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Larger chimpanzee-dispersed seeds are elongated at Mahale, Tanzania: possible consequence of plant–disperser interaction?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Michio Nakamura  and
Noriko Itoh
Michio Nakamura*
Affiliation:
Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, 2-24 Tanaka-Sekiden-Cho, Sakyo, Kyoto, 606-8203, Japan
Noriko Itoh
Affiliation:
Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, 2-24 Tanaka-Sekiden-Cho, Sakyo, Kyoto, 606-8203, Japan
*
1Corresponding author. Email: nakamura@wrc.kyoto-u.ac.jp
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Abstract:

Apes are important long-distance dispersers of large seeds in African tropical forests. Seed size and shape are likely to affect the ease of swallowing for an animal species. If an endozoochorous seed is larger than the digestive tract of an animal, the seed cannot be swallowed, and a round seed is more difficult to swallow than an elongated seed of the same length. In order to test if such a correlation exists between the seed size and its shape, we investigated the length and width of chimpanzee-dispersed seeds at the Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania. Among the 14 species of seeds, longer seeds had significantly narrower relative widths, and thus, they were more ovoid. Since the chimpanzee is the largest arboreal frugivore at Mahale, their food selection might have influenced the shape of larger seeds. The chimpanzee's selective consumption of such fruits with longer, elongated seeds may have facilitated the selective dispersal of such plant species in that area.

Keywords

African forestendozoochorylarge seedsMahale Mountains National ParkPan troglodytesprimatesseed dispersalseed swallowing
Type
Short Communication
Information
Journal of Tropical Ecology , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , March 2015 , pp. 183 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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