Seed dispersal in Zamiaceae (Cycadales) and a new report in Zamia manicata

Seed dispersal by animals in cycads is assumed to be rare and unimportant. We conducted a literature review of seed dispersal by animals in species of the family Zamiaceae. We found 71 reports of animal dispersal in Zamiaceae, mostly by birds and mammals species of small to medium size; but only six studies of seed dispersal in natural populations of Zamia species. We also conducted a study of primary and secondary seed dispersal by animals in Zamia manicata in Colombia. We used camera traps for recording animal interactions with female cones with mature seeds; and a seed marking experiment to explore the movement of seeds away from the immediate vicinity of the parental plant after cone disintegration. For Z. manicata, we observed a potential primary seed disperser, Baryphthengus martii, a medium-sized bird of the Momotidae family. We also registered a 6% of seeds initially dispersed by gravity moved away from the parental plant more than 10 meters of distance. These results and other recent evidence suggest that animal dispersal events might play an important role for the population ecology of species in the Zamiaceae family.