Geophagy in New Guinea birds
Geophagy in New Guinea birds
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1474-919x.1999.tb07540.x
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发表时间：
1999-04-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.1
通讯作者：
Gilardi, JD
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Diamond, J;Bishop, KD;Gilardi, JD
食土癖，即吞食土壤，在许多地区的鸟类和其他动物中都有报道，但其功能仍有争议。我们首次报告新几内亚鸟类的食土行为：四或五种鹦鹉，两或三种鸽子，一种犀鸟，一种乌鸦，可能还有一种食火鸡。这些物种在陡峭山坡上的滑坡造成的裸露地面上吃土壤。鹦鹉在清晨来到这里，鸽子在下午晚些时候从相当远的地方飞来。这11个物种都是食果动物。在附近，我们记录了133种其他鸟类（包括37种其他食果鸟类），这些鸟类没有被观察到访问该网站。在每一个食果动物的分类群中，那些食土动物往往是他们行会中最大的物种。为了验证有关食土作用的假设，我们对该遗址的土壤样品进行了化学和物理分析。摄入的土壤颗粒太细，不能用作砂砾;它所含的所有14种矿物质含量都很低;它缺乏缓冲能力;没有证据表明它可以预防腹泻。相反，土壤的高测量阳离子交换能力，高含量的阳离子结合矿物质和结合大量的单宁酸和奎宁提出了一个不同的假设：在这种情况下，食土作用结合有毒和/或恶臭味的次级化合物摄入的水果和种子。因此，食土行为代表了植物和动物消费者之间不断升级的生物战中的一种武器，这是一场鹦鹉擅长的进化军备竞赛。我们讨论了食土癖带来的五个未解决的问题。
Geophagy, the ingestion of soil, has been reported for birds and other animals from many regions, but its functions remain debated. We report geophagy for the first time for New Guinea birds: four or five parrot species, two or three pigeon species, one hornbill species, one crow species and possibly one cassowary species. These species ate soil at an area of bare ground created by a landslide on a steep mountain slope. Parrots visited the site in the early morning, pigeons in the late afternoon, flying in from considerable distances. All 11 of these species are frugivores. In the: vicinity, we-recorded 133 other bird species (including 37 other frugivore species) that were not observed to visit the site. Within each taxonomic group of frugivores, those practising geophagy tended to be the largest species of their guild. To test hypotheses regarding the functions of geophagy, we carried out chemical and physical analyses of soil samples from the site. The ingested soil was much too fine-grained to be useful as grit; it contained only modest levels of all 14 minerals analysed; it lacked buffering capacity; and there was no evidence that it protected against diarrhoea. Instead, the soil's high measured cation-exchange capacity, high content of cation-binding minerals and binding of large quantities of tannic acid and quinine suggest a different hypothesis: that geophagy in this case served to bind poisonous and/or bitter-tasting secondary compounds in ingested fruits and seeds. Geophagy thus represents one weapon in the escalating biological warfare between plants and animal consumers an evolutionary arms race at which parrots excel. We discuss five unsolved problems posed by geophagy.