Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Some Fruits Actually Adapt Themselves to Attract the Animals That Eat Them, and It Makes a Lot of Sense

Some Fruits Actually Adapt Themselves to Attract the Animals That Eat Them, and It Makes a Lot of Sense
AMBOVOMBE, MADAGASCAR - MAY 23: Wild ring-tailed lemurs eat bananas in a compound belonging to an aid agency, on May 23, 2017 in Ambovombe, Madagascar. Lemurs are found only on this island. All types of lemurs are endangered due to destruction of their environment, the capture of babies as pets, and their killing as bush meat. 92% of Madagascar's population live below the poverty line on less than $2 a day. (Photo by Melanie Stetson Freeman/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images)

The power of nature compels you!

Can’t resist that juicy, ripe summer raspberry? It turns out your appetite may not be driving the show — the raspberry plant likely knows exactly what it’s doing.

Almost all fruits have seeds, and they’re designed that way for reproductive purposes; animals eat the fruit, transport the seeds internally, and — eventually — deposit them far and wide, ensuring the continuation of the plant species.


Scientists have long assumed fruits were so attractive to animals due to simple natural selection — the juiciest, most delicious fruits get the most takers. However, two recent studies have indicated that plants themselves could actively be adapting to specific animals’ sense of sight and smell.

One of the reports, published in late September in Biology Letters, compared the evolution of fruit color on plants in a national park in Madagascar, where the primary animals for seed dispersal are red-green colorblind lemurs, and one in Uganda, where the seed dispersers are typically primates and birds with normal vision.

The fruits in Uganda were found to have higher contrast against the leaves in the background in the “red-green and luminance channels,” where the yellow-blue channel was favored in Madagascar — specifically, the scientists believed, to mitigate the visual limitations of the night-hunting lemurs.

“When I first learned that plants, in a way, behaved — that they were actually communicating information to animals — my mind exploded,” Kim Valenta, evolutionary ecologist at Duke University and co-author of the study, toldThe New York Times. “We’re only just beginning to understand how much plants and animals mean to one another, which to me is just a signal that it’s more important to conserve the entire [ecosystem] intact.”

The second study, published in early October in Science Advances, showed that plants that rely on night-hunting colorblind lemurs for seed dispersal actually created more fragrant fruits to overcome the lemurs’ sight disability.

In the past, scientists had assumed fruit with a strong scent was simply an unintended result of chemicals released during the ripening process — not an intentional adaptation to attract seed-dispersing animals.

The Science Advances study, however, showed that fruits that relied primarily on birds for seed dispersal were significantly less scented when ripe.

“The idea was that birds have presumably a lower reliance on their sense of smell and they have really, really good color vision, so they tend to focus on visual cues like food color,” Omer Nevo, evolutionary ecologist at Germany’s Ulm University, one of the study authors, and a colleague of Dr. Valenta’s, told NPR. “And then the expectation is that in these fruits, you would see less pressure on the plants to signal ripeness through the scent of the fruit…. And that’s exactly what we found.”

Nevo and his team discovered that, indeed, for the bird-focused fruit, there was little scent difference between the ripe and unripe versions — indicating that the plants were actively adapting their fruits for their primary seed-dispersal candidates.

"This showed us that this change in the amount and in the chemical that is emitted by fruit in the lemur-dispersed species is not an inevitable byproduct of the fruit-ripening process, it's not something that characterizes all fruits but something that is unique to fruit for whom it would be useful," Nevo said. "Because the animals use the scent."

Summary: Two new studies find that plants can change the color and scent of their fruit to appeal to the animal(s) most likely to eat it and disperse its seeds.

More from News

Ribvar Karimi and Morgan Gardner Karimi
Morgan Karimi/Facebook

Alabama Woman 'Blindsided' After ICE Detains Her Trump-Supporting Iranian Husband

Another day, another MAGA face eaten by a leopard.

The "it wasn't supposed to happen to me" movement claimed two more victims on Sunday, June 22, when Ribvar Karimi was abducted by the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS's) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in a sweep that included 11 Iranians.

Keep ReadingShow less
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Alex Wong/Getty Images

RFK Jr. Admits That Banning Fluoridated Water Will Cause 'More Cavities'—But He's OK With That

Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was criticized after admitting in a Fox News interview with Harris Faulkner that his proposed fluoridated water ban would likely lead people to have more cavities—but defended the move nonetheless.

While fluoride is not federally mandated in drinking water, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had long recommended its inclusion. Fluoride helps prevent cavities by strengthening enamel, and numerous studies have shown that fluoridated water reduces tooth decay in both children and adults.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Jesse Watters discussing Zohran Mamdani
Fox News

Jesse Watters Dragged After Trying To Give Mamdani A Scary Nickname That's Actually Kind Of Epic

Fox News personality Jesse Watters was widely mocked after he tried to give New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani a scary nickname in the vein of Conan the Destroyer—only for it to backfire considerably.

Watters is the latest member of the GOP to lash out at Mamdani, a democratic socialist who handily defeated former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary last week.

Keep ReadingShow less
A man sitting on a couch
man sitting on sofa
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

People Sound Off On What Caused Them To Fire Their Therapist

We thankfully live in a world where there's no longer a stigma surrounding therapy.

Some people simply need professional help to deal with ongoing problems or even to get through the day.

Keep ReadingShow less
Andy Ogles; Zohran Mamdani
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images (left and right)

MAGA Rep Slammed After Calling For Mamdani To Be Stripped Of His Citizenship And Deported Over Rap Lyric

Tennessee Republican Andy Ogles was called out after he shared a letter he sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi urging her to denaturalize and deport New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani over a lyric in a rap song Mamdani released in 2017.

Mamdani ran a campaign centered around economic populism, arguing that the city, a global financial center, has grown unaffordable for everyday residents, citing soaring rents and grocery prices, and outlining policies aimed at reducing the cost of living.

Keep ReadingShow less