Digestion time and intactness of seeds ingested by Sturnira lilium (E. Geoffroy, 1810) (Mammalia,Chiroptera)

Bats are responsible for many ecological services, such as seed dispersal of several plant species, contributing to the processes of succession and forest regeneration. A factor that can interfere with this process is the animal digestion, which can affect germination, altering the patterns of seedling distribution. The effects of seed passage through bats’ guts varies with the species, leading to some discrepancies in the literature. In this study, we tested the digestion time of one Phyllostomidae bat species, Sturnira lilium, in two Neotropical plants: Solanum paniculatum and Ficus organensis, and the effects on seed germination. The experiment was conducted in captivity and the germination tests were made in laboratory conditions. The results suggested that most seeds ingested by S. lilium are dispersed within 40 min for both species and the digestion seems not to significantly affect the germination of F. organensis, despite the slight acceleration of germination. In S. paniculatum, germination occurred only in the control (39%), whereas in the treatments, all the seeds remained dormant during the 25 experimental days. In this case, the digestion of S. lilium possibly contributes to the formation of seed banks, randomizing the temporal distribution of seedlings.