Fruit removal by seed-dispersing animals in the Colombian Andes

Fruit removal. This data set was collected during the period February-November 2012 along an altitudinal gradient in the Andes of Colombia (Cordillera Central, in Risaralda). We established ten plots (100 x 20 m), each plot was separated of each other 100 m elevation, from 1,800 m up to 2,700 m above sea level. In each plot, we marked and identified each individual plant bearing ripe fruits and recorded the number of fruits that were removed by seed-dispersing birds and seed-dispersal mammals such as the squirrels. The observations took place in the morning, from 6:30 to 12:30, for five consecutive days, accumulating 30 hours of observation. The plots were visited twice in the rainy season (May and November) and twice in the dry season (February and August), accumulating a total of 120 hour of observation. Fruit removal was the total number of fruits removed by all frugivores on each individual plant across the four surveys in 2012. The data contains the taxonomy of the plants, shrubs and trees. Crop size is the number of ripe fruits of each plant. We collected between 10-30 ripe fruits from one to three individuals per species and measured the fruit length and obtain an average per specie. We gathered roughly 6 g of dried ripe pulp per plant species to analyze the nutritional content of pulp such as sugar, lipids and phenols. We estimated two indices that measure the relation pulp/seeds, RY: dry mass of pulp/ wet mass of pulp, and PTS: dry mass of pulp/total dry mass of seeds per fruit. This data was used to identify the most important plant traits to attract frugivorous animals and promote seed dispersal in the Andes.