Nature protects and balances its resources by its own, with one of its species getting extinct being replaced by another. This naturally occurring conservation partnership is clearly revealed by the new finding on the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean.
Here a brilliant green lizard and a palm-like shrub are found to be helping to save a rare flowering plant from extinction!
The lizard species — the blue-tailed day gecko seems to be in an unusual role, according to the researchers surprised by their finding. The already threatened Trochetia flower is interestingly being pollinated by the lizard.
And the shrubby palm-like Pandanus plant does its job, by providing a safe haven to the lizard from predators as it performs the pollinations, the new study found. You may argue on the gecko’s being the main pollinator, as several insects also visited the Trochetia flowers.
But, the research team has found that the bugs did not carry much pollen from one blossom to another, making the gecko a key pollinator of the flower.
Study leader Dennis Hansen of the University of Zurich in Switzerland said,
An animal may visit flowers often, eating pollen or nectar, but not provide a good pollination service.
Our study is one of the few to provide evidence that lizards can indeed be efficient pollinators.
So, this natural conservation partnership is a clear message to man to do a little good to Nature by handing over its conservation responsibilities to the nature itself. It is perhaps its best administrator.