Fruits and their seeds are ingested by many carnivores, but few studies have quantified the effect of ingestion by carnivorous consumers on seed germination. Here, we examine effects of bear frugivory on the germination of three fruit-producing species. Specifically, we compare germination of gut-passed seeds to that of seeds mechanically-extracted from fruits and seeds that remained within fruits. For all species, germination in the mechanically-extracted and gut-passed treatments exceeded that of the whole fruit treatment. Our results suggest that for these three species, passage through the digestive tract of a bear positively influences germination by removing seeds from pulp, but that gut-passage per se does not increase germination success.