'Mammals practicing agriculture' are confirmed for the first time by non-humans
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It is said that the life of human beings has changed drastically with the advent of agriculture, and many people may think that agriculture is a special thing that only human beings do, but in recent years some ants have been farming. It turns out that it is. A new treatise published in Current Biology , a general biology journal, reports that the first non-human mammal to practice agriculture was found.
Root cropping by pocket gophers: Current Biology
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.06.003
Gophers are first non-human mammal known to farm --News --University of Florida
https://news.ufl.edu/2022/07/gophers-first-known-mammal-farmer/
Researchers Have Found The First Example of Another Mammal'Farming' Its Food
https://www.sciencealert.com/researchers-find-a-rare-example-of-another-mammal-farming-its-food
Geomys pinetis , a type of gopher that lives in the Americas, uses its powerful forefoot and claws to dig long tunnels up to 160m underground, spending most of its life in underground tunnels. I am. Sometimes they eat the leaves of plants that grow near the burrows, but the staple food is the roots and rhizomes of the plants that grow in the ground, and they rarely damage the crops on the ground.
Francis Putz , a professor of biology at the University of Florida, said, 'The Minami Holly Mouse lives entirely alone in a 100-meter-long tunnel system, which is dark and moist like a sewer. '. Since digging a tunnel consumes hundreds to thousands of times more energy than walking the same distance on the ground, the southern rat should be consuming a lot of energy in some way, but that energy. The source was not specified.
Putts and Veronica Selden, an undergraduate student at the time of the study, were inspired by the pressure of the sewer pipes from the roots of the trees, saying, I started my research thinking, 'I think it promotes growth and harvests and eats it.'
by Houston Wells / UF
In order to investigate the interaction between the tunnel and the roots dug by the minami holly rat, the research team covered only a part of the tunnel with a drum can to keep the roots of plants growing in the vicinity away from the minami holly rat. Then, the root growth rate of the roots where the roots can be eaten and where they cannot be eaten is measured, and the amount of energy required to dig a tunnel and the calorie intake obtained from the roots grown in the tunnel are calculated. Did.
The picture below shows Mr. Selden digging a hole to fill a drum.
by Jack Putz / UF
As a result of the experiment, it was found that the roots that grow in the tunnel that has already been dug account for 20 to 60% of the daily calorie intake of the southern rat. Simply digging a tunnel and eating the roots and rhizomes that hit it will not provide the energy needed to dig the tunnel, but eating the roots that grow on the outer walls of the tunnel that you have already dug will provide the energy. It is possible.
In addition, it is said that the urine and stool of the rat, which is excreted in the tunnel, becomes fertilizer and promotes the growth of roots around the tunnel. 'The honeybees use excrement as fertilizer to provide the best environment for root growth,' Selden said, arguing that the honeybees are practicing a form of agriculture. doing.
The definition of agriculture varies among experts, and some experts may argue that 'agriculture requires not only promoting and harvesting crops, but also planting crops.' Hmm. However, if we consider that carefully managing the fruit trees of the forest and the perennial plants that grow naturally and collecting fruits when the time comes is a form of agriculture, what the Minami horine rat is doing is also a type of agriculture. It can be said. Putts points out that humans also have a culture of managing, promoting and harvesting crops that they did not plant on their own. 'The southern rat is the first non-human mammal farmer,' he said.
'The gophers are really important ecosystem engineers and are much more interesting than people's assessments,' Selden said, arguing that people should pay more attention to gophers.
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