Rats Not Such Pests After All

Invasive rats are compensating for the loss of native pollinators in New Zealand, scientists report in a paper published in a Royal Society journal. “New Zealand offers a really interesting and rare opportunity to look at what the consequences of species extinction [are] for … pollination,” explained conservation biologist Dr David Wilcove from Princeton University in the United States. The results could mean that the decline of pollinating animals worldwide does not spell the end for all native plants. Dr Wilcove studied three plants: the red-flowered Metrosideros and Knightia, and the purple-flowered Veronica. Where the plants were no longer visited by traditional pollinating species, rats, and a recently colonising bird, were doing the job instead.