Agouti (Dasyprocta punctata) Food Behavioral Ecology at Wilson Botanical Garden, Costa Rica

Due to their scatterhoarding behavior, agoutis play an important role as seed dispersers in forests.  I wanted to better understand agouti food behavior ecology by analyzing the question, what species of plants do agouti forage, eat, and scatterhoard within Wilson Botanical Garden at Las Cruces Biological Research Station?  In my study, agouti were observed in ten minute intervals during designated time periods within GPS plotted viewsheds on a daily basis.  Walking transects and census viewshed observations were also conducted to better determine how many agoutis were in Wilson Botanical Garden.  For fruit and seed information, interviews with Las Cruces’ taxonomist and belt transects were conducted to determine the fruits and seeds available to agouti within Wilson Botanical Garden as well as their distribution and density, respectively.  Lastly, camera traps were set up within viewsheds in areas where agouti were observed eating or foraging.  Although results are still pending further analysis, my data currently shows that a large variety of fruits and seeds are available at Wilson Botanical Garden but agouti may not be eating, foraging, and scatterhoarding all that is available.  The results of this study are important to the managers of Las Cruces Biological Research Station because it provides a better understanding of agouti food behavior ecology and how their food behavior contributes to the maintenance of Wilson Botanical Garden.  The results of this research study can potentially be applied beyond Las Cruces to show the importance of agoutis to ecological systems in Central America as seed dispersing agents.