The Role of Wild Banana (Musa acuminata Colla) on Wildlife Diversity in Mixed Deciduous Forest, Kanchanaburi Province, Western Thailand

Abstract

               The roles of wild banana (Musa acuminata) on wildlife diversity in mixed deciduous forest were studied at the Mae Klong Watershed Research Station, Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand during 2003-2004. Thirty wild banana individuals were selected and their phenomena were recorded every two weeks. The number of seeds and seed size of ripened fruit samples were counted and measured. The survival of wild banana seedlings was also recorded every month. Wildlife diversity and its relationships to wild banana phenomena were investigated by automatic camera and live traps. The remote automatic camera traps, eight per census, were set up for two nights and three days in places that wild bananas had flowered or fruited every month. Live-traps were also used at the same time with baited banana fruit inside and eight traps were placed near the banana clumps in every census.

               The results showed that there was a greater seedling survival of wild bananas from clones than from seeds. The establishment of wild banana was directly from colonized clumps, which showed high efficiency by rapidly occupying the complete disturbed area. Wild bananas flowered and fruited at different times among the culms through the year and facilitated good conditions for both forest regeneration and food resources to wildlife. The results on wildlife diversity showed that 17 species from 16 genera came to utilize the inflorescences, fruits and seeds of wild banana. The roles of wildlife on wild banana could be classified as 1) pollinator by the greater short-nosed fruit bat (Cynopterus sphinx), the streaked spiderhunter (Arachnothera magna) and the little spiderhunter (A. longirostra), 2) seed predator by Pallas’s squirrel (Callosciurus erythraeus), the gray-bellied squirrel (C. caniceps), the Indochinese ground squirrel (Menetes berdmorei, Rattus spp., Mus sp.) and the common treeshrew (Tupaia glis), and 3) seed disperser by the Asian palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). Thus, considering the important roles of wild banana in mixed deciduous forest, it could be classified as a “keystone species”, which promotes forest regeneration and provides food resources to wildlife, especially during the dry season.