Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T23:24:58.835Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fruiting and frugivores at a strangler fig in the tropical rain forest of Los Tuxtlas, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

Rosamond Coates-Estrada  and
Alejandro Estrada
Rosamond Coates-Estrada
Affiliation:
Estación de Biología Los Tuxtlas, Instituto de Biología-UNAM Apartado Postal 176, San Andrés Tuxtla, Veracruz, México
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Diurnal and nocturnal censuses were conducted on animal visitors at a single strangler Ficus aff. cotinifolia (H.B.K.) tree during the entire period of ripe fruit availability. Fruit fall to the ground was measured with fruit traps, and chemical analyses were conducted on the figs. Fourteen species of birds, four species of nonvolant mammals and two species of bats consumed the figs. Of the total number of ripe figs accounted for during the sampling period (N= 1.9 X 105), 42% fell to the ground, 45% were removed by mammals and 13% by birds. Frugivores such as the howling monkey Alouatta palliata, the cacomistle Bassariscus sumichrasti, the keel-billed toucan Ramphastos sulphuratus and fruit-eating bats removed the largest amounts of figs from the tree and deposited seeds of 13 plant species other than figs below the tree crown.

Resumen

Se llevaron a cabo censos diurnos y nocturnos de los animates que visitaron un higo estrangulador, Ficus aff. cotinifolia (H.B.K) durante el periódo completo de disponibilidad de higos maduros. La lluvia de higos bajo la sombra de la copa del árbol se medió por medio de trampas de colecta de frutos y muestras de los higos fueron sometidas a análisis quimicos. Catorce especies de aves, cuatro especies de mamiferos no voladores y dos especies de murcielagos fueron obscrvados alimentandose de los higos en la copa. Del total de higos contados durante el periódo de frutación (N= 1.9 X 105), 42% cayeron al suelo, 45% fueron removidos por mamiferos y 13% por aves. Frugivoros como el mono alluador (Alouatta palliata), el cacomixtle (Bassariscus sumichrasti), el tucàn (Ramphastos sulphuratus) y murcielagos consumidores de frutos retiraron la mayor cantidad de higos durante sus visitas al àrbol y depositaron las semillas de 13 especies de plantas bajo la sombra de la copa.

Keywords

FicusfrugivoryMéxicoseed dispersaltropical rain forest
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 2 , Issue 4 , November 1986 , pp. 349 - 357
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

LITERATURE CITED

August, P. 1981. Fig consumption and seed dispersal by Artibeus jamaicensis in the llanos of Vene-zuela. Biotropica 13:70–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonaccorso, F. J. 1979. Foraging and reproductive ecology in a Panamanian bat community. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum Biological Sciences 24:59–408.Google Scholar
Bonaccorso, F. J., Glanz, W. G. & Sandford, C. M. 1980. Feeding assemblages at fruiting Dipteryx panamensis (Papilionaceae) trees in Panama: seed predation, dispersal and parasitism. Revista de Biologia Tropical 28:61–72.Google Scholar
Breitwisch, R. 1983. Frugjvores at a fruiting Ficus vine in a southern Cameroon tropical rain forest. Biotropica 15:125–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Croat, T. 1978. Flora of Barro Colorado Island. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.960 pp.Google Scholar
Estrada, A. & Coates-Estrada, R. 1984. Fruit-eating and seed dispersal by howling monkeys (Alouatta palliata) in the tropical rain forest of Los Tuxtlas, Mexico. American Journal of Primatology 6:77–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Estrada, A. & Coates-Estrada, R. 1985. A preliminary study of resource overlap between howling monkeys (Alouatta palliata) and other arboreal mammals in the tropical rain forest of Los Tuxtlas, Mexico. American Journal of Primatology 9:27–37.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Estrada, A. & Coates-Estrada, R. 1986. Frugivory in howling monkeys (Alouatta palliata) at Los Tuxtlas: seed dispersal and fate of seeds. Pp. 93–104 in Estrada, A. & Fleming, T. H. (eds). Frugivores and seed dispersal Dr W. Junk Publishers, The Hague. 392 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fleming, T. H. & Heithaus, E. R. 1981. Frugivorous bats, seed shadows, and the structure of tropical forests. Biotropica 13:45–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flores, J. A. M. 1981. Bromatologia animal (2nd edition). Editorial Limusa, Mexico City, Mexico. 930 pp.Google Scholar
Foster, R. 1982. The seasonal rhythm of fruit fall on Barro Colorado Island. Pp. 151–172 in Leigh, E. G., Rand, A. S. & Windsor, D. M. (eds). The ecology of a tropical forest: seasonal rhythms and long term changes. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC. 468 pp.Google Scholar
Frankie, G. W., Baker, H. G., Opler, P. A. 1974. Comparative phenological studies of trees in tropical wet and dry forests in the lowlands of Costa Rica. Journal of Ecology 63:881–919.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, L. E. 1980. Food web organization and the conservation of neotropical diversity. Pp. 11–33 in Soulé, M. E. & Wilcox, B. A. (eds). Conservation biology: an evolutionary-ecological perspective. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, Mass. 512 pp.Google Scholar
Herrera, C. M. 1985. Determinants of plant-animal coevolution: the case of mutualistic dispersal of seeds by vertebrates. Oikos 44:132–141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howe, H. F. 1984. Implications of seed dispersal by animals for tropical reserve management. Biological Conservation 30:261–281.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janzen, D. H. 1979a. How to be a fig. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 10:13–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Janzen, D. H. 1979b. How many babies do figs pay for babies? Biotropica 11:48–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jordano, P. 1983. Fig-seed predation and dispersal by birds. Biotropica 15:38–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leighton, M. & Leighton, D. R. 1983. Vertebrate responses to fruiting seasonality within a Bornean rain forest. Pp. 181–196 in Sutton, S. L., Whitmore, T. C. & Chadwick, A. C. (eds). Tropical rain forest: ecology and management. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford. 498 pp.Google Scholar
Milton, K. 1980. The foraging strategy of howler monkeys: a study in primate economics. Columbia niversity Press, New York, NY. 165 pp.Google Scholar
Milton, K., Windsor, D. M., Morrison, D. W. & Estribi, M. A. 1983. Fruiting phenologies of wo neotropical Ficus species. Ecology 63:72–762.Google Scholar
Miranda, F. & Hernandez, E. 1963. Los tipos de vegetación de México y su clasificación. Boletín de la Sociedad Botànica de México 29:29–129.Google Scholar
Morrison, D. W. 1978. Foraging ecology and energetics of the frugivorous bat Artebeus jamaicensis. Ecology 59:716–723.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrison, D. W. 1980. Efficiency of food utilization by fruit bats. Oecologia 45:270–273.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Slater, J. A. 1972. Lyaegid bugs (Hemiptera:Lyaegidae) as seed predators of figs. Biotropica 4:145–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wheelwright, N. T., Haber, W. A., Murray, K. G. & Guindon, C. 1984. Tropical fruit-eating birds and their food plants: a survey of a Costa Rican lower montane forest. Biotropica 16:173–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar