The
plant life that surrounds us stands around doing its best to get along with the
animal life that assumes control, whether it’s humans, birds or insects. Our aid is usually sought with continuing the
propagation of the genes via pollination or seed dispersal and, in many cases, with more or less diligence.
This is only one side of the jockeying for
position though. Plants have their own defense strategies. Big thorns keep us
away, unless the fruit is ripe and then we may get tempted, but the reputation
of toxins as deployed as a good chemical defense strategy by poison oak or
poison ivy keep us well away. Even stinging nettles discourage all except the
most hardy from harvesting them for soup. Even when we do they, like dandelion
leaves exact payback should we consume too many.
The
rain forests are full of a huge variety of plants and some of these have their
chemical defense strategies too. Birds for instance often eat fruit and void
the seeds which is an effective seed dispersal program.
Parrots
don’t subscribe to the same symbiotic relationship and Gilardi and Toft from U
Cal Davis have been worrying about the habits of macaws that crunch up the
seeds as well as fruit with their strong beaks. Their study is in yesterday’s
PLoS ONE (1).
The problem is that many of the plants have
attempted to protect their seeds via a good chemical defense, but the parrots
want the highly nutritious protein and lipid content in the seeds. The study
used brine shrimp mortality as a surrogate for a vertebrate toxicity test as
the authors didn’t want to poison any parrots by feeding them enough to make
them fall off their perches.
It
seems that the phrase, so beloved by the English: “as sick as a parrot” has no
valid etymology from the natural world and can only be applied to the binge
drinkers who wanders the streets.
It
seems that the phrase, so beloved by the English: “as sick as a parrot” has no
valid etymology from the natural world and can only be applied to the binge
drinkers who wander the streets.
