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Ecological and morphological traits of fruiting trees, such as spatial distribution (Leveyet al. 1984), crop size (Howe & vande Kerckhove 1981, Korineet al. 2000, Leighton 1993, Murray 1987), local availability of fruit (Sargent 1990), seed size or pulp/seed mass ratio (Julliot 1996a, Leighton 1993, McConkeyet al. 2002, Russo 2003, Stevensonet al. 2005) and nutritional value and concentration of secondary compounds (Leighton 1993, Milton 1980, Sallabanks 1993), influence fruit preference in animals. In general, frugivores maximize energy intake by consuming ripe fruit with smaller seeds, higher pulp/seed ratio, bigger crop size, more nutritional fruits or fruits with fewer secondary compounds (Howe & vande Kerckhove 1981, Julliot 1996a, Korineet al. 2000, Leighton 1993, Milton 1980, Murray 1987, Russo 2003, Stevensonet al. 2005).
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Susana P. Bravo (2012) studied this question.
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