Silly Little Country

Is This Talent or What?

Look at the pictures first.
I am sure I once knew what an agouti was, likely in high school, when I knew so much more than I do now. But I am sure I did not know this:

One of the few animals capable of breaking open the pods of the Brazil nut tree, they have a symbiotic relationship with the tree.

I gave up years ago on Brazil nuts because even with all the tooling I could find for opening the pods, I had a low success rate. I have committed never to getting a cat, but maybe a community of agoutis in the basement could provide me a good supply of the actual nuts, if I provided them a place to bury nuts. Then they could have a symbiotic relationship with me. I would supply them pods from the local bulk foods store.
The sure look cute. This jumping skill also sounds interesting. I assume its to deal with some predator, but maybe that is just a just-so story.

posted by Alan Adamson @ 10:47 AM