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