Ripe Pepos of Chinese Cucumber Hanging from Defoliated Trees in Snowy Countryside of Japan

Many ripe fruits (pepos) of Chinese cucumber (Trichosanthes kirilowii var. japonica, family Cucurbitaceae) were still hanging from dead vines in the defoliated trees in the windbreak forest of Japanese red-cedar (Cryptomeria japonica, family Cupressaceae). You can see that some of yellow pepos had been pecked by a bird. Captured in the cloudy late-morning (around 11:25 AM) of mid-February 2025 in Japan. The pepos become green to yellow as they ripen in autumn to attract fruit-eating birds and animals. Interestingly, there had been a communal latrine of Japanese raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes viverrinus, family Canidae) on the forest floor nearby. The seeds of Chinese cucumbers are known to be dispersed by animals, including Japanese raccoon dogs, after feeding on the ripe pepo (endozoochory). If so, you can find undigested seeds of the Chinese cucumber in the dung of Japanese raccoon dogs. In fact, I had found fallen ripe pepos with teeth marks at this very site in early-December 2024. (See an article of my blog for the photos. https://sigma-nature-vlog.blogspot.com/2026/04/blog-post_40.html ) I suspect that they were probably leftovers by Japanese monkeys (aka snow monkey; Macaca fuscata fuscata, family Cercopithecidae). For a full story (text in Japanese); https://sigma-nature-vlog.blogspot.com/2026/05/blog-post_09.html