Interactions between plants and animals are really extensive. Although it may seem like pure predation, the relationship between these beings is symbiotic and both parties not only need each other to survive, but have also evolved together.
One of the interactions between animals and plants is frugivory. In this article on our site we will talk about this relationship and find out what frugivorous animals eat.
What are frugivorous animals?
Frugivorous animals are those that base their diet on the consumption of fruits, or a large part of what they consume is composed of this Type of food. In the animal kingdom, many species are frugivorous, from insects to large mammals.
The plants that produce fruits are the angiosperms In this group, the flowers of female plants or the female parts of a hermaphroditic plant they have an ovary with several ovules that, when fertilized by sperm, thicken and change color, acquiring very attractive nutritional qualities for animals.
20% of the known species of mammals are frugivorous animals, so this type of diet is very significant and important among animals.
Characteristics of frugivorous animals
At first glance, frugivorous animals do not seem to possess distinctive characteristics of non-frugivorous animals, even less so if they are omnivorous animals that, Although they can feed on many products, their main food is fruit.
The main qualities appear along the digestive tract, beginning with the mouth or beak. In mammals or other animals with teeth, these are often wider and flattened on the molars to be able to chew. Animals with non-chewing teeth often have a row of small, equal teeth that are used to chop fruit and swallow smaller pieces.
Frugivorous birds usually have a curved or concave beak to be able to extract the pulp of the fruits; this is the case of parrots. Other birds have a thinner beak and rest, which is used to feed on smaller fruits that they can swallow whole.
Arthropods have specialized jaws for grinding food. A species may feed on fruit during certain stages of its life and have another diet when they are adults, or they may not even need to eat.
Another very important characteristic of these animals is that they n o digest the seeds, however, they produce a physical and chemical modification in them, called scarification, without which they could not germinate once outside.
Importance of frugivorous animals for the ecosystem
Fruit-bearing plants and frugivorous animals have co-evolved throughout history. The fact that the fruits of the plants are so attractive and nutritious is not so that the seeds feed on them, but to attract the attention of the animals.
Frugivorous animals will eat the pulp of the fruit, also ingesting the seeds. With this, the plant gets two benefits:
- While passing through the digestive tract, the acids and movements of the tube will remove a protective coating from the seeds (scarification) causing the germination occurs much faster, thus increasing the chances of survival.
- The journey that food makes through the animal's digestive tract usually lasts hours, even days. So, if an animal ate a certain fruit in a certain place, when it goes to excrete it, it will most likely be far away from the tree that produced it, thus dispersing the offspring of that plant, causing it to colonize new places.
We can say, then, that fruits are the reward animals receive for disseminating seeds, just as pollen is the reward for a bee for pollinating different plants.
List with examples of frugivorous animals
Frugivorous animals are distributed throughout the planet, in all regions where there are plants with fruits. Here are some examples of frugivorous animals that demonstrate this diversity.
1. Frugivorous mammals
The relationships between plants and animals are usually strong, especially for those species that feed exclusively on fruits as is the case of the flying fox (Acerodon jubatus). This animal lives in the forests where it feeds, and is in danger of extinction due to deforestation. In Africa, the largest bat species is also frugivorous, the hammerhead bat (Hypsinathus monstrosus).
On the other hand, most primates are frugivores. Thus, although they have an omnivorous diet, their main food is fruit. This is the case, for example, of the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) or the gorilla (Gorilla gorilla), although many lemurs are also frugivores.
New World monkeys, such as howler monkeys, spider monkeysand marmoset , play an important role in dispersing the seeds of the fruits they eat, so they are also part of the list of examples of frugivorous animals.
The shrews, the dormouses and thepossums are nocturnal mammals that devour fruit, although if they come across a worm they won't take long to eat it.
Finally, all ungulates are herbivores, but some, like the tapir, feed almost exclusively on fruit.
3. Frugivorous birds
Among the birds, the psittacines stand out as the great consumers of fruit, with a beak totally designed for it. Also important frugivores are the species of the genus Sylvia or currucasOther birds, such as the cassowary (Cassuarius casuarius), also feed on a wide variety of fruits found on the forest floor, being essential for the dispersal of the plants. The toucans base their diet on fruits such as berries, although they can also eat small reptiles or mammals. Of course, in captivity it is important for their he alth that they take a certain amount of animal protein.
4. Frugivorous reptiles
There are also frugivorous reptiles, such as the green iguanas These do not chew food, but with their small teeth cut pieces that they can swallow complete. Other lizards such as the pogonas or the scindides can eat fruit, but they are omnivores, unlike of the green iguanas that are herbivorous, so they also need insects and even small mammals.
The land turtles are the other group of frugivorous reptiles, although they sometimes eat insects, molluscs or earthworms.
5. Frugivorous invertebrates
On the other hand, there are frugivorous invertebrates, such as the fruit fly or Drosophila melanogaster, widely used in research. This tiny fly lays its eggs on the fruit, which will hatch and the larvae will feed on the fruit until they metamorphose into their adult stage. Likewise, many bugs, hemipterous insects, absorb the juice from the inside of the fruit.
6. Frugivorous fish
Although it may seem strange, we close the list of examples of frugivorous animals with this group, since there are also frugivorous fish such as those belonging to the family serrasalmidsThese fish, commonly called pacú , feed on plants, but not only their fruits, but also other parts such as leaves or stems.