LIFE SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -Succulent fruits attract animals because they are brightly coloured, juicy and nutritious. When eaten, the seed pass through animal’s faeces, which may be a long way from the parent plant. The faeces provides nutrients when the seeds germinate.

Detailed explanation-2: -Birds and mammals are the most important seed dispersers, but a wide variety of other animals, including turtles, fish, and insects (e.g. tree wētā and scree wētā), can transport viable seeds.

Detailed explanation-3: -Dispersal may occur by a number of different means, including gravity (basically, a simple means of dispersal involving the seed falling and potentially rolling downslope a short distance), wind, water, animals, and ballistic dispersal (adaptations that launch seeds from the fruit).

Detailed explanation-4: -Examples include mangoes, guavas, breadfruit, carob, and several fig species. In South Africa, a desert melon (Cucumis humifructus) participates in a symbiotic relationship with aardvarks-the animals eat the fruit for its water content and bury their own dung, which contains the seeds, near their burrows.