Inter-group variability in seed dispersal by white-handed gibbons in mosaic forest
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Author list: Phiphatsuwannachai S., Westcott D.A., McKeown A., Savini T.
Publisher: Wiley
Publication year: 2018
Journal: Biotropica (0006-3606)
Volume number: 50
Issue number: 1
Start page: 106
End page: 115
Number of pages: 10
ISSN: 0006-3606
eISSN: 1744-7429
Languages: English-Great Britain (EN-GB)
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Abstract
Seed dispersers, like white-handed gibbons (Hylobates lar), can display wide inter-group variability in response to distribution and abundance of resources in their habitat. In different home ranges, they can modify their movement patterns along with the shape and scale of seed shadow produced. However, the effect of inter-group variability on the destination of dispersed seeds is still poorly explained. In this study, we evaluate how seed dispersal patterns of this arboreal territorial frugivore varies between two neighboring groups, one inhabiting high quality evergreen forest and one inhabiting low quality mosaic forest. We predicted a difference in seed dispersal distance between the two groups (longer in the poor quality forest). We hypothesized that this difference would be explained by differences in home range size, daily path length, and ranging tortuosity. After 6 months of data collection, the evergreen group had a smaller home range (12.4 ha) than the mosaic group (20.9 ha), significantly longer daily path lengths (1507 m vs. 1114 m respectively) and greater tortuosity (39.1 vs. 16.1 respectively). Using gut passage times and displacement rates, we estimated the median seed dispersal distance as 163 m for the evergreen group (high quality forest) and of 116 m for the mosaic group (low quality forest). This contradiction with our initial prediction can be explained in term of social context, resource distribution, and habitat quality. Our results indicate that gibbons are dispersers of seeds between habitats and that dispersal distances provided by gibbons are influenced by a range of factors, including habitat and social context. ฉ 2017 The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation
Keywords
estimated dispersal kernels, forest quality, forest structure, modelled dispersal curves
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