Many plants use fruit to help spread their seeds. Fruit is brightly-colored and attracts birds and some mammals such as primates who eat the fruit and later deposit the seeds in their droppings, which provides added fertilizer for the seeds. Elephants will eat fruit that has fallen to the ground and can carry it many miles in their stomachs. Squirrels eat and store nuts; birds and bears eat berries; monkeys eat figs and other fruits; mice eat grass seeds, all helping different plants to get their seeds into new places. In all these cases, the plant gives the animal a reward of food for helping to spread its seeds, but sometimes a plant uses an animal without giving them anything in return.

Instead of fruit, some plants use hooks or spines to help the seed attach to an animal’s fur or feathers. The seeds are then carried by the animal for a large distance before eventually falling off.