SHORT COMMUNICATION Size doesn't matter: Larger Carapa seeds are not dispersed farther by African rodent community Biplang G. Yadok 1,2 | Daniel Gerhard 3 | Pierre-Michel Forget 4 | Hazel Chapman 1,2 1 School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand 2 Nigerian Montane Forest Project, Yelwa village, Taraba State, Nigeria 3 School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand 4 UMR 7179 MECADEV CNRS-MNHN, Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Brunoy, France Correspondence Biplang G. Yadok, School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, PB 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand. Email: biplang.yadok@pg.canterbury.ac.nz Funding Information Chester Zoo; T Y Danjuma Scholarship; Rufford Small Grants, Grant/Award Number: 18801-1 1 | INTRODUCTION Scatter‐hoarding rodents store seeds in caches under litter and/or below ground (Brodin, 2010; Morris, 1962) to ensure a constant food supply (Brodin, 2010). However, if they fail to return to their cache, to depredate the seed or germinating seedling, scatter‐hoard- ing rodents may inadvertently disperse seeds and enhance seedling establishment (Vander Wall, Forget, Lambert, & Hulme, 2005). When this happens, the advantages to the plant of avoiding negative con- specific density or distance‐dependent mortality may outweigh the cost that may occur through seed depredation (Jansen, Bongers, & Hemerik, 2004; Vander Wall, 1990, 2010). In the Neotropics, the contribution to forest regeneration by scatter‐hoarding rodents is well established (Forget, 1990; Forget, Hammond, Milleron, & Tho- mas, 2002; Jansen, Bongers, & Van Der Meer, 2008; Jansen et al., 2012; Dracxler & Forget, 2017); there, both smaller (<250 g in body weight), more generalist and, to some extent, insectivorous and lar- ger (>500 g body weight) often frugivorous and granivorous rodents remove seeds and predate or disperse them (Fleming & Brown, 1975; Forget, 1991; Vandermeer, 1979). In Africa however, the role of scatter‐hoarding rodents as seed dispersers is still poorly under- stood and requires further studies in both forests (Aliyu, Adamu, Moltchanova, Forget, & Chapman, 2014; Nyiramana, Mendoza, Kaplin, & Forget, 2011; Rosin & Poulsen, 2017). This is a significant omission in knowledge because dispersal limitation of large‐seeded species is only associated with the dramatic loss of large bodied pri- mary seed dispersers (Effiom, Nuñez‐Iturri, Smith, Ottosson, & Ols- son, 2013; Fa & Brown, 2009). A combination of intrinsic (e.g. seed properties such as size, nutrient content, hardness of seed coat and defensive chemical compounds) and extrinsic (e.g. fruit crop abundance, rodent density and alternative food sources) factors influence rodent decisions around depredating vs caching seeds found above the ground (Jan- sen et al., 2004; Klinger & Rejmánek, 2010; Wang & Chen, 2009; Xiao, Wang, Harris, & Zhang, 2006; Yi, Wang, Liu, & Liu, 2015). Studies outside of Africa have demonstrated that seed size can have a major influence on rodent behaviour (Galetti et al., 2010, 2015; Jansen et al., 2002; Luna, Loayza, & Squeo, 2016; Wang & Ives, 2017). Rodents generally consume smaller seeds on the spot, while larger seeds, containing higher nutritional and energy rewards (Van- der Wall, 2010), are preferentially cached, with details depending on the season (Forget, Milleron, & Feer, 1998; Forget et al., 2002) and food availability at the community level (Jansen et al., 2002; Wang & Ives, 2017). Wang, Chen, and Corlett (2014) have highlighted that large seeds require more handling time than small seeds, so there is a trade‐off involved. Seed size may also influence the distance to which seeds are moved by scatter‐hoarding rodents; larger seeds are often carried across longer distances than small seeds (Galetti et al., 2010; Jansen & Forget, 2001; Jansen et al., 2004). Two rodent taxa have been found to scatter‐hoard seeds in trop- ical African forests, the African giant pouched rat (Cricetomys spp) and the African brush‐tailed porcupine (Atherurus africanus) (Aliyu et al., 2014; Nyiramana et al., 2011; Rosin & Poulsen, 2017; Seltzer, Kremer, Ndangalasi, & Cordeiro, 2015). Both rodent taxa have a rela- tively large body size (≥1 kg) (Kingdon et al., 2013) and are active consumers of large seeds which can potentially meet the energetic demands of the rodents. However, there is a gap in our knowledge about how seed size affects rodent scatter‐hoarding behaviour in Africa, and the few studies that do report rodent scatter‐hoarding (Aliyu et al., 2014; Nyiramana et al., 2011; Rosin & Poulsen, 2017) Received: 10 October 2017 | Revised: 28 May 2018 | Accepted: 15 July 2018 DOI: 10.1111/aje.12542 Afr J Ecol. 2018;1–6. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/aje © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd | 1