Despite being the flagship species of the Ryukyu Archipelago, little is known about the ecology of the Amami rabbit because it is a rare, nocturnal animal that inhabits dense forests on two subtropical islands. The findings of the study will be published on January 23, 2023, in the journal Ecology.

Seed dispersal is an essential process for the evolution and ecology of terrestrial plants, making discoveries of uncommon seed dispersal agents particularly interesting. Researchers had previously been puzzled about how the seeds of the non-photosynthetic, mushroom-like Balanophora plants, which have some of the smallest fruits among angiosperms, were dispersed. Suetsugu and Hashiwaki observed feeding marks on Balanophora yuwanensis plants on Amami-Oshima Island in Japan, which they suspected were made by the Amami rabbit.

To investigate this hypothesis, Suetsugu a Hashiwaki conducted a study in the understory of dense forests on Amami-Oshima. Using infrared-triggered cameras, they observed that the Amami rabbit was the main consumer of B. yuwanensis fruit.

In addition, all Amami rabbit fecal samples collected in the field contained at least some viable B. yuwanensis seeds, providing novel evidence of the illusive rabbit species' role as a seed dispersal agent. Balanophora yuwanensis is a host-specific obligate parasite, which means that efficient seed transportation likely requires the seed to be deposited near the roots of a compatible host. The Amami rabbit may facilitate this through digging and defecating underground in burrows.