1.5 Study aims
Given the above, an interdisciplinary approach, that integrates animal movement and plant ecology is needed to better understand animal mediated seed dispersal, (Dent & Estrada-Villegas, 2021; Borah & Beckman, 2022). Here we provide a comprehensive review and synthesis of the existing primary literature of global tracking studies that monitor movement of frugivorous animals, assess the current use of animal tracking in frugivory studies and provide a baseline for future studies. We identify studies that explicitly estimate dispersal distances (using estimations of habitat range, gut passage times and foraging behaviour) and assess how dispersal distances vary with morphological and environmental traits.
Specifically, we ask (i) How many animal tracking studies focus on the movement and behaviour of frugivores? (ii) How do these studies extend our understanding of animal-mediated seed dispersal ecology? (iii) Using these studies, can we predict how environmental and morphological traits shape seed dispersal distances among distinct frugivore taxa?