Effects of shade cocoa plantation on artificial fruit consumption by birds in two contrasting landscapes in Southern Bahia, Brazil

To investigate the influence of forests and agroforestry systems on fruit consumption by birds, we studied two landscapes, one covered predominantly with forests and the other dominated by traditional shade cocoa plantations. In each landscape, we sampled three forest fragments and three shade cocoa plantations. We placed 15 artificial fruits in 25, 1–2-m-tall shrubs spaced every 50 m and evaluated the detection and consumption of fruits after 72 h. We used hemispherical photographs positioned above each fruit station to evaluate canopy openness. We found a statistically significant difference in fruit consumption between landscapes, which means that more fruits were detected and consumed in the forest-dominated landscape. However, forests and shade cocoa plantations within each landscape exhibited similar fruit consumption. Canopy openness was similar between the landscapes, however, the cocoa plantations exhibited greater canopy openness than forests. The results of this study reinforce the importance of the presence of forests in the agricultural landscape. Thus, to evaluate the capacity of agroforest to protect species and maintain ecological interactions it is also necessary to consider the landscape context.