On Wed, 1 Aug 2001, Ian Fraser wrote:
> THe high tolerance of some SW species (particulary herbivorous mammals
> and to a slightly lesser degree their predators) is due to the natural
> occurrence of 1080 (Sodium Fluoracetate from memory) in many SW pea
> plants. THe name Poison Pea for many species, particularly in the genus
> Gastrolobium, relects this. It is also the prime reason that the Darling
> Ranges are still in pretty good nick - sheep sent to graze them didn't
> come back!
Not for much longer. The Centre for Rumen Biotechnology at Murdoch Uni
is working on genetically engineering gastrointestinal tract bacteria
which would protect sheep from fluoracetate poisoning.
Also, a ref which I don't think has mentioned is:
Twigg, L.E. and King, D.R. (1989). Tolerance to fluoroacetate in some
Australian birds. Australian Wildlife Research 16: 49-67.
I don't have time to get the library and summarize it unfortunately.
Andrew Taylor
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
