文章基本信息

标题：Bird fruit preferences match the frequency of fruit colours in tropical Asia
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作者：Qiong Duan ; Eben Goodale ; Rui-chang Quan 等
期刊名称：Scientific Reports
电子版ISSN：2045-2322
出版年度：2015
卷号：4
期号：1
DOI：10.1038/srep05627
语种：English
出版社：Springer Nature
摘要：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.