We mow the lawn mainly because we think it looks neat. The steppe also loves narrow grass, but for completely different reasons.
The homeland of these small, sandy-colored rodents is China, where they live in colonies in underground tunnels and burrows. Often in the steppe zone. So with a lot of grass. The shrike is an animal that can also be found, but it is high in the air. A carnivorous songbird nicknamed the butcher bird. why? Because they usually throw prey (including small rodents) on the branches and then bite them occasionally.
So it is understood that the average steppe furrow makes him flee when a shrike flies. Now researchers have noticed that the rodents are grazing on the grass near the burrow. Except, it turns out, they didn’t because they were hungry. They only did so—and with great difficulty—when a cry roared. On the contrary, birds often ignore the short-grassed steppe plots. And if there were no birds, the blades were left alone.
According to the researchers, this discovery shows how intelligent animals can adapt, but also how large the impact of the disappearance of a species can be. Even for grass.
Read more: Rodent grass reduces predation risk by engineering the ecosystem†
