TY - JOUR
T1 - Bird fruit preferences match the frequency of fruit colours in tropical Asia
AU - Duan, Qiong
AU - Goodale, Eben
AU - Quan, Rui Chang
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by National Nature Science Foundation of China (grant no. 31370452, 31170406) and a key project of the Chinese Academy of Science (KSCX2-EW-Q-17). Chen Jin of XTBG provided valuable discussion. We thank our field assistant Li Meng for technical support with the trapping and maintenance of birds.
PY - 2014/7/17
Y1 - 2014/7/17
N2 - While many factors explain the colour of fleshy fruits, it is thought that black and red fruits are common in part because frugivorous birds prefer these colours. We examined this still controversial hypothesis at a tropical Asian field site, using artificial fruits, fresh fruits, four wild-caught resident frugivorous bird species, and hand-raised naïve birds from three of the same species. We demonstrate that all birds favored red artificial fruits more than yellow, blue, black and green, although the artificial black colour was found subsequently to be similar to the artificial blue colour in its spectral reflectance. Wild-caught birds preferred both black and red fleshy natural fruits, whereas hand-raised naïve birds preferred black to red natural fleshy fruits and to those of other colours. All birds avoided artificial and naturally ripe green fruits. The inter-individual variation in colour choice was low and the preferences were constant over time, supporting the hypothesis that bird colour preferences are a contributing factor driving fruit colour evolution in tropical Asia.
AB - While many factors explain the colour of fleshy fruits, it is thought that black and red fruits are common in part because frugivorous birds prefer these colours. We examined this still controversial hypothesis at a tropical Asian field site, using artificial fruits, fresh fruits, four wild-caught resident frugivorous bird species, and hand-raised naïve birds from three of the same species. We demonstrate that all birds favored red artificial fruits more than yellow, blue, black and green, although the artificial black colour was found subsequently to be similar to the artificial blue colour in its spectral reflectance. Wild-caught birds preferred both black and red fleshy natural fruits, whereas hand-raised naïve birds preferred black to red natural fleshy fruits and to those of other colours. All birds avoided artificial and naturally ripe green fruits. The inter-individual variation in colour choice was low and the preferences were constant over time, supporting the hypothesis that bird colour preferences are a contributing factor driving fruit colour evolution in tropical Asia.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84904642689&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/srep05627
DO - 10.1038/srep05627
M3 - Article
C2 - 25033283
AN - SCOPUS:84904642689
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 4
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
M1 - 5627
ER -