Study on Avian frugivory in Tropical Mixed Dry Deciduous and Scrub Forest in Southern India

Abstract

Mutualistic plant-animal interactions exist in a wide variety with one of the most important being seed dispersal or the transport of seeds away from a parent plant by animals. Not only plants depend on animals for the dispersal of their seeds, animals, too, rely on plants for fruit as a food resource. Avian frugivores are considered the most important seed dispersers in several ecosystems, as assessed by the numbers of successful propagules disseminated. Fruit-eat in g birds play a critical role in the functioning of tropical ecosystems and may assist in the natural regeneration of forests by dispersing seeds into cleared areas. Seed dispersal by animals and frugivory have reached the pinnacle in tropical forests, where a percentage of up to 90% of tree and shrub species produce fleshy fruits adapted to animal dispers.:11 and eaten by a large number of vertebrates. In tropical forests, frugivorous animals are the dominant group of vertebrates. The challenge of frugivores is to find, eat and subsist partially or entirely on fruits that arc mostly deficient in protein, but rich in carbohydrates or lipids. Fruit availability is one crucial factor influencing the frugivore community. A study on frugivory by birds was carried out in two forest types namely, Tropical mixed dry deciduous forest in the Western Ghats and Scrub forest in the Eastern Ghats, Southern India. The research work was carried out in the tropical mixed dry deciduous forest of the Anaikatty hills of Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve