list of figures - Terry Sunderland

4.1 INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER FOUR
RATTAN / FAUNAL RELATIONSHIPS
Herbivory, predation and seed dispersal by animals are widely recognised processes in
tropical forests (Whitmore, 1990; Happold, 1996). However, the most basic
information on the natural history of most floral / faunal relationships remained, until
recently somewhat sketchy and incomplete. In the lowland tropical forests of Africa, a
number of these relationships have been studied yet these are often rooted in the
relationship between a single organism and its wider environment, rather than speciesspecific
interactions. Notable exceptions to this include the study of the relationships
between lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) and Cola lizae (Tutin, et al., 1991);
Barteria fistulosa and Pachysima aethiops ants (Janzen, 1972) and the reliance on
elephants (Loxodonta africana) to regenerate and disperse seeds of Balanites
wilsoniana (Chapman et al., 1992) and Strychnos aculeata (Martin, 1990) 1 .
With regard to rattans, considerable anecdotal information from research in Asia
suggests that rattans interact widely with their environment. For example, the stems of
many species of rattan are widely predated by forest hogs and elephants for their
growing points and the fruits are consumed and dispersed by a range of agents, most
notably hornbills (Dransfield, 1992b). However, despite the scale of research
undertaken in Asia, there is surprisingly little information about the specific nature
and relative importance of such relationships. Accordingly, until recently, very little
was known about the relationship of the African rattans and their wider environment,
and even less was known about the importance of species-specific relationships, if
indeed such relationships occur. Although much of the information contained in this
chapter is predominantly based on personal observations and information provided by
local informants, a review of the available literature has supported some of these
observations.
1 Although in a recent review of the role of elephants in seed dispersal, Hawthorn and Parren (2000),
suggested that both species continued to regenerate in forests where elephants are absent and have been
for some time.
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