Effect of passage through the common palm civet gut on seed germination of fleshy fruits in Pachmarhi Wildlife Sanctuary, central India

Abstract

Frugivorous carnivores like civets consume fruits of many species and play an important role in their seed dispersal by virtue of depositing their scats farther away from the parent tree. This study was conducted to understand the role of the common palm civet in affecting the seed germination rate of three plant species (i.e. Syzygium cumini, Phoenix sylvestris and Ficus racemosa) in a tropical moist deciduous forest. We collected scats of common palm civets in Pachmarhi Wildlife Sanctuary, central India, and monitored the germination rate of these species for 90 days. Further, to understand the patterns of seed selection (if there are any), for seeds of a specific size, we compared the length, width, and mass of the civet‐ingested seeds with those of the control seeds. We had to discard the analyses on F. racemosa as none of its seeds in any treatment group germinated even after 50 days. Our results show a differential impact of gut passage: civet‐ingested P. sylvestris seeds experienced a higher germination percentage compared to the control seeds, while gut passage did not alter the seed germination of S. cumini. However, seed germination speed (proportion of seeds germinated per day) for both species, P. sylvestris and S. cumini, was faster for civet‐ingested seeds compared to their respective controls. Our findings also showed that civets preferred seeds that were shorter in length and width, and weighed less, in the case of P. sylvestris; however, no such statistically significant difference was found for seed selection in the case of S. cumini. Thus, our study shows that civets act as a legitimate seed disperser of plant species and exert a differential impact in altering the germination rate.