Ros Laundon wrote:
>A friend in bushland-care asked me if eating the fruit of Ligustrum
>lucidum (Large-leaved Privet) and/or Ligustrum sinsense (Small-leaved
>Privet) caused sterility in native birds. Any information would be
>greatly appreciated.
It's an interesting question and I don't know the answer, but if it does
there must be a lot of sterile birds around here. I reckon there is hardly
a Pied Currawong in the Blue Mountains that doesn't eat at least some
privet fruit in winter. In Robin Buchanan's book "Bush Regeneration" (1989)
a Sydney study was cited in which 58 percent of currawongs' regurgitated
pellets in July were found to contain the seeds of Small-leaved Privet.
Another study by D. Bass (Corella 19:127-132, 1995) found that Pyracantha
and Ligustrum species accounted for more than 92 percent of all seed
collected from currawong pellets at two sites in Armidale NSW. The
assumption is often made that such introduced winter-fruiting plants are
contributing to the increase in population of currawongs, and perhaps other
fruit-eating species.
It's well known that birds such as currawongs are the major cause of the
spread of privet into bushland. Did privet evolve to have its seeds
dispersed by birds in China, its country of origin? If so, surely it would
not make evolutionary sense for these plants to sterilise their own means
of dispersal.
Satin Bowerbirds also love privet fruit and I've often found bowers which
are carpeted in a garden of tiny privet seedlings.
None of this really answers the question and I look forward to reading
comments from others.
Carol
Carol Probets
Katoomba NSW
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