1.2 Frugivore movement & behaviour
Over half of woody plant species globally, and up to 90% of tropical
tree species, require animals to disperse their seeds (Howe &
Smallwood, 1982). Animal-mediated seed (or diaspore) dispersal can take
many forms, including endozoochory (carried within an animal),
epizoochory (attached to the outside of a disperser), and synzoochory
(intentionally carried, mostly in the mouth). The way seeds are
transported can often help predict the fate of the seed (Nascimento et
al, 2020), but the decisions that animals make relating to movements
before, during and after interacting with fruit ultimately drive the
dynamics of animal dispersed plant populations (Morales et al, 2013).
These decisions are shaped by landscape composition, animal traits, diet
preferences and behaviours (Baguette & Van Dyck, 2007). Even decisions
that are not directly related to foraging, e.g., use of leks, latrines
or roosting, can incidentally impact the deposition of seeds through
altered movement paths (Sasal & Morales, 2013).
Recent studies call for animal movement and behaviour to be better
integrated with seed dispersal studies to enable researchers to fully
understand the processes that determine seed rain (CĂ´rtes & Uriarte,
2013; Borah & Beckman, 2022) and to advance a mechanistic understanding
of animal-mediated seed dispersal. For example, interdisciplinary
collaborations linking plant demography and movement ecology could use
animal tracking studies to determine the precise location of seed
deposition and to describe the dispersal potential of different
frugivorous animal species (Borah & Beckman, 2022; Dent &
Estrada-Villegas, 2021).