diversity Article Burrowing Parrots Cyanoliseus patagonus as Long-Distance Seed Dispersers of Keystone Algarrobos, Genus Prosopis, in the Monte Desert Guillermo Blanco 1,* , Pedro Romero-Vidal 2, Martina Carrete 2 , Daniel Chamorro 3 , Carolina Bravo 4, Fernando Hiraldo 5 and José L. Tella 5 1 Department of Evolutionary Ecology, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales CSIC, 28006 Madrid, Spain 2 Department of Physical, Chemical and Natural Systems, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Carretera de Utrera, km 1, 41013 Sevilla, Spain;
[email protected] (P.R.-V.);
[email protected] (M.C.) 3 Departamento de Ciencias Ambientales, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Av. Carlos III s/n, 45071 Toledo, Spain;
[email protected] 4 Centre d’Etudes Biologiques de Chizé, UMR 7372, CNRS and La Rochelle Université, F-79360 Beauvoir-sur-Niort, France;
[email protected] 5 Department of Conservation Biology, Estación Biológica de Doñana CSIC, 41092 Sevilla, Spain;
[email protected] (F.H.);
[email protected] (J.L.T.) * Correspondence:
[email protected] Abstract: Understanding of ecosystem structure and functioning requires detailed knowledge about plant–animal interactions, especially when keystone species are involved. The recent consideration of parrots as legitimate seed dispersers has widened the range of mechanisms influencing the life cycle of many plant species. We examined the interactions between the burrowing parrot Cyanoliseus Citation: Blanco, G.; Romero-Vidal, patagonus and two dominant algarrobo trees (Prosopis alba and Prosopis nigra) in the Monte Desert, P.; Carrete, M.; Chamorro, D.; Bravo, Argentina. We recorded the abundance and foraging behaviour of parrots; quantified the handling, C.; Hiraldo, F.; Tella, J.L.