Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-24hb2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T14:10:52.689Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Seed dispersal and defecation patterns of Cebus capucinus and Alouatta palliata: consequences for seed dispersal effectiveness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2004

Elisabet V. Wehncke
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, UNAM, A.P. 70-275, México D.F. 04510, México
Catherine Numa Valdez
Affiliation:
Centro IberoAmericano de la Biodiversidad (CIBIO), Universidad de Alicante, E-03080 Alicante, Spain
César A. Domínguez
Affiliation:
Departamento de Ecología Evolutiva, Instituto de Ecología, UNAM, A.P. 70-275, México D.F. 04510, México

Abstract

Primates are primary seed dispersers for many tropical tree species. Different species of primates vary considerably in ranging and feeding behaviour, seed processing, and in seed defecation patterns. Here we compare the role of two arboreal primate species, howlers (Alouatta palliata), and white-faced monkeys (Cebus capucinus) as seed dispersers in a tropical dry forest in Costa Rica. We found that Cebus produce smaller defecations, spend shorter times feeding per tree, have longer seed dispersal distances, and produce a more scattered pattern of seed deposition in the forest than Alouatta. In addition, Cebus moved more frequently between trees, and consumed fruits of more species than Alouatta. We examined the consequences of the contrasting defecation patterns produced by Cebus and Alouatta on the early seed fate of Acacia collinsii. We found that quantity, but not the identity (Cebus vs. Alouatta) of faecal material affected post-dispersal activity. Seeds in scattered faeces, sufficiently apart from each other (the common defecation pattern of white-faced monkeys), had higher short-term survival than seeds in clumped patterns of faeces (the pattern associated with Alouatta).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2004 Cambridge University Press

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.)