Seed Dispersal by Brown Bears, Ursus arctos , in Southeastern Alaska

摘要: Mammals often consume fleshy fruits and disperse significant quantities of the enclosed seeds. In southeastern Alaska, Brown Bears ( Ursus arctos ) are among most important dispersers seeds for numerous plant species producing fruits, because these bears abundant, eat large fruit, commonly excrete in germinable condition. Scat analyses showed that on Chichagof Island ate increasing fruit through summer fall. Scats contained several thousand seeds, two or more species. Four kinds fleshyfruited plants normally grow forest understory germinated at similar levels when experimentally deposited (in bear scats) common habitats (forest muskeg), suggesting habitat distribution is not determined simply by germination patterns. Although seed passage digestive tracts composition scats known to affect rates some degree, role dispersal probably transport.