Nicholas Cage rooter may have already embark on one man ’s journeying in search of his truffle hunting pig when watching the moviePig . If you enjoyed the film , the good newsworthiness is there ’s potentiality for a sequel only this time titled Birds , as it ’s been discovered that two ground - dwell snort metal money in Patagonia are skillful truffle hunters . Their fungus foraging acquisition make them the first non - mammalian species known to search for earth-ball , a feat publish in the journalCurrent Biology .
The charming notice was something of a felicitous accident as researchers on the new study stumbled upon the bird ’ unusual behavior while searching for truffles themselves in Chile . The two that appeared to show special interest in the research worker were the chucao tapaculos ( Scelorchilus rubecula ) and black - throated huet - huets(Pteroptochos tarnii ) .
“ When you search for earthnut you carefully move the leaf litter to see the dirt underneath and this slightly disturbs the leafage bedding material and soil , ” explained discipline source and Assistant Professor at the University of Florida Matthew E Smith to IFLScience .
“ In one distant forest in southern Chile ( where the birds are not very used to seeing mass and are untroubled ) , the bird actually followed us through the timberland , and they visit the sites where we disturbed the soil and leaf bedding . This was very surprising ! It paint a picture that they were curious about what we might be research for on the timberland floor . ”
You may be conversant with truffles in the bod of rich oil or eat into onto pasta , but there are a wide range of truffle out in nature , not all of them so fancy , characterized by the fact they grow underground . Their subterranean life-style means they ’re reliant on fauna run through them and spreading their spore such as pigs , Sus scrofa , and , plainly , dame . The ecological part these brute play is a important one , as the roots of many tree species benefit from a symbiotic relationship in which both parties deal nutrients , helping to keep the woods happy and healthy .
The researchers had reason to distrust the birds were concerned in their truffle lookup , but were the birds really eat the spoils ?
“ Several other observations were also quite intriguing , ” explained Smith . “ These include finding truffles and other fungus kingdom with plenty gull in them where chick had intelligibly been feed , and the reflection that some of the truffles in the Patagonian forests wait almost identical to fruit that co - come about in the same wood . This is not something that I have seen anywhere else in the world , even after accumulate truffles in at least six other land on three continents ! ”
Sure enough , DNA analyses of the dung of chucao tapaculos and black - throated huet - huets tested irrefutable for truffles in 42 percent and 38 percent of samples for each metal money , respectively . Zooming in on the poop with the help of fluorescent microscopy also enabled the researchers to confirm that the droppings contained viable spores , proving that these lilliputian birds were indeed have a big impact on the cloak-and-dagger sex biography of truffles .
The team go for to return to the shuttle and the as - of - yet unidentified ( scientifically speaking ) truffle species they discover during their hunting , to glean a good understanding of the behavior and investigate if the fungus in these regions has evolved any trait to be peculiarly appealing to birds .
