Western lowland gorilla seed dispersal: Are seeds adapted to long gut retention times?

Petre, Charles‐Albert; Tagg, Nikki; Beudels-Jamar, Roseline; Haurez, Barbara; Doucet, Jean‐Louis

doi:10.1016/j.actao.2015.06.003

Cited by 13 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Gorillas are the largest living primates and have very long gut retention time for a frugivore (Remis, ; Remis & Dierenfeld, ). This physiological feature allows them to be particularly effective in scarifying seed coat and activating seed germination (Petre et al, ). Particularly, western gorilla coprophagy may be related to the search for fat when succulent energetic and preferred fruit started to become scarce in the habitat (Doran et al, ; Doran‐Sheehy et al, ; Masi et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most of these seeds are activated for germination when transiting into the gut. In fact, animal digestive processes can enhance thinning and removal of seed coat stimulating thus germination more rapidly (Beaune et al, , ; González‐Di Pierro, Benítez‐Malvido, & Méndez‐Toribio, ; Petre, Tagg, Beudels‐Jamar, Haurez, & Doucet, ; Righini, Serio‐Silva, Rico‐Gray, & Martínez‐Mota, ; Valenta & Fedigan, ). On the other hand, sometimes primates act as seed predators re‐ingesting the already swollen seeds by picking them from their own feces.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dialium seed coprophagy in wild western gorillas: Multiple nutritional benefits and toxicity reduction hypotheses

Masi

Breuer

2018

American J Primatol

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Unraveling the relationship between the unusual feeding behaviors and the nutritional intake of endangered species may provide crucial information for understanding species response to habitat unpredictable changes. Primates occasionally re-ingest fruit seeds alongside ingestion of feces, a behavior called coprophagy. The nutritional benefit is one of the several non-mutual exclusive hypotheses proposed to explain this behavior. We investigated the ecological correlates of coprophagy in wild western gorillas. We tested whether coprophagy occurred during periods of lower fruit availability and whether it led to higher nutrient intake in comparison to the other food. Data integrated phenological, fecal and nutritional analyses of gorilla food with behavioral observations collected at two sites in Central Africa (Mbeli Bai: ad libitum observations on 15 groups/solitary males, October 2002-November 2005; Bai Hokou: 5-min scan on a habituated group, December 2004-December 2005). Coprophagy occurred at the end of the high-fruiting season in association of two Dialium species. Coprophagy correlated positively with the occurrence of Dialium spp. fruit in gorilla feces and in the feeding scans, and showed a positive trend with Dialium availability but not with total fruit availability. Nutritional comparison of Dialium seeds with other important gorilla food showed higher fat and mineral content, particularly of Mg, but also of phenols and tannins in Dialium seeds. We discuss how the effect of gut processing and gut heat via coprophagy may act as cooking-like effect: increasing the ability to maximize nutrient intake by concurrently softening fibers and decreasing the toxic effect of antifeedants, like in human traditional cooking. Our results support both the multiple nutritional benefit hypothesis and the toxicity reduction hypothesis. Since Dialium is precious timber, the importance of this tree for the critically endangered western gorillas should be taken with high consideration when planning controlled logging of degraded forests or in face of habitat changes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dialium seed coprophagy in wild western gorillas: Multiple nutritional benefits and toxicity reduction hypotheses

Masi

Breuer

2018

American J Primatol

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“…Germination success was defined as the visible emergence of a seedling stem above the soil surface (Nchanji & Plumptre, ) and was used to assess the germinability (i.e. the capacity of seeds to germinate) of gut passed seeds (Petre, Tagg, Beudels‐Jamar, Haurez, & Doucet, ). Monitoring periods varied between species and averaged 8 months (range: 1–15 months) with the shortest periods associated with a pilot study of 4 months (February–May 2011).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As the impact of gut passage on seed germination has been observed to be species‐specific (Petre, Tagg, Beudels‐Jamar, Haurez, & Doucet, ; Traveset, ), we analysed each species separately. The existence of a deinhibition effect was assessed by testing the difference in germination between seeds from fresh fruits surrounded by pulp (T3) and seeds from fresh fruit cleaned of pulp (T4) (Samuels & Levey, ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…components of dispersal (Schupp, ; Schupp et al., ). Although numerous studies regarding the diet of gorillas have been published, the qualitative and quantitative aspects of seed dispersal carried out by this species have been poorly documented (but see Petre, Tagg, Beudels‐Jamar, Haurez, & Doucet, ), leading to a lack of precision regarding its seed dispersal function.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Seed dispersal effectiveness of the western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in Gabon

et al. 2017

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The quantitative and qualitative aspects of seed dispersal by the western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) were investigated in Gabon. Fresh faeces were collected and washed to identify and count the seeds. Seed germinability after gut passage was estimated with trials in a nursery at the study site. To assess the impact of gut passage on germination success and delay, comparative trials were run with four treatments: (i) gut passed seeds cleaned of faeces, (ii) gut passed seeds within a faecal matrix, (iii) seeds from fresh fruits surrounded by pulp, and (iv) seeds from fresh fruits cleaned of pulp. The analysis of 180 faecal units resulted in the identification of 58 species of seed. Germination trials were realized for 55 species and the mean germination success reached 46%. The impact of gut passage was investigated for Santiria trimera and Chrysophyllum lacourtianum; both species displayed higher germination success after ingestion. This study shows that gorillas effectively disperse seeds of numerous plant species, many of which provide timber or nontimber forest products or are typical of Gabonese forests. Considering the high-quality of gorilla deposition sites, gorillas is thought to play a unique role in the dynamics of Central African forest. les semences de nombreuses esp eces de plantes qui fournissent des produits forestiers ligneux ou pas et sont caract eristiques des forêts gabonaises. Compte tenu de la grande qualit e des sites de d epôt des gorilles, il semble bien que ceux-ci jouent un rôle unique dans la dynamique de la forêt d'Afrique centrale. K E Y W O R D SCentral Africa, deinhibition effect, endozoochhory, forest dynamics, gut passage effect, scarification effect

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Germination of native and exotic seeds dispersed by wild black-and-gold howler monkeys (Alouatta caraya): assessing deinhibition and scarification effects

2020

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Western lowland gorilla seed dispersal: Are seeds adapted to long gut retention times?

Cited by 13 publications

References 46 publications

Dialium seed coprophagy in wild western gorillas: Multiple nutritional benefits and toxicity reduction hypotheses

Dialium seed coprophagy in wild western gorillas: Multiple nutritional benefits and toxicity reduction hypotheses

Seed dispersal effectiveness of the western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) in Gabon

Germination of native and exotic seeds dispersed by wild black-and-gold howler monkeys (Alouatta caraya): assessing deinhibition and scarification effects

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