Functional relationships of Asian Hornbills in changing forest landscapes

• Margaret F. Kinnaird
• Timothy G. O'Brien

Abstract
Birds and mammals are important seed dispersers and pollinators in tropical rainforests and are increasingly threatened by deforestation and hunting. The use of minimum viable populations as targets for conservation may be insufficient to assure the delivery of ecological services such as seed dispersal. Hornbills (Family Bucerotidae) are a distinctive African and Asian bird family, inhabiting savannahs, dry forests and rainforests of Sub-Saharan Africa, and India eastward to the Solomon Islands. In Asia, hornbills are largely frugivorous forest birds and important dispersers of seeds of rainforest trees. Despite more than two decades of research, there has not been an attempt to synthesize and extend knowledge about this family. We propose to collate, analyze and synthesize data that will explore the ecology and behavior of these important birds, demonstrate their functional role in forest ecosystems, highlight keystone interactions with fruit resources, and examine the conservation impact of forest loss and fragmentation for hornbills and their function in the ecosystem.