Seed dispersal is now regularly analyzed using spatially explicit models, relying in part on frugivore gut passage times to produce model outputs. In determining species-specific gut passage times, there is a trade-off in sample size between minimizing collection effort and maintaining statistical reliability. Here we demonstrate that a two-parameter lognormal parametric distribution reliably fits empirical gut passage time distributions and is easily parameterized using relatively small data sets of approximately 30 defecations. We suggest this approach as a statistically reliable substitute for larger empirical gut passage data sets in seed dispersal modeling, and also as a way of using published gut passage data sets to parameterize new models.