SEED REMOVAL FROM FALLEN GUANACASTE FRUITS (ENTEROLOBIUM CYCLOCARPUM) BY SPINY POCKET MICE (LIOMYS SALVINI)

Abstract

Even when large potential dispersal agents are missing from the habitats containing guanacaste trees (Enterolobium cyclocarpum), there is no accumulation of the seeds below the parent tree over the years. By placing fruits containing known numbers of seeds below a parent guanacaste tree in Santa Rosa National Park, Costa Rica, and monitoring their disappearance, it was determined that 93.34 percent of the seeds were removed by a small forest-floor rodent, Liomys salvini. Another 9.6 percent of the seeds were lost by germination and unknown causes of death. This leaves only 2 percent of the seed crop to accumulate below the parent, and this number of seeds can easily be lost during the following months through germination and L. salvini seed predation. There is no mystery as to why the hard dormant seeds of guanacaste trees do not accumulate below seed-bearing parents in forest occupied by L. salvini.