# Coconuts and migration!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coconuts-and-migration/815945
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 12, 2018, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coconuts-and-migration/815945 "2018-06-12T04:47:54Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2018, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coconuts-and-migration/815945/41 "2018-06-13T00:33:43Z")
Having lived many years on the windward coast of a tropical island I have seen several coconuts, and a couple of trees, wash up during storms. Not hard to imagine that at least some of the coconuts could wash high enough up the beach and be covered by enough sand so as to be able to sprout nicely. And so many other drift seeds would wash up that beachcombers could easily find them.
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### Author:  [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2018, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coconuts-and-migration/815945/42 "2018-06-13T12:52:27Z")
I remain stunned that this thread _wasn’t_ started by watching The Holy Grail. I’m amazed that coconut migration could possibly come up separate from that movie. The world is a strange place.
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### Author:  [@MoonMoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoonMoon)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2018, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coconuts-and-migration/815945/43 "2018-06-13T13:12:42Z")
> [@Wolf333](#):
>
> If you have Netflix, there is a BBC documentary called “South Pacific” that goes into this. You also get the bonus of hearing Benedict Cumberbatch mispronounce penguins. Like, every time he says it.
Here he is on Graham Norton, gamely taking his lumps (penguin talk starts at 3:28): [“pengwings”](https://youtu.be/9GHPNKUMf70)
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2018, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coconuts-and-migration/815945/44 "2018-06-13T13:20:00Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> Yes, they do. The only question is how far apart the islands can be.
I imagine that’s going to be one of those things where the actual success rate never actually tails right off to zero - variables such as a favourable current, a slightly more durable coconut, etc can probably collide in such way to produce some extraordinary outliers.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2018, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coconuts-and-migration/815945/45 "2018-06-13T13:48:34Z")
> [@MoonMoon](#):
>
> Here he is on Graham Norton, gamely taking his lumps (penguin talk starts at 3:28): [“pengwings”](https://youtu.be/9GHPNKUMf70)
Maybe [this is](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pingwings) [to blame](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siSmrZDtpts).
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2018, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coconuts-and-migration/815945/46 "2018-06-13T14:14:18Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> Under natural conditions, coconut palms are not found away from the immediate area of an ocean beach. They are highly adapted to spread between islands and along coasts by floating. Since the heavy seeds fall directly under the tree, they can’t spread inland or uphill very easily.
>
> Basically, any coconut tree any distance from the shore has been planted there by humans (or is descended from one planted there earlier).
It did occur to me that the presence of coconuts somewhat inland could be due to flooding from storms or tsunamis. They would still would not be found much higher than sea level though.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2018, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coconuts-and-migration/815945/47 "2018-06-13T14:49:09Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> Under natural conditions, coconut palms are not found away from the immediate area of an ocean beach. They are highly adapted to spread between islands and along coasts by floating. Since the heavy seeds fall directly under the tree, they can’t spread inland or uphill very easily.
>
> Basically, any coconut tree any distance from the shore has been planted there by humans (or is descended from one planted there earlier).
[Except maybe](https://www.alamy.com/a-cache-of-items-found-near-the-burrow-of-a-coconut-crab-also-known-as-a-robber-crab-image283007000.html)?
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2018, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coconuts-and-migration/815945/48 "2018-06-13T15:30:04Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> [Except maybe](https://www.alamy.com/a-cache-of-items-found-near-the-burrow-of-a-coconut-crab-also-known-as-a-robber-crab-image283007000.html)?
I didn’t specify exactly what “any distance” was, and none of the items in that cache are coconuts capable of germination. Big as they are, coconut crabs don’t drag coconuts long distances inland.
But I’ll concede that a coconut could occasionally be dragged a short distance inland by an animal such as a coconut crab or a monkey. Let’s just say that in general coconut trees found inland didn’t originate from nuts dropped near that spot by another tree.
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### Author:  [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2018, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coconuts-and-migration/815945/49 "2018-06-13T15:38:19Z")
> [@Colibri](#):
>
> But I’ll concede that a coconut could occasionally be dragged a short distance inland by an animal such as a coconut crab or a monkey.
And swallows, right?
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### Author:  [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2018, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coconuts-and-migration/815945/50 "2018-06-13T15:55:46Z")
African or European swallows?
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2018, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coconuts-and-migration/815945/51 "2018-06-13T16:18:58Z")
> [@TriPolar](#):
>
> It did occur to me that the presence of coconuts somewhat inland could be due to flooding from storms or tsunamis. They would still would not be found much higher than sea level though.
I read a really interesting journal in a book called ‘Plant Hunting for Kew’ about some botanists who went off in search of a forest species of coconut which was found inland and in mountainous areas - the fruits were considerably smaller than coastal coconut species, but still too large to be carried uphill by any of the native fauna of the region - they hypothesised that the current distribution of the plant must have been shaped by a now-extinct large bird (elephant bird or something like that)
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### Author:  [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)
#### Post date: [June 13, 2018, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coconuts-and-migration/815945/52 "2018-06-13T16:28:49Z")
> [@Turek](#):
>
> And swallows, right?
Not if the monkey carries it in it’s mouth & then forcibly ejects it?
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