole in the base reaches sexual maturity
of a comfrey flower in the intestines of its host animal.
with its mandibles, a Though the parasite tends to afect
bumblebee extends
its tongue into the carnivores, it also infects small
corolla to ‘rob’ nectar. mammals and birds, and can cause
severe neurological disease in humans
if infections (contracted via the
faeces) are untreated.
WHY DID A
RACCOON SCALE
AN OFFICE BLOCK
IN MINNESOTA?
Raccoons are well-adapted to
urban environments, but like
all wildlife, they can
experience stress, which they
often respond to by climbing.
The female that scaled the
walls of the concrete tower in
St Paul, Minnesota, was trying
to escape the well-meaning
humans attempting to rescue
her from a second-story ledge. She
climbed 25 storeys before she was
eventually rescued and released.
ARE CITY RACCOONS
CLEVERER THAN THEIR
COUNTRY COUSINS?
resourceful foragers bite holes through Raccoons may have increased
the corolla to gain access to nectaries. adaptive abilities in response to novel Raccoon top to bottom: Harris Hui/Getty; Raimund Linke/Getty; Shattil & Rozinski/naturepl.com
Flowers such as comfrey, aquilegia situations, and the cognitive demands
and honeysuckle commonly bear the of urban settings might be responsible
mark of a thief. Buff-tailed and red-tailed for recent claims that city raccoons
bumblebees are known to pilfer, and can solve the same problems (such as
learn this behaviour from one another; opening rubbish bins) faster than their
other bees are not averse to using the rural counterparts. This is unsurprising
holes created by these thieves. given the problem-solving abilities
Interestingly, research shows that demonstrated by other urban
nectar robbers don’t necessarily have a species, such as coyotes and
negative effect on a plant’s ability to set bullfinches.
seed, and many bee species combine Imogene
theft with honest foraging. Cancellare
Laurie Jackson