Epizoochorous seed dispersal by an Afroalpine savanna primate
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Primates are prolific dispersers of seeds via endozoochory (i.e., defecation and spitting). In contrast, epizoochorous seed dispersal (i.e., via adhesion to fur) has rarely been observed in primates. On the Guassa Plateau in north‐central Ethiopia, grass‐eating geladas ( Theropithecus gelada ) regularly carry on their fur the barbed seeds of a commonly eaten plant, a low‐lying herbaceous forb called Agrocharis melanantha [Apiaceae]. Here, we describe the basic ecology of this plant–primate relationship. For 24 months (November 2017–December 2019), we monitored the number and location of A . melanantha seeds on the fur of geladas ( n = 225 individuals) from four age‐sex classes: adult males, adult females, juveniles, and infants. Seed accumulation ( n = 12649 seeds in total) was seasonal and closely tracked patterns of landscape vegetation phenology, peaking in September near the end of the rainy season. During seasonal periods of heavy seed accumulation, larger animals carried more seeds, which accumulated most often on the hindlimbs and on the long‐haired “cape” (a secondary sexual characteristic) of adult males. Geladas almost never removed seeds during self‐ or social grooming. Rather, data on seed gain and loss from focal follows indicate that geladas gain and lose seeds every few minutes as they walk and sit in an upright feeding position amidst terrestrial vegetation. We estimate that, on average, geladas disperse seeds roughly 80 m from their parent plants. Geladas appear to exert negative and positive fitness impacts on A . melanantha by regularly consuming its herbaceous and underground tissues and dispersing its seeds. Abstract in Amharic is available with online material.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".