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Abstract The movement decisions of frugivores shape spatial patterns of seed deposition, with considerable impacts for plant individuals, populations and communities. However, we have limited understanding of the mechanisms determining the foraging strategies behind the movements of frugivorous animals and their interaction with the landscape. Using spatially explicit simulations we examined the movements and seed dispersal of red‐bellied lemur ( Eulemur rubriventer ) groups dispersing seeds of the tropical tree Harungana madagascariensis under four theorized foraging strategies. These included scenarios in which frugivores move directly to the (1) most rewarding plant in the landscape, (2) nearest fruiting plant, or towards the most rewarding plant in the landscape, with stops at any fruiting plants encountered along the way according to a local attraction distance of (3) 10 m and (4) 20 m. We then compared 12 metrics and data distributions for seed dispersal and movement patterns from these models to empirical observations. Simulations of foraging strategies with directed movement towards highly rewarding resources (strategy 1) produced the longest seed dispersal distances and best matched observed patterns. Observed data of lemur movements and directionality best matched results from three strategies, simulations towards highly rewarding resources without stops (strategy 1) and with either stops along the way with a 10 m (strategy 3) or 20 m (strategy 4) attraction distance. Collectively, our results supported the strategies in which lemurs moved consistently towards the small number of trees that produced the most fruit in the landscape. Our work supports incorporating a mechanistic understanding of animal foraging, movement behaviour and landscape patterns in fruit production for the prediction of seed movement. Explicit considerations of these mechanisms can improve our understanding of the maintenance and structure of diversity in plant communities, with implications for the conservation of forest ecosystems relying on animals for seed dispersal. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
Luciano et al. (Sun,) studied this question.