Glossary Details – Lecythidaceae

Glossary Details:

Title: Red-rumped agout removing seeds from a Brazil nut fruit. Painting by M. Rothman.

Description: Red-rumped agouti (Dasyprocta leporina) removing seeds from a Brazil nut fruit. The agouti eats some of the seeds and buries the remaining seeds in a cache to be used for future consumption. Those seeds that are forgotten are the ones that germinate to form the next generation of trees.

Term:

Scatter-hoarding

Definition:

A type of secondary seed dispersal in which some of the diaspores are carried away and intentionally buried or stored (cached) by scatter-hording animals such as agoutis (Dasyprocta spp.) while the other diaspores are eaten and digested, e.g., the dispersal of Brazil nut seeds by agoutis. Same as dysozoochorous.