New Delhi, (PTI) Large herbivores can protect local nature by eating and trampling on biodiversity-threatening invasive plant species, according to a study conducted in India.
The resaerchers from the Wildlife Institute of India in Uttarakhand and Aarhus University in Denmark found that native plants have evolved in such a way that they can withstand brutal treatment from species of herbivores they have co-existed with for millennia, while invasive plants usually cannot.
The study, published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, shows great potential for using large herbivores as a natural weapon to prevent invasive plants from out-competing native species.
