Effectiveness of seed dispersal by Cercopithecus monkeys: implications for seed input into degraded areas

摘要

Primates comprise a large proportion of the frugivore biomass in tropical forests (Eisenberg and Thorington, 1973; Terborgh, 1983) and are known to defecate or spit large numbers of seeds. Thus, they are likely to play a role in seed dispersal and tropical-forest regeneration (Chapman, 1995). However, there have been relatively few studies of seed dispersal by one of the most widely distributed and frugivorous genera of primates in Africa, Cercopithecus (Gautier-Hion, 1984; Kingdon, 1989; Gautier-Hion et al, 1993; Wrangham et al, 1994; Fairgreves, 1995; Plumptre et al, 1997; Kaplin and Moermond, 1998; Lambert, 1999).