In 2001, I wrote a paper [PDF] that provided a global review of interactions between Ficus species and the animals that eat their figs. The full dataset was too big to go into the journal paper so I put it online, but that site — go.to/figs — disappeared in 2009.
I’m happy to say that the full dataset is now back online on this site.
Here you can records of which animals eat the figs of 260 ‘good’ Ficus species — and the fig species in the diets of over 1280 species of bird, mammal, reptile and fish.
The information is presented in the following appendices that can be cross-referenced using the codes for each Ficus and frugivore species (the references are online too).
Appendix 1: Ficus species and their known frugivores
Appendix 2: Fig-eating vertebrates and the Ficus species they consume
This data forms the online appendices of Shanahan, M., So, S., Compton, S.G. & Corlett, R.T. (2001). Fig-eating by Vertebrate Frugivores: A Global Review. Biological Reviews 76:529-572. [PDF].
If you have any suggestions for this site, feel free to comment on the pages here or get in touch by email.)
Best wishes
Mike Shanahan
Read more about fig trees in my book Ladders to Heaven (published in North America as Gods, Wasps and Stranglers). For a summary and reviews from Annie Proulx, Deborah Blum, Michael Pollan, Sy Montgomery, Simran Sethi, David George Haskell and others, visit this page.
Fig-eating by vertebrates: a global review 