Patrick Finnerty: Plant odour enables patch choice by mammalian herbivores from afar

British Ecological Society

Amelia Macho chats to Functional Ecology author Patrick Finnerty about his recently published research article "Odour information enables patch choice by mammalian herbivores from afar, leading to predictable plant associational effects". The team demonstrated that elephants can make patch choice decisions from afar using plant odour cues alone, and that these decisions lead to predictable associational effects on the susceptibility of high-quality focal plants to be being eaten. They also used a new method to reduce an entire complex odour profile of a low-quality plant species and reproduce this odour information artificially. This simplified odour set was as effective as real low-quality neighbours in shaping elephant patch choice and subsequently providing associational refuge to the focal plant. This research could offer a new tool to influence herbivore foraging decisions, with implications for wildlife management and conservation, including plant protection. Read the full research article here: https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.14665 Check out our YouTube channel for a video of an elephant walking through the giant Y-maze Patt and his team built: https://youtu.be/OBY_xsbU-0k