When scientists know how to fight among themselves, take michel platini camping and go to science! Nothing is a problem!

Can you imagine? Through the research in a barrel, scientists found that

When scientists know how to fight among themselves, take michel platini camping and go to science! Nothing is a problem!

Can you imagine? Through the research in a barrel, scientists found that donkeys not only dig their own wells in the desert, but even "selflessly share" them for everyone to drink, adding 1 ecological diversity to the local environment! This amazing research was recently published in the journal Science, and the research process is also very dramatic. Next, let's see how this research started!

The unexpected discovery of camping-donkey digging wells-began nine years ago.

Eric lundgren is a doctoral student at Arizona State University, specializing in birds, mammals and river ecosystems. He often camps near the Sonora Desert in Arizona to observe the ecology of this area.

Steep canyons, giant cacti and Populus euphratica, as well as many animals inhabiting here, constitute the ecological scene of Sonora Desert. During a camping trip, lundgren found some unusual "holes" in the desert. These holes were all surrounded by excavated sand. It seemed that someone deliberately dug holes here, which aroused his curiosity, so he placed several cameras near the holes to photograph animals.

A few days later, he found the American donkey, the initiator of these holes, from the image. In the United States, Burro can represent any Xiao Lv, including some wild donkeys living in Arizona and California.

As long as you are close to the hole, you can find that the sand near these holes is very "wet", and some holes even have a layer of clear water on their surfaces.

The donkey is digging a hole. What are these "holes" in the invisible ecology of wild American donkeys? Before that, scientists had long known that many animals would "dig wells" by themselves, such as wild horses in North America and elephants in Africa, so lundgren also thought that donkeys dug holes not for fun, but for drinking water.

Subsequent images confirmed lundgren's idea. In the film, the donkey did drink the water from the dug hole.

Wild horses (left) and elephants (right) also dig their own wells. Reference 1 But to his surprise, not only donkeys will come here to drink water, but also wild horses, wild boar, buffalo, goats, deer and coyotes will come to the well to drink water! In addition, these "donkey wells" are also the favorite growing places of many plants, such as kapok and willow.

These findings prompted lundgren to come up with a new plan.

Wild donkeys are digging wells, from Eric lundgren's Youtube channel. In fact, the donkey (Equus asinus) has long been generally regarded as a "harmful" alien species in the American scientific community, so most scientists are paying attention to and studying the harm of the donkey to the local vegetation and the competitive relationship between the donkey and the protozoa.

However, in lundgren's eyes, the donkey well dug by the donkey can benefit many local animals and plants, that is to say, the donkey is not only harmful to the environment as everyone thinks, so lundgren decided to start to understand the contribution of the donkey well to the local ecosystem.

You fight, I study! On 20 15, lundgren proposed a research project to Arizona State University. After getting the research funds, he used these funds to buy several tracking cameras for hunting and observed the picture of 13 animals drinking water in the donkey well.

But unfortunately, this research project has to observe a very wide area, and it will take some time to see the impact of donkey wells on local ecology. In contrast, the funds given by universities are really a drop in the bucket, and they simply can't afford such a huge and time-consuming project.

Lundgren decided to find another way and not apply for more funds!

In 20 16, lundgren put his own research project on Indiegogo, the largest fund-raising platform in the United States, hoping that everyone could "play" their own donkey well ecological research.

Of course, buckets are not taken for nothing:

Lundgren set a fundraising goal of $65,438+$0,000 on Indiegogo (although he said $8,000 was ideal), and finally successfully raised $4,790.

Lundgren's fundraising plan on Indiegogo at that time can still be seen online. The invisible ecology of wild American donkeys used the money raised to buy dozens of tracking cameras for hunting, and took michel platini in barrels to set up cameras in various places. It took several years and successfully collected valuable research data.

Just drilling a few more wells. Is it really that important? "Water resources" is an important factor affecting the interaction between organisms in desert ecosystem. When animals are short of water, they can only choose to solve the water consumption directly through food. For example, wolves will catch more prey and herbivores will eat more plants.

The fierce competition for water will make only a few species survive in this area, which will eventually reduce the biodiversity in this area.

According to lundgren's research, donkey wells are really helpful to the ecosystem in desert areas, mainly including the following points:

Donkey well is also the favorite growing place of many plants. Ecology Invisible to Wild American Donkeys lundgren believes that with the emergence of donkey wells, the creatures in some areas will reduce the competition for water resources and increase biodiversity.

In order to confirm his hypothesis again, he observed and compared the areas with and without donkey wells, and the results were consistent with his hypothesis: compared with the areas without donkey wells, the biodiversity in the areas with donkey wells was 64% more!

This means that animals will not only take the initiative to go to places with donkey wells, but also reduce the contradiction between organisms competing for water resources and increase biodiversity. It can be said that "the donkey digs the well and all beings benefit." 」

Thanks to michel platini and admire michel platini! 20 17, that is, one year after receiving Dou, I returned to Indiegogo platform to send a message to thank you. In his article, he said that with the support of Dou, the information he collected was written into four scientific papers, one of which was even accepted and published by the top journal Ecology.

In the next four years, lundgren added more information one after another, and finally even published this comprehensive ecological study on donkey wells in Science magazine.

Lundgren thanked all the people who posted on Indiegogo. The invisible ecology of wild American donkeys! Let's clear the name of the donkey! In Sonora Desert, this kind of donkey that can dig donkey wells is actually an exotic species, so local residents and * * * units think that they will destroy vegetation and the environment. For many years, people have been trying to get rid of them, and the US Bureau of Land Management even killed local donkeys by hunting.

In addition, because the mainstream ecological research is mostly negative about exotic species, even the scientific community doesn't like these donkeys.

However, the research in lundgren shows that exotic species will not only destroy the local environment, but also help to stabilize the ecosystem in this area by digging donkey wells. If we drive them away, I'm afraid the animals in this area will once again fall into the competition for water resources, making the ecosystem unstable again.

Eric lundgren, the author in the bucket. Sydney University of Technology, I don't know what you think of this research when you see it here.

For the author, in addition to the new knowledge that donkeys can dig wells and exotic species may also be helpful to the local ecosystem, what impressed me the most was actually lundgren's "coup" to win research funds.

In the face of insufficient funds, ordinary researchers often give up their plans reluctantly, but as the saying goes, "the mountain does not turn back, and the road does not turn back." In order to continue his research, lundgren came up with a method of "closing the bucket", which really opened my eyes!

Many people think that scientists are boring and have no creativity, but many scientific researches are often created by the inspiration and creativity of researchers at the moment, and this research is a good embodiment. In fact, it's not just scientific research. Sometimes in life, if you pay more attention, you may be able to open a new road!