El Valle Volcanic Crater Fruit Garden
El Valle de Antón Caldera, Coclé, Panama · Latin America & Reefs · rainforest
About this place
Examine Pleistocene caldera soil fertility, avian frugivore gape-width guilds, and Janzen-Connell seed-dispersal mutualisms.
For kids: Step inside a giant sleeping volcano crater filled with cool misty forest where rainbow tanagers and aracaris plant baby trees!
El Valle Volcanic Crater Fruit Garden · 360° Habitat Camp
What to look for
- La India Dormida volcanic crater rim — Pleistocene dacitic caldera microclimate. Scan the collapsed Pleistocene caldera ridge intercepting Caribbean trade-wind clouds
- Rainbow tanager & aracari fruit bough — Gape-limited vs large-seed frugivore guilds. Centre the sub-canopy fruiting branches shared by Ramphocelus tanagers and Pteroglossus aracaris
- Volcanic creek & seedling gap — Janzen-Connell pathogen-escape zone. Locate the sunny streamside canopy gap where dispersed seeds escape host-specific pathogens
Source: Howe & Smallwood (1982), Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. & Holbrook & Loiselle (2009), Biotropica — Neotropical frugivory & toucan seed dispersal.
Ask together: Why does a baby rainforest tree grow much better when a bird carries its seed far away instead of dropping right in its parent tree's shadow?
Field quiz
Kids' question: Why do rainforest trees wrap their seeds inside sweet, brightly colored fruit pulp?
- To reward hungry birds for carrying clean seeds to sunny new places to sprout!
- To keep seeds floating high in the clouds
- To scare away friendly butterflies
Answer
To reward hungry birds for carrying clean seeds to sunny new places to sprout!
Adults' question: Why can't small-gaped songbirds replace collared aracaris and toucans in dispersing climax canopy nutmeg trees like Virola (Holbrook & Loiselle, 2009)?
- Small birds peck pulp in place and drop seeds beneath the parent crown, whereas wide-gaped toucans swallow large seeds whole and regurgitate them intact hundreds of metres away
- Tanagers digest granite stones inside muscular crops
- Nutmeg seeds germinate exclusively inside salt-water mangroves
- Aracaris bury seeds three metres underground like moles
Answer
Small birds peck pulp in place and drop seeds beneath the parent crown, whereas wide-gaped toucans swallow large seeds whole and regurgitate them intact hundreds of metres away
360° photo: Johnattan Rupire, CC BY-SA 4.0
See it live: Live check: El Valle Crater Fruit Feeder Cam
- By day
- Crimson-backed & flame-rumped tanagers, blue-gray tanagers, collared aracaris & thick-billed euphonias Streaming live from inside El Valle's volcanic crater at 700 m elevation, showcasing twenty-five+ frugivorous bird species daily.
- By night
- Central American woolly opossums, nocturnal spiny rats & crater stream mist After sunset, nocturnal marsupial frugivores (Caluromys derbianus) continue seed-dispersal shifts across El Valle's crater forest.
Other language: Русский