Frugivory
Frugivory is the consumption of fruit by animals. When animals carry or excrete viable seeds, feeding can disperse plants to new locations.
Seed dispersal: The movement of seeds away from their parent plants by animals, wind, water, or other agents. Frugivores transport seeds internally or externally, often depositing them far from the fruiting plant.
Seed dispersal effectiveness: A measure combining how many seeds a disperser moves with the quality of the sites where they arrive. It distinguishes frequent fruit eating from dispersal that actually produces new plants.
Fig–fig wasp mutualism: A close association in which fig wasps pollinate fig flowers while reproducing inside fig inflorescences. Figs are eaten by many frugivores, but their own pollination depends on a distinct animal partnership.
Folivory: The consumption of leaves by animals. Leaf-eating targets vegetative tissues rather than the fruit pulp and seeds central to frugivory.
Endozoochory: Seed dispersal in which an animal eats fruit and later excretes or regurgitates the seeds. This is the seed-dispersal route most directly associated with fruit consumption.
Tropical forest regeneration: The recovery and growth of tropical forest vegetation after disturbance or clearance. Frugivores bring seeds into recovering areas, helping restore plant communities.
White-handed gibbon: An arboreal Southeast Asian ape that eats fruit as a major part of its diet. Its movements through forest can carry swallowed seeds across substantial distances.
Granivory: The consumption of seeds or grains by animals. Granivores often destroy the seeds they eat, unlike frugivores that may disperse viable seeds.
Frugivore gut passage: The passage of consumed fruit and seeds through an animal's digestive tract. Digestion can remove fruit pulp, damage seeds, or alter germination through scarification.
Forest fragmentation: The division of continuous forest into smaller, isolated habitat patches. Fragmentation can reduce large-bodied frugivores and interrupt seed movement between patches.