University of Alberta researchers participated in a unique international study using fake caterpillars to reveal the world’s primary insect predation locations.
The little green plasticine caterpillars were used to tempt insect-eating predators in the study of global feeding patterns.
U of A professor David Hick was one the researchers involved in the work.
“It was great and it was simple. We were able to show that in the equatorial regions and at lower elevations, predation rates are much higher than compared to the polar regions or the tops of mountains,” Hick said.
“That may not seem like a big surprise but we didn’t have really good experimental evidence to show that that was the case.”
Predation is when one specie attacks another.
Researchers at 31 sites – from the Arctic circle to Australia – glued the little green plasticine caterpillars to plants outdoors. The study spanned six continents and elevations from zero to 2,100 metres above sea level.
“You could see little pincer holes in the plasticine, or birds and you could see the beak marks, or little small mammals would come along and chew them all up and that gave us an indication of how and which predators were active in different parts of the world,” Hick said.
Two of the 31 locations used in the study were in Canada. One was near Cooking Lake, Alta, while the other was in the Yukon.
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