The donne鈥� sali chilli is the hottest pepper in the West Pacific鈥檚 Mariana Islands. It features prominently in the local cuisine and is beloved by the local people. But the pepper is facing an unexpected danger: snakes.
The donne鈥� sali chilli is a variant of , the species that also gives us Tabasco chilli. It was probably introduced to the Mariana Islands in the 17th century. Nowadays it grows wild in the understory.
Birds were thought to be the main consumers of the chilli鈥檚 fruits, since they don鈥檛 feel its spicy capsaicin compounds. Indeed, the name donne鈥� sali is an indigenous Chamorro term referring to the 鈥渟ali bird鈥� or Micronesian starling ().
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But nobody had actually tested this, until of the University of California, Santa Cruz went to the Marianas to investigate.
Egerer and her team began by hunting down wild donne鈥� sali plants on the archipelago. They found few on the island of Guam, but many on Tinian and Saipan.
Camera footage of the plants on Saipan revealed that sali birds were indeed the main consumers. What鈥檚 more, the birds help disperse the plants鈥� seeds. In captive feeding experiments, seeds that had been eaten and excreted sprouted sooner and more often than those from whole fruits.
The results help explain the near absence of donne鈥� sali on Guam. The island鈥檚 native forest birds have been almost wiped out by invasive brown tree snakes (). The snakes have since been sighted on Rota and Tinian, and there may be a small population on Saipan.
Egerer found that the donne鈥� sali chilli is important to the people of the Marianas. Interviews with people living on Saipan revealed that many rely on it for financial stability, as well as valuing its use in food.
鈥淎 lot of studies may show the ecology of a mutualism, but they may not necessarily show how it鈥檚 important for people,鈥� Egerer says. 鈥淗aving both of those conversations at once is really important for the conservation of biodiversity.鈥�
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