flora

The Energy for a New Crawl—Galápagos Tortoises Feast on Invasive Plants for a New Foraging Technique

When it comes to invasive flora, most conservation ecologists know that the ramifications that come with these primary producers often appear much higher in the food chain. Some animals are unequipped to utilize the plants for food, while others simply find the energy spent foraging for it is far too much for the energy gained. And it’s a dynamic that often leads some species to coevolve. But looking into one of the first Darwinian subjects, Galápagos Giant Tortoises, some researchers have found that the unique species may be getting far more out of the invasive flora than they once thought—enough to even change their foraging behavior altogether.
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