Anyone who paid attention to LL Cool J circa 1989 knows that a little bling (and possibly a dookie chain-wearing panther) helps one impress the ladies. It’s a fairly simple facet of sexual behavior throughout the animal kingdom: flash a little cash, and you’re more likely to find a mate.Bowerbirds have long been the go-to example for wealth displays in animals. The whole point of showing off wealth (like driving a Bentley) is to show potential mates that you’re a successful resource gatherer, which is a big plus when there are little ones to raise. Bowerbirds forgo the Armani, however, for something altogether more awesome: the males build massive (relatively speaking) bird mansions, called bowers, that are covered in pretty bits of flowers and shiny found objects. And I’m truly not kidding: the architectural skills these birds display (without hands!) is absolutely astounding. Take a look:But while we’ve long known that male bowerbirds go to extraordinary lengths to build their love shacks, a multinational team of researchers has now discovered something so jaw-dropping I simply don’t have the adjectives for it: Bowerbirds may actually grow ornamental crops to help give themselves a leg up in the fanciest house competition.The team, which included researchers from Australia, Britain, and Germany, followed bowerbirds in Taunton National Park, Central Queensland. They found a curious phenomenon: potato bushes, which have lovely purple flowers and green fruit, were recorded in abnormally high concentrations around bowers. The group observed that the bowerbirds weren’t deciding to build their houses near crops of potato bushes. Rather, the birds were actually growing the plants around their homesteads.It took humans millennia to develop agricultural skills, which are largely responsible for us to spread around and populate the planet so successfully. Over time, those skills have taken on more aesthetic pursuits, like the crazily competitive world of rose gardening or the wonderful varieties of bonsai trees. Agriculture itself isn’t uncommon in the animal king; ants are known to cultivate fungi as well as (!) herd aphids. But zoologists had yet to discoverer agricultural-as-decoration appearing anywhere else in the animal kingdom.“Until now, humans have been the only species known to cultivate plants for uses other than food,” study leader Dr. Joah Madden said in a release. “We grow plants for all kinds of things – from drugs, to clothing, to props that we use in our sexual displays such as roses – but it seems we are not unique in this respect.”It’s unclear how directly the bowerbirds are actually gardening, although Madden said they’ve yet to find clear evidence showing that the birds are specifically gardening. The mechanism works something like this: Bowerbirds first clear the area around their bowers of any brush and weeds, which happens to provide a fertile growing area. Then they stockpile fruits — especially potato bush fruit — to cover their house with, which attracts the ladies. But once fruit gets old and shriveled, the choosy bowerbirds toss them aside, leaving a ring of seeds ready to germinate. It very much appears like gardening, but it’s unclear how deliberate the bird’s actions are.Still, as the team notes in Current Biology, the male bowerbirds can stay in the same little mansion for up to 10 years. That’s a lot of time for potato bushes to grow, and with more research, it will be fascinating to see how the male birds utilize those gardens as they spring up.At the very least, it lines up with something I’ve been thinking about after spending a day at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden: After untold centuries of trying to impress girls with gold, flashy clothes, and fast cars, perhaps what dudes really need to do to score dates is grow flowers.Follow Derek Mead on Twitter: @drderekmead.
Advertisement
Advertisement