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

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.