Charudutt Mishra

Both scientific and traditional knowledge are indispensable to effective, ethical, and community-centered conservation, the director of Snow Leopard Trust argues in a new op-ed. “When communities, scientists, and conservation practitioners become co-producers of knowledge, science and stewardship become stronger, and so does the future of nature,” he writes. This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

Most people grew up watching Sir David Attenborough. I didn’t. Which is perhaps why my early memory of the natural world doesn’t come from television. It comes from a place. A river cutting through the Himalaya. I remember its force and its scale. Growing up in India, televisions were scarce and wildlife documentaries even scarcer. My introduction to Sir David came through one of his books, The Living Planet, which I read and reread as a child. It opened up a world I had never imagined.

Abstract Seed dispersal by frugivores is vital to the maintenance of tree diversity in tropical forests. However, determining the influence of different frugivores over the distribution of their food plants is difficult, given the complexity of these interactions in the tropics. Consequently, most studies have been restricted to small scales, examining seed dispersal and establishment associated with nests, roosts or fruiting trees.