Hm! I must remember to ask where it came from next time Emu appears on a
menu. "Hey garcon, has this bird been feeding on Gastrolobium ?" "Oh yes
Sir, of course it has, that's part of the regular diet at the Emu farm."
Tony
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Dave Torr
Sent: Wednesday, 16 May 2012 1:48 PM
To: Stephen Ambrose
Cc: Birding Aus
Subject: Poisonous Aussie birds.
Interesting observation Stephen - since Emu is not an uncommon meat in some
of the "native game" restaurants in some parts of Aus then hopefully someone
knows the answer - although I guess they are probably farmed rather than
wild ones?
On 16 May 2012 14:06, Stephen Ambrose <> wrote:
> The poison in Gastrolobium is sodium fluoroacetate (also known as
> 1080). In Australia, natural occurrences of sodium fluoroacetate
> occurs mostly in Gastrolobium species, and nearly all species in this
> genus are restricted in distribution to South-western Australia.
> Twigg & King (1991) found that Emus also had a high tolerance to the
> poison when feeding on Gastrolobium seeds, but I don't know if it
> accumulates in the Emu's body, is metabolised or excreted.
>
> Stephen Ambrose
> Ryde, NSW
>
> Reference:
>
> Twigg, L.E. & D.R. King (1991). The impact of fluoroacetate-bearing
> vegetation on native Australian fauna: a review. Oikos 61: 412-430
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> On Behalf Of Steve
> Clark
> Sent: Wednesday, 16 May 2012 9:49 AM
> To: Sonja Ross; Birding Aus;
> Subject: Re: [Birding-Aus] Bass Straight migrants and poisonous Aussie
> birds
> - birdng myths?
>
> G'day Sonja and Anthea
>
> Thanks for your replies.
>
> I'm aware of the Gastrolobium poison bush in WA. Anthea has turned up
> this reference
>
> http://www.publish.csiro.au/?act=view_file&file_id=MU942057.pdf
>
> which is good evidence that the pigeons accumulate poison from the
> seeds of Gastrolobium bilobum in Western Australia.
>
> Further questions:
>
> Has anyone ever extracted poison from a Bronzewing and analysed it?
> What is the situation in other parts of the Bronzewings' range?
> Why are Pitohuis claimed to be the first known poisonous birds? This
> article mentions others (including Bronzewings):
>
>
> http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Publications/ZooGoer/2001/2/intoxnewguineabi
> rds.cf
> m
>
> It seems that others were known or suspected earlier but the chemical
> in Pitohui poison was the first to be identified.
>
> There appears to be no conclusive evidence that Flame Robins migrate
> across Bass Strait unless Anthea can track down the unpublished
> research of Balmford and Dennett. I wouldn't be at all suprised if
> they do cross the Strait but it would be nice to have evidence.
>
> Cheers
> Steve
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