Goats are often seen climbing rocks, but they are also skilled tree climbers, especially in arid regions where food is scarce. In places like southwestern Morocco, where rainfall is minimal, goats climb the argan tree to forage for leaves and seasonal fruits. During autumn, when other vegetation is lacking, they spend 74% of their foraging time “treetop grazing.” Herders even assist young goats in learning to climb and prune trees to make it easier. In Morocco, it’s common to see groups of goats climbing thorny argan trees up to 10 meters tall. The research aimed to investigate whether goats help disperse argan seeds by regurgitating the nuts while ruminating.
Regurgitating and spitting out seeds from the cud is an important form of seed dispersal called endozoochory, which typically involves animals ingesting fruits, transporting seeds in their bodies, and later releasing them through regurgitation or defecation. For plants, this mechanism offers significant reproductive benefits by spreading seeds far from the maternal plant, increasing the likelihood of survival for seeds and seedlings. While most research on endozoochory focuses on seeds dispersed via dung, fewer studies have considered the potential role of seeds that are spat out during rumination. Some earlier studies, particularly in tropical regions, have noted that ruminants, like white-tailed deer, regurgitate seeds like nuts, which never reach the lower digestive tract. This form of seed dispersal by domestic goats, which has been largely overlooked, could potentially be common among other ruminants, both domestic and wild.
‘