Discoveries

February 27, 2024

Stinky Solutions

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Scientists in Australia recently came up with a novel solution to safely deter herbivores from eating certain plant species, Cosmos magazine reported.

Due to a lack of natural predators, there are many native and invasive herbivores in Australia ravishing the country’s flora and threatening biodiversity.

Ecologists from the University of Sydney said they were looking into ways to address the overabundance of herbivores, including deer and wallabies, in a more humane way.

For their study, they focused on protecting palatable Eucalyptus seedlings from wallabies – a shorter relative of the iconic kangaroo.

The team explained that wallabies love to munch on the seedlings but would avoid scents emanating from boronia – a native shrub species that many local herbivores naturally avoid.

In their experiment, they surrounded the eucalyptus seedlings with vials containing aromas mimicking boronia. Their findings showed that the wallabies would not approach the tasty seedlings placed next to the shrub’s aroma – the middle-sized marsupials were 20 times less likely to go after the eucalyptus, the researchers noted.

This level of deterrence was equivalent to Eucalyptus seedlings that were surrounded by real boronia plants, they added.

Lead author Patrick Finnerty highlighted the advantage of manipulating smells: It provides protection without competition among plants and avoids confusion with local pollinators by replicating leaf odors instead of floral odors.

He hopes that the stinky method could be applied elsewhere in the world and on larger herbivores – such as elephants – to protect local ecosystems.

“A main step we need to take is to see whether these findings could be actually replicated at a larger scale, but also, to see how long these tools we have developed could be used to deter herbivores over time,” Finnerty added.

Correction: In Monday’s THE WORLD, BRIEFLY section, we said in our story “Slow Progress” that around 130 hostages abducted by Hamas are still in Gaza and not many of them are alive. In fact, the original Times of Israel article said not all of them are alive. We apologize for the error.

This story originally appeared in the February 27, 2024 newsletter, Family Feud.