When Herbivore Numbers Drop, Plants Ditch Thorny Defenses (1 of 3) (IMAGE)

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

When Herbivore Numbers Drop, Plants Ditch Thorny Defenses (1 of 3)

Caption

The risk of predation by African wild dogs like these alters the behavior of their prey, making plant communities less thorny. This material relates to a paper that appeared in the Oct. 17, 2014, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by Adam T. Ford at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada, and colleagues was titled, "Large carnivores make savanna tree communities less thorny."

Credit

[Credit: Dustin Rubenstein]

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