Frugivore
A frugivore is an animal that eats substantial amounts of fruit. Frugivory can shape fruit traits and help disperse seeds.
Seed dispersal: The movement of seeds away from their parent plants by animals, wind, water, or other agents. Animals can carry fruit seeds away from parent plants, sometimes depositing them intact in new locations.
Diet: The foods an organism habitually consumes. Frugivory describes a substantial component of an animal's diet, not necessarily its entire diet.
Tropical forest: A forest ecosystem in a tropical region, often characterized by high species diversity and warm temperatures. Fruit-eating animals disperse seeds among the plant-rich habitats of many tropical forests.
Toucan: A tropical American bird with a large bill, many species of which eat fruit and disperse seeds. Toucans illustrate how fruit-eating birds can move seeds through forest canopies.
Endozoochory: Seed dispersal that occurs when an animal eats fruit and later defecates or regurgitates its seeds. This is the seed-dispersal route most directly associated with fruit-eating animals.
Seed: A plant structure containing an embryo and stored resources, capable of developing into a new plant. Seeds are the structures fruit eaters may disperse or destroy.
Ecological restoration: The process of assisting the recovery of ecosystems that have been degraded, damaged, or destroyed. Restoration can depend on frugivores bringing seeds into recovering sites.
Flying fox: A large fruit-eating bat in the genus Pteropus, native to regions of Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. Flying foxes can transport fruit seeds over long distances, including between islands.
Seed predation: The consumption of seeds in ways that reduce their survival or ability to germinate. Fruit eaters may destroy seeds while feeding, rather than disperse them.
Fleshy fruit: A fruit with soft, often edible tissues surrounding or containing its seeds. Its nutritious tissues are a common food source for frugivores.