frugivore

frugivore, any animal that subsists totally or primarily on fruit. Although the diets of many animals include fruits, many species practice frugivory exclusively. Such animals include several species of bats, such as the Jamaican fruit bat (Artibeus jamaicensis) and a number of flying foxes (Pteropus), many passerine birds, and some fish of family Characidae.

Frugivory is thought to have evolved as a mutualism to facilitate seed dispersal in plants. In general, an animal benefits by receiving sustenance from the plant by consuming the fruit. If the animal swallows the seeds of the fruit and later travels to a new area, it assists the propagation of the plant by dispersing the seeds when it defecates. Many scientists argue that this process helped flowering plants (angiosperms) diversify after their emergence during the Cretaceous Period (145.5 million to 65.5 million years ago). In contrast to granivory, or seed predation, where seeds are digested, frugivory is predicated by the assumption that the seeds will remain intact throughout the animal’s digestive system. Several plant-frugivore mutualisms have developed that pair more than one animal species with a single plant species. Most such mutualisms are limited to tropical ecosystems and commonly involve fruits produced by fig trees (Ficus) and mistletoe. Most seed-dispersal systems, however, are more generalized, matching one animal species to several plant species.

The word frugivore may also refer to the human lifestyle that endorses the exclusive consumption of fresh fruits and raw vegetables.