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Several plant species in the Neotropics bear large, fleshy fruits that suggest adaptation to endozoochorous seed dispersal by large vertebrates. Many of these plants occur in areas where large vertebrates are no longer present; consequently, their seeds are dispersed by pulp consumers; small vertebrates that only ingest the pulp reward because they are uncapable of swallowing the fruits whole. Few studies have examined the role of these pulp consumers on the regeneration of large‐fruited/seeded plants. Here, we assessed seed disperser effectiveness (SDE) and context‐dependence in SDE of pulp consumers of Pouteria splendens, a large‐seeded tree, considered a tropical relict in Mediterranean Chile. We found that P. splendens fruits are consumed by six species of non‐flying vertebrates; four of which act as dispersers with very low effectiveness. Low SDE resulted from the quantitative, rather than the …