Do Tree-Climbing Goats Help Plant New Trees?
Goats eat a lot of argan tree fruit. But its seeds are big. A study looks at the manner of expulsion: poop or spit. And yes, it does matter when it comes to new tree growth.
Do trees grow from seeds that goats eat and later expel?
That is a question that has long bedeviled ecologists.
Let's say it's a small seed. The goat will swallow it, poop it out and a tree could sprout.
But what if it's a sizable seed? It probably wouldn't make it through the goat's digestive tract intact. And so ... no tree.
Unless ... the goat spit out the seed instead of pooping it out.
A new study probes
