Tropical forests conjure fears of venomous snakes, stinging insects, and deadly poison dart frogs, but those are just the obvious risks. Imagine finding yourself suddenly bombarded with six-inch, four-pound projectiles falling at fifty miles per hour. These mystery missiles are the fruit of the Brazil nut tree, and hanging out under one at the wrong time poses real danger. The intact fruits are huge, heavy, and tough, and only the agouti, with its sharp rodent teeth, can open them. The dozen-plus nuts inside (technically seeds) are more than one meal, so they bury the leftovers, sewing a new crop of Brazil nut trees that will rise back to the rainforest canopy in another hundred years. The husks the agouti leaves behind fill with water, becoming homes for other species, including the poison dart frog’s tadpoles.
CENTRAL AMERICAN AGOUTI (Dasyprocta punctata)