Observations of animals feeding in a strangler fig, Ficus drupacea in Southeast Thailand.

Abstract

Observations were made from the crown of Ficus drupacea on diurnal animals eating figs during 2 fruiting periods in Khao Soi Dao Wildlife Sanctuary. Gibbons Hylobates pileatus and a giant squirrel Ratufa bicolor were the only such mammals. Seventeen species of birds, including 4 of flowerpeckers, ate figs. The most abundant feeders were thick-billed flowerpeckers Dicaeum agile, blue-eared barbets Megalaima australis and thick-billed pigeons Treron curvirostra, all flocking species. All birds except hornbills fed by pecking at the soft ripe figs while they were attached to the branch rather than picking and swallowing them. Because of this method of feeding, F. drupacea figs, although fairly large in size, attract medium to very small birds.-from Author