The contribution of the Canary Island date palm (Phoenix canariensis) to the winter diet of frugivores in novel ecosystems

With the increasing expansion in urban areas, many species have adapted to utilising horticulturally used plants as alternate or augmentary food sources, in particular, during winter – when native foods are largely absent. Ornamental palms, particularly Canary Island Date Palms, fruit continuously during most of the year and thus provide a stable food supply. Based on observational, metric and bio-chemical data, this paper examines the role Canary Island Date Palms can and do play in the nutrition of frugivorous animals, in particular, for birds. It demonstrates that with its nearly year-round provisioning of drupes, the palm plays a major role as a ‘staple’ and backup food source for several species

Dietary habits of urban pigeons (Columba livia) and implications of excreta pH – A review

Pigeons are considered to be urban pests, causing untold damage to buildings and potentially impacting the health of humans who come into contact with them or their faeces. Pigeon faecal matter has been implicated in both health impacts and building damage, with the acidity of the excreta playing an important role. Purpose of the Review. This paper is a wide-ranging review of the chemical processes of excreta in the pigeon to aid our understanding of the potential problems of pigeons to buildings and human amenity in the urban space. The natural pH of pigeons is shown to vary based on the bird’s and age as well as reproductive stage. Key findings of the review. The influences of the altered diet between the rock dove (the wild progenitor of the feral pigeon) and the feral pigeon are detailed, indicating that the human-based diet of urban pigeons most likely causes the feral pigeon excreta to be more acidic than the rock dove excreta. This higher acidity is due in part to diet, but also to potential increases in faecal and/or uric acid volumes due to the low quality of humanbased diets. Again, this area of interest is highly data deficient due to the few number of studies and unspecified dietary intake before pH measurement. Implications of the review. Humans are increasingly concerned about pigeon populations (and presumably their accumulated faeces) in the urban space, and control comprises a large part of the interaction between humans and feral pigeons. This review provides a greater understanding of feral pigeons and the true effects of their excreta

Freshwater Lens, Settlement Patterns, Resource Use and Connectivity in the Marshall Islands

Life on coral atolls can be very precarious. The sand cay islets are low-lying (in the main less than 2m above high water) and small. Only the larger islands (over 500m by 1000m) are suitable for permanent human habitation, as they possess a fragile lens of freshwater floating on top of a saltwater base. It is this lens of groundwater that allows for a variety of plant life, and it is this source of fresh water that allows humans to exist on the island. Environmental disasters, such as typhoons with waves of over 10m washing across an entire islet, can swamp the groundwater lens with saltwater, causing salinisation and thus imperilling human survival. To reduce the consequences of the environmental disasters, Marshallese chiefs had land holdings scattered over several islands of the same atoll, as well as land rights and, importantly, rights to resources, on other atolls. In times of disaster there were thus other resources to call upon. That level of connectivity allowed the Marshallese society to thrive on the marginal land they inhabited

Pteropus poliocephalus Dispersing Seeds of the Queen Palm (Syagrus romanzoffiana) in Albury, NSW

Flying Foxes have adapted to feed on a range of introduced ornamental plants species. In the past, Flying Foxes have been implicated in seed dispersal from the source plant back to the roost. This paper documents a dispersal of Queen palm drupes to an intermediate feeding location. The state of knowledge on the consumption of Queen Palm drupes by Flying Foxes is reviewed in the context of the distribution, dispersal and establishment of the palms in the Australian environment

Gender Bias After Death: The Case of the Clergical Cemetery, St. John’s Orphanage, Thurgoona, NSW, Australia

Cemeteries are commonly seen as reflective of the historic environment in which they were created and therefore form a unique interpretive tool for the cultural heritage manager. As this case study of clergical cemetery documents, physical heritage of a cemetery may well reflect the power hierarchy at the time, but it does not accurately reflect the historic reality. The effective manipulation of the tangible evidence left behind for future generations has effectively enshrined a gender bias in perpetuity

Rites of Passage: Germination of Vertebrate Dispersed, Regurgitated or Defecated Phoenix canariensis Seeds

Canary Island Date Palms are widely planted as ornamental plants in private and public spaces. As both prolific and long-duration seeders, their drupes provide food for a range of volant and terrestrial vertebrates. This study experimentally examined the germination of vertebrate digested seeds. Whereas seeds in Flying- fox spat did not yield a higher germination rate than undigested controls, seeds that had passed through the gastro-intestinal tract and were deposited in scats, or those that were ingested and regurgitated from the crop, have a significantly better probability of germinating. This establishes Pied Currawongs as effective short-range dispersers and canid frugivores, such as the Red Fox, as major medium- and long-distance vectors of ornamental palms

Germination rates of old and fresh seeds and their implications on invasiveness of the ornamental Canary Islands date palm (Phoenix canariensis)

In many countries, Canary Islands Date Palms (Phoenix canariensis) have escaped their horticulturally managed settings and have commenced to colonise surrounding natural bushland. While dispersed by various vectors, both birds and canids such as foxes, fluctuating environmental conditions may inhibit germination in the season of deposition. The potential of old, previous season’s seeds to germinate when conditions turn favourable has direct implications on the plant’s ability to establish viable, colonising populations. Nothing is known about the ability of older, previous season’s seeds to successfully germinate. Based in experimental data, this paper shows that that the seeds of Phoenix canariensis exhibit both substantial inter-specimen and inter-seasonal variations in their germination potential. The observed variability is caused by the high genetic diversity inherent in a given palm population, as well as by range of environmental factors. At the present stage it is impossible to separate these two. Directions for further research are outlined

Penetration of Phoenix canariensis drupes by the date stone beetle Coccotrypes dactyliperda (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Scolytinae)

Date stone beetles (Coccotrypes dactyliperda Fabricius, 1801) tunnel into palm seeds to establish brood galleries with their larvae consuming the seed’s albumen. Prior work examining the location of the initial penetration holes in de-fleshed seeds had shown a preference for the dorsal groove. This paper presents the data of a follow-up experiment that examined the preferences for penetration holes on complete drupes. Using 100 repeats of a single freshly harvested drupe offered to a single beetle, the study found an overwhelming preference for the beetles to penetrate the drupe at the pedicel scar, with all other sectors significantly less utilised. The implications of this are discussed

'Ata 'a Tonga mo 'ata 'o Tonga : early and later prehistory of the Tongan Islands

This thesis addresses the question of the transformation of the Lapita Culture established on Tongatapu over the period 1000 BC to AD 500 into the highly stratified society described by European observers of the late 18th century and reflected in a rich body of oral traditions and a conspicuous grouping of beachrock slab-faced monuments at a capital centre on the lagoon at Mu’a. It does so in the light of discussions of the nature and origins of chiefdoms in Polynesia, particularly the proposition that they arose in the context of increases in populations in circumscribed environments subject to fluctuations in horticultural production, where horticultural surplus could be appropriated, accumulated, stored and judiciously redistributed. The evidence, old and new, for Lapita society is assessed to identify more precisely the nature of the developments to be examined. Three research objectives are defined to which field research by survey and excavation was directed. These are the course and chronology of the settlement of the inland areas and the concomitant growth of an essentially horticulturally-based economy; the nature of the settlement and habitation pattern represented by earthen house- and burial mounds of post-Lapita, aceramic times; and the origins and development of slab-built structures as a mark of high status. The settlement of the inland was accomplished in Late Lapita times, by the 5th century AD, already in a non-nucleated pattern reminiscent of that described by the early Europeans, and the economy was horticulturally based. Mound-building, at least for habitation, proved to be equally old, while comparisons of mound numbers (based on sample surveys) against population estimates (using a variety of sources) suggest that not everyone could be accommodated on them, implying some level of social differentiation in their use. Excavations at house mounds adjacent to one of the quarries where the slabs for high-status structures were obtained indicate that this activity also goes back to the 5th century AD. The further development of these early signs of social differentiation cannot be traced, until the sudden and spectacular appearance of the monument group at Heketa, an early traditional political centre. This is interpreted as representing the establishment of a supreme chieftainship (symbolised in the Tongan term Tu' z) out of a number of earlier competing chieftainships. Analysis of various parameters of slab-faced monuments gives insight into the nature and development of the ruling dynasty and associated lineages. There is the appearance of a significant overseas involvement (the so-called Tongan Maritime Empire), symbolised by the shift of capital centre to Mu'a on the lagoon and its equipping with harbour and wharf facilities. There is also evidence of internal tension between the leading lineages, archaeologically best reflected in the large isolated slab-faced monument at Kanokupolu in the far west of Tongatapu, which by the time of European arrival had become a political centre apart from and competitive with Mu'a. The results of the research point to the possibility of bridging the gap between the first indications of social differentiation in the 5th century AD on the archaeological evidence and the appearance of supreme chieftainship at Heketa in the 12th century by genealogical reckoning through investigations in the Toloa area of southeastern Tongatapu, where the traditions locate the first, shadowy political centre