DOI: 10.5061/dryad.3j9kd51sv
title: The irreplaceable role of surviving megafauna in long-distance seed dispersal: Evidence from an experiment with Neotropical mammals

description: The downsizing of disperser assemblages by selective defaunation is a
 worldwide phenomenon thought to have important consequences in
 animal-dispersed plants. Numerous large-seeded Neotropical plants
 currently depend on the last megafaunal survivors, the large tapirs
 Tapirus spp., and medium-sized frugivores. The extent to which medium
 frugivores are functionally equivalent to tapirs remains unresolved. We
 combined feeding trials, seed dispersal kernel modeling based on seed
 retention times and animal movement simulation (Levy walks), and
 germination experiments in a large-seeded palm to assess the dispersal
 quality provided by the largest (tapirs) and two medium (foxes and howler
 monkeys) frugivore species in terms of dispersal distances and gut passage
 effects on germination. Tapirs retained the seeds in the gut for much
 longer (mean=221 hours) than howlers (43 h) and foxes (22 h). Median
 dispersal distance by tapirs (1252 m) was 14 and 40 times larger than that
 by foxes (88 m) and howlers (31 m), respectively. The seed dispersal
 kernel of tapirs showed a 5th percentile value (291 m) larger than the
 95th percentiles of foxes (285 m) and howlers (108 m). Manually depulped
 and gut-passed seeds germinated in similar proportions, showing,
 respectively, 3.5 and 2.5―2.9 times higher values than intact fruits.
 Germination probability and seed viability decreased with retention time
 in howlers’ and tapirs’ gut, with howlers showing a steeper negative
 relationship. Such detrimental effect implies a trade-off between
 germination success and dispersal distance. We conclude that tapirs may
 not play a unique role in germination enhancement but move seeds much
 further than medium frugivores, thus playing a critical role as
 long-distance dispersers of many plants. This study provides important
 insights on palm–frugivore interactions and the potential consequences for
 large-seeded plants of losing the last megafaunal representatives in the
 Neotropics.
description: Data on seed retention time was collected from feeding trials and
 seed recovery. Data on germination was obtained from germination
 experiments performed in a greenhouse.
description: # The irreplaceable role of surviving megafauna in long-distance seed
 dispersal: evidence from an experiment with Neotropical mammals
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3j9kd51sv](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.3j9kd51sv) Data on seed retention time in the gut of three frugivores (*Cerdocyon thous*, *Alouatta caraya* and *Tapirus terrestris*) and germination outcomes obtained by feeding trials and germination experiments, respectively (Associated Article: doi: 10.1111/oik.10488) ## Description of the data and file structure Raw data is presented in an excel file. Column headings and definition of variables: 1\. Seed.ID: Identification of each seed. Those named as 01.NA to 25.NA were only used in feeding trials for estimating seed retention times, but not in germination experiments. The data frame is ordered by Seed.ID 2\. Treatment: Pre-sowing treatment applied to each seed. Intact: fruits retaining the pulp; Depulped: fruits which pulp was artificially removed; Depulped.soaked: depulped fruits that were then submerged in water until the next day (for comparison against tapirs that defected in water pools); Fox, Howler, Tapir: seeds retrieved from fox (*Cerdocyon thous*), howler (*Alouatta caraya*), and tapir (*Tapirus terrestris*) feces, respectively. 3\. Individual: Identification of the individual of each frugivore species (whenever possible) 4\. Mother.palm: The mother palm from which the fruit (seed) was collected (i.e. maternal source) 5\. SRT.Low_(hours): The lower limit of each seed retention time as an interval-censored observation (i.e. the earliest possible seed release time resulting from our monitoring scheme), measured in hours. 6\. SRT.Upp_(hours): The upper limit of each seed retention time as an interval-censored observation (i.e. the latest possible seed release time resulting from our monitoring scheme), measured in hours. 7\. Germination: Germination occurrence or failure during the experiment, coded as 1 or 0, respectively. 8\. Viability_TZ.Test: Seed viability at the end of the germination experiments, assessed by means of the Tetrazolium test. This was evaluated for 25.5% of all seeds that had not germinated at the end of the experiments. V: Viable, NV: Not viable, NA: Not tested. Other details: In all cases, "NA" denotes Not Available datum. "Inf" indicates infinite for the upper limit of seed retention time (interval-censored data) in cases which we were confident that the seed had not been released before the last examination of feces (i.e. it represents a "right-censored" observation). Most non-recovered seeds, however, were assumed to have been missed at some point during the period of feces examination. ## Code/Software Statistical analyses of this data were conducted by using the R software. The complete R code for these analyses, as well as ready-to-use input files for R, are given as accompanying text files.