What Eats the Tabonuco Tree?

Puerto Rico and other islands of the Caribbean are home to Tabonuco trees.

Tabonuco is a large tropical tree from the rain forests of Puerto Rico. The tree is found on the upper elevations of the forest and grows primarily on slopes. The trees can get up to 115 feet in height and live for up to 400 years. Tabonuco forests are made up of several main tree species and a large group of fauna. Cats, bats, agouti, rats, dozens of bird species, lizards, mongoose and frogs form the bulk of the animals found in a Tabonuco forest.

Tabonuco Trees

Tabonuco is a warm-climate tree with a range from Puerto Rico into the Lesser Antilles and across many of the Caribbean islands. The tree thrives in stony, acidic red soil on exposed hillsides and slopes. The trees grow together and share a root union that gives them incredible strength in the face of hurricane winds, which often sweep the area. The tree is part of a forest association called the Tabonuco type. This includes at least 170 other tree species and a rich variety of understory plants. The richness of flora contributes to a wide range of animal life that uses the trees for shelter and food.

Puerto Rican Parrot

The animal that feeds on Tabonuco the most is the endangered Puerto Rican parrot. This parrot was once abundant on Puerto Rico but is now nearly extinct. The birds mate for life and eat mainly tree and palm fruits. They are small parrots with green bodies, red foreheads and white rings around the eyes. They primarily eat sierra palm but also cupello and the Tabonuco fruit. The birds breed once a year and lay two to four eggs. The male cares for the female until the eggs hatch; then both parents feed the young until they fledge nine weeks later.

Insects

Insects, such as ants, walking sticks and snails, dine on fallen Tabonuco fruit. There are also several species of moths that lay eggs near Tabonuco trees. When their larvae hatch, they feed on fallen fruit and foliage. The tropical forest abounds with organic litter, which these insects turn into a rich compost. They, in turn, form a source of food for larger animals, such as mongoose and bats. The number of insect species decline with the rise in elevation, and more diverse numbers of these animals are found in lower elevations where there are fewer Tabonuco trees. Nonetheless, the tree is an important habitat and food source for insects.

Red Fig-Eating Bat

The red fig-eating bat doesn't really eat figs, but it does eat other tropical fruit. The bat is most commonly found in the Luquillo Experimental Forest in Puerto Rico, which has a large population of Tabonuco trees. The bats in this area are more brown than red and have a leaf-shaped appendage on their noses. The majority of the bat's diet is fruit, which it forages in the night time before returning to roost during the day. The bat is a major distributor of Tabonuco seeds, which have a 33 percent chance of germination.

References

• United States Federal Forest Service: Dacryodes Excelsa
• Audubon: Puerto Rican Parrot
• U.S. Long Term Ecological Research Network: Luquillo
• Wiley Online Library: "Separating the Effects of Forest Type and Elevation on the Diversity of Litter Invertebrate Communities in a Humid Tropical Forest in Puerto Rico"; Barbara A. Richardson, et al.; Sept. 1, 2005
• University of Connecticut: Red Fig-Eating Bat