Fuentes Marcelino
Area de Ecoloxía, Facultade de Bioloxía, Universidade de Santiago, E-15706, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Oecologia. 1994 Feb;97(1):134-142. doi: 10.1007/BF00317917.
Differences in fruit choice among the bird species of a Spanish shrubland were related to the size of fruits and to the lipid content of pulp. Lipid-rich fruits were selected by the bird species with slower food passage rates through the digestive tract. These bird species also fed frequently on insects and seeds. Bird species with faster food passage rates fed less on insects and seeds, and ate mainly fruits with pulp poor in lipids (rich in sugars and water). Studies of digestion in birds indicate that lipids require slower food passage rates for efficient digestion and intestinal transport than simple sugars. The available evidence indicates that the European bird species that show stronger preferences for lipid-rich fruits are no better as seed dispersers, from the point of view of the plants, than species choosing lipidpoor fruits. Thus, the degree of frugivory of birds, their fruit choice patterns and their effects on seed dispersal do not seem to be related to each other in the ways expected by the early models of the evolution of fleshy fruits.
西班牙灌木丛地区鸟类物种在果实选择上的差异与果实大小以及果肉的脂质含量有关。消化道食物通过速度较慢的鸟类物种会选择富含脂质的果实。这些鸟类物种也经常以昆虫和种子为食。食物通过速度较快的鸟类物种较少以昆虫和种子为食，主要食用脂质含量低（富含糖分和水分）的果肉果实。对鸟类消化的研究表明，与单糖相比，脂质在消化和肠道运输过程中需要较慢的食物通过速度才能有效进行。现有证据表明，从植物的角度来看，对富含脂质果实表现出更强偏好的欧洲鸟类物种，作为种子传播者并不比选择脂质含量低的果实的物种更好。因此，鸟类的食果程度、它们的果实选择模式以及它们对种子传播的影响，似乎并不像早期肉质果实进化模型所预期的那样相互关联。
