Sugar Preferences and Digestion by Cape White-Eyes,<i>Zosterops virens</i>, Fed Artificial Fruit Diets

Wellmann, Andrea E.; Downs, Colleen T.

doi:10.3377/004.044.0110

Cited by 15 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…White-eyes are typical generalist feeders, with nectar, fruits, insects, and spiders in their diet ( Kikkawa and Kakizawa, 1981 ;Kopij, 2004 ). In southern Africa, the Cape white-eye ( Z. virens ) was observed to prefer sucrose over both glucose and fructose in sugar choice test experiments, regardless of concentration, suggesting that the Cape white-eye must possess high sucrase activity ( Fleming et al, 2004 ;Wellmann and Downs, 2009 ). Th e assimilation efficiency of sucrose in the intestines of the Cape white-eye was 97.6% ( Fleming et al, 2004 ).…”

Section: Species/cultivarsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nectar properties and the role of sunbirds as pollinators of the golden‐flowered tea (Camellia petelotii)

Sun

Huang

Chen

et al. 2017

American J of Botany

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Section: Species/cultivarsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nectar properties and the role of sunbirds as pollinators of the golden‐flowered tea (Camellia petelotii)

Sun

Huang

Chen

et al. 2017

American J of Botany

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“…Energy assimilation has been quantified for artificial fruit diets (Witmer 1998, Wellmann & Downs 2009, Wilson & Downs 2011), nectar diets (Brown & Downs 2003, Brown et al. 2010) and indigenous fruit diets (Witmer & Van Soest 1998), but not for invasive alien fruits.…”

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confidence: 99%

Digestion of fruit of invasive alien plants by three southern African avian frugivores

Jordaan

Johnson

Downs

2011

Ibis

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Many highly invasive plants are fleshy-fruited and owe their invasiveness largely to mutualisms formed with local dispersers. The energetic benefits gained by frugivores from ingestion of fruits of invasive alien plants remain poorly documented. We assess whether avian frugivores process fruits of invasive alien plants effectively to meet their daily energetic requirements. Four fleshy-fruited plant species that are invasive in southern Africa were considered -Solanum mauritianum, Cinnamomum camphora, Lantana camara and Psidium guajava. Their fruits were fed to three common generalist frugivores -Red-winged Starling Onychognathus morio, Speckled Mousebird Colius striatus and Dark-capped Bulbul Pycnonotus tricolor -to determine the efficiency of digestion. Energetic parameters calculated for all fruit diets varied significantly between frugivore species. Speckled Mousebirds and Dark-capped Bulbuls maintained body mass and efficiently processed all four fruit types, whereas Red-winged Starlings only did so on C. camphora and S. mauritianum diets. These results explain why these fruits are attractive to local avian frugivores. Furthermore, these avian frugivores processed large quantities of invasive fruits, thereby serving as potentially efficient dispersers.

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“…Unfortunately, like studies of nectar concentration preferences, almost all experiments have been conducted over multiple meals, making it impossible to disentangle taste and post‐ingestive responses (Fleming et al . , ; Wellmann & Downs ; Odendaal et al . ; Medina‐Tapia et al .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do sunbirds use taste to decide how much to drink?

Bailey

Nicolson

2016

Journal of Animal Ecology

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Summary1. Nectarivorous birds typically consume smaller meals of more concentrated than of less concentrated sugar solutions. It is not clear, however, whether they use taste to decide how much to consume or if they base this decision on post-ingestive feedback.2. Taste, a cue to nectar concentration, is available to nectarivores during ingestion whereas post-ingestive information about resource quality becomes available only after a meal. When conditions are variable, we would expect nectarivorous birds to base their decisions on how much to consume on taste, as post-ingestive feedback from previous meals would not be a reliable cue to current resource quality.3. Here we tested whether white-bellied sunbirds (Cinnyris talatala),foraging from an array of artificial flowers, use taste to decide how much to consume per meal when nectar concentration is highly variable: they did not. Instead, how much they chose to consume per meal appeared to 1 depend on the energy intake at the previous meal, i.e. how hungry they were.4. Our birds did, however, appear to use taste to decide how much to consume per flower visited within a meal. Unexpectedly, some individuals preferred to consume more from flowers with lower concentration rewards and some preferred to do the opposite.5. We draw attention to the fact that many studies perhaps misleadingly claim that birds use sweet taste to inform their foraging decisions, as they analyse mean data for multiple meals over which post-ingestive feed back will have become available rather than data for individual meals when only sensory information is available.6. We discuss how conflicting foraging rules could explain why sunbirds do not use sweet taste to inform their meal size decisions.

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Sugar Preferences and Digestion by Cape White-Eyes,Zosterops virens, Fed Artificial Fruit Diets

Cited by 15 publications

References 38 publications

Nectar properties and the role of sunbirds as pollinators of the golden‐flowered tea (Camellia petelotii)

Nectar properties and the role of sunbirds as pollinators of the golden‐flowered tea (Camellia petelotii)

Digestion of fruit of invasive alien plants by three southern African avian frugivores

Do sunbirds use taste to decide how much to drink?

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