Most of the animals which feed on the fruit of B. alicastrum eat the seed as well, and, therefore, function more as seed predators than as dispersal agents. Frugivorous bats, however, display the interesting behavior of collecting the fruit, flying to their roosts, and later eating only the fleshy pericarp and dropping the seed intact. Bats of the genus Artibeus have been shown to disperse large quantities of B. alicastrum seed in this manner, the fruit comprising the major part of their diet when available (Vazquez-Yanes et al. 1975). Puleston (1968:56-57) reviewed the dispersal of racmon seeds by Artibeus bats but later rejected the possibility at they were an important seed vector to the ruins. This is surprising in light of his observations that "large numbers of bats occupy the inner chambers and vaults of the larger palaces and temples," that "their nests are littered with whole ramon seeds" and that "the seeds can apparently be carried great distances if the bats have young." I have seen similar accumulations of seeds and seedlings around the ruins of Palenque and Bonampak in Chiapas, and under bat roosts in mango plantations in Veracruz where the nearest ramon tree was more than 5 km away. A more reasonable explanation for the commonly observed aggregations of B. alicastrum near ruins, therefore, is the competitive advantage this species possesses on limestone soils coupled with the continual input of bat-dispersed seed.
10-82611818