Sep. 14, 2012 The bright crimson Andean Cock-of-the-rock eats
the fruits of over 100 plant species and disperses their seeds.
It is in good company, since other seed-dispersing birds and
pollinating insects in the tropics are also -- contrary to prior
doctrine -- less specialised on individual plant species than
their temperate counterparts. This is the outcome of a study
conducted by an international research group, which is published
September 14 in the journal Current Biology. This suggests that
ecosystem functions such as pollination and seed dispersal in
the tropics have a higher tolerance against extirpations of
individual species than in the temperate communities. It is a
win-win business for bees and plants: bees forage on plant
nectar, and in return they pollinate the next flower they visit.
Virtually the same is true for fruit-eating birds, which by the
way disperse the seeds of plants. A large number of such
mutualistic interactions between species exist in an ecosystem,
which together form a compl