Biologists have discovered animals that grow food like humans

Biologists have found that humans are not the only mammals that are engaged in agriculture. Southeastern gophers, small North American rodents that have learned to cultivate crops, turn their burrows into a network of tunnels with underground vegetable gardens.

StudyRoot cropping by pocket gophers this appeared in the journal Current Biology, where it is said that animals absolutely understand what they are doing. Scientists from the University of Florida came to this conclusion when they studied gopher burrows.

Often the roots of the longleaf pine that these animals feed on grow right into their burrows. And then the rodents do everything to cultivate their future food: they increase the network of tunnels for better aeration, use their excrement as fertilizer, and protect their burrows from relatives.

Researchers believethat such behavior can be considered a primitive form of agriculture.

The scientists also added that ants, beetles and termites also farm. But among mammals, gophers are the first known farmers after humans.