Latest Frugivore Stories

Study indicates growing coffee and cacao in shade helps birds Compared with open farmland, wooded "shade" plantations that produce coffee and chocolate promote greater bird diversity, although a new University of Utah study says forests remain the best habitat for tropical birds. The findings suggest that as open farmland replaces forests and "agroforests" – where crops are grown under trees – reduced number of bird species and shifts in the populations of various types of birds may...

An Australian behavioral ecologist working in Bolivia says she has discovered wild spider monkeys control their diets in a way similar to that of humans. Annika Felton of the Australian National University and colleagues spent a year in the Bolivian rainforest observing the monkeys' feeding habits. Felton said tight regulation of daily protein intake is known to play a role in the development of obesity in humans, and the findings from her research suggest the evolutionary origins of such...

Behavioral ecologists working in Bolivia have found that wild spider monkeys control their diets in a similar way to humans, contrary to what has been thought up to now. Rather than trying to maximize their daily energy intake, the monkeys tightly regulate their daily protein intake, so that it stays at the same level regardless of seasonal variation in the availability of different foods.Tight regulation of daily protein intake is known to play a role in the development of obesity in humans,...

A U.S.-led international team of scientists has solved a long-standing evolutionary mystery involving the spicy hotness of chili peppers. University of Florida Professor Douglas Levey, one of the researchers, said a plant creates fruit to entice animals to eat and disperse its seeds. Therefore, said Levey, it doesn't make sense for that fruit to be painfully hot. Now the study led by Assistant Professor Joshua Tewksbury of the University of Washington has discovered the reason is a fungus...