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Nectar sugar preferences and absorption in a generalist African frugivore, the Cape White‐eye Zosterops pallidus
Author(s) -
FRANKE ELKE,
JACKSON SUE,
NICOLSON SUE
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
ibis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.933
H-Index - 80
eISSN - 1474-919X
pISSN - 0019-1019
DOI - 10.1111/j.1474-919x.1998.tb04611.x
Subject(s) - nectar , generalist and specialist species , sugar , frugivore , biology , fructose , white (mutation) , sucrose , botany , ecology , food science , habitat , pollen , biochemistry , gene
Sugar preferences and absorption efficiencies were investigated in the Cape White‐eye Zosterops pallidus , a generalist frugivore. Unlike the mainly American frugivorous passerines previously studied, Cape White‐eyes preferred 20% (weight: weight) solutions of sucrose to glucose or fructose, and apparently possess high sucrase activity because absorption efficiencies for all three sugars were close to 100%. Cape White‐eyes rejected 20% solutions containing a fourth nectar sugar, xylose, recently found in the nectar of Protea and Faurea (Proteaceae). Absorption efficiencies for xylose averaged 61%, but we do not know whether this sugar is utilized by the birds. Cape White‐eyes thus resemble specialized southern African nectarivores (Nectariniidae, Promeropidae) in their responses to nectar sugars.