I have just had a debate with a friend that stated that there are no animals feeding on citrus fruits. So , I wonder if there are really no animals feeding on wild or cultivated citrus fruits.
For animals I mean mainly birds or mammals, not insects.
Thanks
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The common brushtail possum, Trichosurus vulpecula absolutely eats lemons. Specifically, our lemons 
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Baltimore Orioles love oranges, and many people here in the United States put orange halves out all summer for them. Cat birds eat them too. If we leave the citrus out at night a raccoon will finish the orange, then wash it down with the hummingbird food. We obviously try to bring it all in at night to avoid this.
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It seems like a waste of resources for such plants to pack their seeds in large juicy fruits if nothing is going to eat them. I would expect natural selection to have put a stop to it, or rather not promoted citrus fruits in the first place. Or is your friend suggesting that the animals that eat such fruits have died out and the trees have not caught up yet?
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some monkeys and apes eat oranges. they will peel them before eating just like humans do.
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Some rodents, such as squirrels and chipmunks, will also feed on oranges.
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Eh eh… something like that…
PS: thanks to all
It is a strange claim! I have seen, firsthand, squirrels and orioles eating citrus fruits right off the tree. I’ve many times seen hummingbirds feeding from their flowers. My neighbor had citrus trees and I saw skunks and opossums eating fallen fruit from them. There are species of mites (which are not insects) which feed on nothing but citrus.
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I love Gray Catbirds! I’ll have to try this orange business.
That brought back a memory – Florida Everglades, in a “hammock” (the term refers to a small “island” of tropical rainforest in the middle of a vast grassland). I have never seen so many catbirds in one place as I did in that hammock.
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Ringtail possums (Pseudocheirus peregrinus) will chew the rind off oranges and lemons while they are still hanging on the tree, leaving strange white fruits amongst the orange or yellow ones.
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Chacma Baboons here in South Africa’s Western Cape go crazy for citrus in Winter, great source of vitamins and amino acids to see them through this wet and miserable season
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I think the deeper underlying question was what was the original disperser of wild citrus in their native range?
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There are many types of citrus fruits, kumquat, key lime, sweet orange, mandarin orange, pomelo, grapefruit…Wild boars will eat a sweet orange that has dropped onto the ground. Hornbills like fruits and may take kumquat. Never seen it. I’m just thinking it is possible. Many citrus varieties have been in cultivation for a very long time. Some citrus fruits do not have juice.
I get rid of a few sweet oranges every month, by cutting it in half and placing it at a wild place. I didn’t stick around. I guess the birds have been feeding on it. A few butterflies. Slugs and semislugs seen nearby sometimes. The fruit peel will be melting away. I did not take note if the slugs are eating everything. I think they like the white part of the peel. I did not observe too closely.
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… Someone is eating them to keep them alive… a unique primate species called H. sapiens, though the common name escapes me at the moment.
In all seriousness, while wild animals can and do often eat citrus (they must be, for wild citrus to be alive and well) the “large, juicy fruits” to which we are accustomed are large and juicy because humans selectively bred them that way.
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I’ve also seen sliced oranges at feeders in Costa Rica being enjoyed by parakeets and songbirds of a couple different species.
Just to add, Citrus species are in the Rutaceae family. Readily hybridized.The varieties of edible citrus seen today are in cultivation for a very long time.I think no one really knows the true origins of this type of plants. What I read is the origin is somewhere in South east asia, India and China. There are species not called Citrus in the rutaceae family. Since these plants are grouped under Rutaceae, there must be some links. The popular Australian fingerlime was previously called Microcitrus australasica, and now included into Citrus. It is under cultivation and hybridisation, although the plants look wild. Another rutaceae ,Atalantia ceylanica, the name says ceylon. Atalantia buxifolia has small black berries. Triphasia trifolia has red berries. These will likely be propagated by birds like bulbuls. There is one plant called Merope angulata in the local mangroves. A rutaceae. Not a citrus in name. Toddalia asiatica, a climbing vine with small citrus-like fruits.
Citrus peel essential oils are insect repellents… Limonene. I read that some citrus peel contains coumarins and furanocoumarins. These compounds are lesser in highly cultivated edible varieties.
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