New York Times Feature: Plants’ two-way protection plan

By Sindya N. Bhanoo - Oct. 16, 2014

Carnivores eat herbivores, and herbivores eat plants. So how do plants manage to thrive?

Either by growing prickly thorns or by putting down roots in areas where carnivores are more likely to roam, researchers report in the current issue of the journal Science.

The scientists studied acacia trees in Kenya and the antelopes called impalas that eat them, along with the predators that eat the antelopes.

The impalas feast on two species of acacia trees in the savanna. One is full of thorns; the other is not.

Impalas generally prefer to eat the less thorny plants, said an author of the study, Adam T. Ford, an ecologist at the University of British Columbia.

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