He soon finds that the musky rat kangaroo rely almost entirely on a diet of rainforest fruits, but rainforest fruits are seasonal, Andrew wonders what happens to the musky rat-kangaroos when fruit is scarce. Near the end of the fruiting season the young scientist witnesses something quite unexpected. He soon realises he is observing behaviour previously unknown in kangaroos. Andrew watched the musky rat-kangaroo pick up some fruit then carry it into the forest where, to his astonishment, it buries it beneath the leaf litter. This is known as scatterhoarding, it s been recorded in rainforests throughout the world but never before in Australia.
Mammals scatterhoard to store food for retrieval during lean times.