Honorary Chair Sir Edmund Hillary 1919-2008	President Daniel A. Bennett	Honorary President Don Walsh, Ph.D.

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EXPEDITIONS Grant Reports   REPORT—YOUTH ACTIVITY FUND Avian Pollination: Ecology of Vision and Colouration in a Co-Evolved System 2005 By Laila Gao Expedition Members: Laila Gao Isabel Nelson Andy Bennett Introduction Avian colour vision differs substantially from that of humans because many birds perceive UVA wavelengths (300-400nm), to which humans are blind, and have four types of cones in their retina, compared to only three in humans. Thus, to communicate with their pollinators, plants may use colour-based signals “hidden” from humans. With the objective of gaining insight into the function and evolution of colour-based signalling in avian pollination systems, we carried out a range of observations and experiments in the coastal heathlands of Royal National Park, Australia. Our first aim was to investigate the pollination biology of the fuchsia heath Epacris longiflora. Twice a month, observations of flower visits were undertaken in plots of 50m2 in 30-minute time-slots throughout the day. We found that while some birds legitimately visited the flowers, feeding through the corolla mouth and thus pollinating the plant, others robbed the nectar by tearing holes in the petals or feeding through such holes torn by previous visitors, not pollinating the plants. We recorded data which included the species of nectar-feeding bird visiting, the number of flowers visited per plant either legitimately or by robbing, and the number of intact and robbed flowers per plant. FULL REPORT in pdf RETURN TO LIST

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