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- Title
Nectar sugar preferences and absorption in a generalist African frugivore, the Cape White-eye Zosterops pallidus.
- Authors
FRANKE, ELKE; JACKSON, SUE; NICOLSON, SUE
- Abstract
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.
- Publication
Ibis, 1998, Vol 140, Issue 3, p501
- ISSN
0019-1019
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/j.1474-919X.1998.tb04611.x