Govind Tekale
A wild animal related to llamas is helping bring life back to barren mountain areas in South America through a simple activity – going to the bathroom in the same spots.
These animals, called vicuñas, live high in the Andes Mountains. As climate change melts the glaciers there, they leave behind rocky ground where nothing grows. But vicuñas are changing that by creating natural fertilizer deposits.
“It’s interesting to see how these animals can transfer nutrients to new ecosystem that is very nutrient poor,” says Cliff Bueno de Mesquita, a scientist studying this at the University of Colorado Boulder.
When vicuñas use the same spots as bathrooms – scientists call these “latrines” – they create super-rich soil. Tests show these bathroom spots contain 62% organic matter, while nearby areas have just 1.5%. These nutrients help plants grow much like fertilizer helps a garden thrive.
These nutrient-rich spots do more than just help plants grow. Hidden cameras showed animals never seen before at these heights, including large cats called pumas, visiting these green patches. The vicuñas themselves come back to eat the plants growing there.
The numbers behind climate change tell a worrying story. Mountain ice is melting faster than ever – about 267 billion tons each year. Without this ice, nearly a quarter of the world’s population could face water shortages, as many communities rely on melting mountain ice for their water supply.
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Steven Schmidt has spent 20 years studying how life returns to areas where ice has melted in the Andes Mountains. His team found that vicuña droppings create protected spots where plants can grow despite freezing temperatures every night.
“The vicuñas are probably helping some alpine organisms, but we can’t assume they’ll all be okay, because in Earth’s history, we’ve never seen climate change happen at this speed,” says Bueno de Mesquita.
While these animals are speeding up nature’s recovery – accelerating the timeline for plants to colonize barren ground by over a century – the ice is melting too quickly for many species to adapt. This discovery shows how animals can help heal damaged environments, but also warns us that nature needs more time to adjust to our changing climate.
