Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T01:25:16.926Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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 

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

CHAPMAN, C. A. 1995. Primate seed dispersal: coevolution and conservation implications. Evolutionary Anthropology 4:74–82.Google Scholar
FORGET, P. M., DENNIS, A. J., MAZER, S. J., JANSEN, P. A., KITAMURA, S., LAMBERT, J. E. & WESTCOTT, D. A. 2007. Seed allometry and disperser assemblages in tropical rainforests: a comparison of four floras on different continents. Pp. 5–36 in Dennis, A. J., Green, R. A., Schupp, E. W. & Westcott, D. A. (eds.). Seed dispersal. CAB International, Wallingford.Google Scholar
GROSS-CAMP, N. D., MASOZERA, M. & KAPLIN, B. A. 2009. Chimpanzee seed dispersal quantity in a tropical montane forest of Rwanda. American Journal of Primatology 71:901–911.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
IDANI, G. 1986. Seed dispersal by pygmy chimpanzees (Pan paniscus): a preliminary report. Primates 27:441–447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LAMBERT, J. E. 1999. Seed handling in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and redtail monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius): implications for understanding hominoid and cercopithecine fruit-processing strategies and seed dispersal. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 109:365–386.Google Scholar
LAMBERT, J. E. & GARBER, P. A. 1998. Evolutionary and ecological implications of primate seed dispersal. American Journal of Primatology 45:9–28.Google Scholar
LORD, J. M. 2004. Frugivore gape size and the evolution of fruit size and shape in southern hemisphere floras. Austral Ecology 29:430–436.Google Scholar
LUCAS, P. W. & CORLETT, R. T. 1998. Seed dispersal by long-tailed macaques. American Journal of Primatology 45:29–44.3.0.CO;2-Y>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MCCONKEY, K. R. 2000. Primary seed shadow generated by gibbons in the rain forest of Barito Ulu, Central Borneo. American Journal of Primatology 52:13–29.Google Scholar
NAKAMURA, M. & NISHIDA, T. 2012. Long-term field studies of chimpanzees at Mahale Mountains National Park, Tanzania. Pp. 339–356 in Kappeler, P. M. & Watts, D. P. (eds.). Long-term studies of primates. Springer, Heidelberg.Google Scholar
POULSEN, J. R., CLARK, C. J. & SMITH, T. B. 2001. Seed dispersal by a diurnal primate community in the Dja Reserve, Cameroon. Journal of Tropical Ecology 17:787–808.Google Scholar
TAKASAKI, H. 1983. Seed dispersal by chimpanzees: a preliminary note. African Study Monographs 3:105–108.Google Scholar
TUTIN, C. E. G., WILLIAMSON, E. A., ROGERS, M. E. & FERNANDEZ, M. 1991. A case study of a plant-animal relationship: Cola lizae and lowland gorillas in the Lope Reserve, Gabon. Journal of Tropical Ecology 7:181–199.Google Scholar
WRANGHAM, R. W., CHAPMAN, C. A. & CHAPMAN, L. J. 1994. Seed dispersal by forest chimpanzees in Uganda. Journal of Tropical Ecology 10:355–368.CrossRefGoogle Scholar