The Amazon’s gargantuan gardeners: manatees
- RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT
The aquatic mammals disperse seeds of their favourite foods as they migrate, according to a serendipitous study of their poo.
No gardening tools needed: Amazonian manatees’ poo helps to keep their home green and lush. Credit: Doug Perrine/Nature Picture Library
Lake Amanã in the Brazilian Amazon is known as ‘the home of the manatee’, but a better sobriquet might be ‘the manatee’s garden’, according to research on how the gentle mammal’s poo shapes the local ecosystem 1 .
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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-02874-9
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