BAMBOO
FRUITS - AGRICULTURE
News: Sweet, not protein, in bamboo fruits triggers rat boom: study
What's
in the news?
● A study spanning 13 years has shed interesting light on flowering in Melocanna baccifera, a tropical bamboo species that has long fascinated researchers for its association with the occurrence of ‘bamboo death,’ ‘rat floods’ and famines in northeast India.
Key
takeaways:
Rat floods: Among other things, researchers detected a correlation between the sugar content in the fruit of Melocanna baccifera and the frenzied feeding and population boom in rats during ‘Mautam’, the cyclical, mass bamboo flowering that occurs once in 48 years.
Melocanna baccifera:
●
It is one of two bamboo species belonging
to the Melocanna genus.
●
It is the largest fruit-producing bamboo.
●
It grows up to 10–25 m tall.
●
It is native
to Bangladesh, Myanmar, India, and Thailand.
● It is an invasive species that can occupy large areas due to its long and vigorous rhizomes and, in flowering, for its fruits that are easy to germinate.
How
it is linked with famine?
●
Called ‘Muli’ in northeast India, Melocanna baccifera is the largest
fruit-producing bamboo and is native to the northeast India-Myanmar region.
●
During its gregarious flowering, the bamboo produces large fruits which draw
animal visitors/predators. Of these, black rats greatly relish the fleshy,
berry-like fruit.
●
During this period, they also multiply
rapidly, a phenomenon dubbed as ‘rat flood.’
● Once the fruits are gone, they start devouring standing crops, causing famines that have claimed thousands of human lives.
Why
do rats get attracted to the fruits produced by Melocanna baccifera?
●
Earlier, it was presumed that ‘high
protein in fruits/seeds’ was attracting the rats.
●
However, a study in 2016 has found that
the fruit actually contains very little protein. The predation is mainly due to
the high content of sugar.