this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2024
34 points (100.0% liked)

news

23464 readers
2 users here now

Welcome to c/news! Please read the Hexbear Code of Conduct and remember... we're all comrades here.

Rules:

-- PLEASE KEEP POST TITLES INFORMATIVE --

-- Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed. --

-- All posts must include a link to their source. Screenshots are fine IF you include the link in the post body. --

-- If you are citing a twitter post as news please include not just the twitter.com in your links but also nitter.net (or another Nitter instance). There is also a Firefox extension that can redirect Twitter links to a Nitter instance: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/libredirect/ or archive them as you would any other reactionary source using e.g. https://archive.today . Twitter screenshots still need to be sourced or they will be removed --

-- Mass tagging comm moderators across multiple posts like a broken markov chain bot will result in a comm ban--

-- Repeated consecutive posting of reactionary sources, fake news, misleading / outdated news, false alarms over ghoul deaths, and/or shitposts will result in a comm ban.--

-- Neglecting to use content warnings or NSFW when dealing with disturbing content will be removed until in compliance. Users who are consecutively reported due to failing to use content warnings or NSFW tags when commenting on or posting disturbing content will result in the user being banned. --

-- Using April 1st as an excuse to post fake headlines, like the resurrection of Kissinger while he is still fortunately dead, will result in the poster being thrown in the gamer gulag and be sentenced to play and beat trashy mobile games like 'Raid: Shadow Legends' in order to be rehabilitated back into general society. --

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
top 1 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] Moobythegoldensock@lemm.ee 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Acacia ants protect whistling-thorn trees by biting and stinging elephants looking for a snack. In return, they get nectar and shelter. But big-headed ants – an invasive ant species that can take over whistling-thorn trees by killing adult acacia ants and eating their eggs and larvae – offer no such protection.

“In invaded areas, elephants browse and break trees at five to seven times the rate of that in uninvaded areas,” Palmer and colleagues write in the journal Science.

[. . .]

The team found that when big-headed ants and elephants were present there was a drop in tree cover and a dramatic increase in visibility.

[. . .]

The team found zebra kills were almost three times more likely in low-visibility areas where big-headed ants were absent, than in high-visibility areas were the big-headed ants were present.

In short, acacia ants protect the trees in exchange for food, and the trees offer shelter for lions so they can hunt more easily. But invasive ants displace the acacia ants, leading to more trees dying, so lions have fewer places to hide when they hunt.