Are possums important dispersers of large-seeded fruit?

The claim by Dungan et al. (2002) that “in many areas possums may be the only potential dispersal vector for large-seeded native species” is unsubstantiated. There is little evidence possums excrete viable seed of large-seeded fruit greater than 10 mm diameter, and seeds up to this size are dispersed by a suite of bird species. Nowhere in New Zealand are there likely to be possums in the absence of this suite of bird species. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________