SCIENCEglobal
Nest-building birds help disperse cotton further than wind, study suggests
Single source
Updated 2 hours ago
First seen March 18, 2026 07:17:28Stay on top of this story
Follow the names and topics behind it.
Add this story's key topics to your watchlist so LyscoNews can highlight related developments and future matches.
Create a free account to sync your watchlist, saved stories, and alerts across devices.
Quick Summary
Birds play a larger role in the dispersal of wild cotton than previously assumed. This is shown by a study in the journal Oikos, carried out in southern Africa. Researchers discovered that birds actively collect wild cotton as nesting material and in doing so move seeds over distances of more than a kilometer. Cotton fibers were long seen as something that evolved to disperse seeds by wind, but birds also take them to their nests and in this way help disperse the seeds much further.