Internal seed dispersal by parrots: an overview of a neglected mutualism

BLANCO, G.; BRAVO, C.; PACÍFICO, E.; CHAMORRO, D.; SPEZIALE, K.L.; LAMBERTUCCI, S.A.; HIRALDO, F.; TELLA, J.L.

PeerJ

PeerJ, Inc

Año: 2016 vol. 4 p. 1 - 16

2167-8359

Despite the fact that parrots (Psitacifformes) are generalist apex frugivores, they have largely been considered plant antagonists and thus neglected as seed dispersers of their food plants. Internal dispersal was investigated by searching for seeds in faeces opportunistically collected at communal roosts, foraging sites and nests of eleven parrot species in different habitats and biomes in the Neotropics. Multiple intact seeds of seven plant species of five families were found in a variable proportion of faeces from four parrot species. The mean number of seeds of each plant species per dropping ranged between one and about sixty, with a maximum of almost five hundred seeds from the cacti Pilosocereus pachycladus in a single dropping of Lear?s Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari). All seeds retrieved were small (