Wolves and foxes may be helping plants spread across Sahara, study finds

Deep in the Sahara Desert, where rain is rare and plants struggle to spread, an unlikely desert gardener may be at work. Researchers who sifted through hundreds of carnivore droppings found intact seeds from eight different plant species, suggesting that wolves and foxes may help desert vegetation spread across the landscape. If you have ever wondered how shrubs and palms reach new ground in such harsh country, the answer may be hiding in what predators leave behind. This article explains what scientists discovered, which animals favoured which fruits, and why those scattered seeds could matter for the fragile desert ecosystems.How scientists searched 597 carnivore dropping samples in the Sahara Desert for hidden plant seedsA research team including Inmaculada Cancio, José María Gil-Sánchez, Emilio Virgós and others set out to learn whether meat-eating mammals can move plant seeds across one of the most significant hyper-arid regions on Earth.