Abstract
Preliminary studies indicate that western grey kangaroos browse seedlings of non-Myrtaceae species rather than Myrtaceae. Seven morphologic- ally-matched species pairs of Myrtaceae/non-Myrtaceae placed at three field sites showed that kangaroos avoided the essential-oil-containing Myrtaceae, but readily consumed the matched essential-oil-lacking non-Myrtaceae. The one exception (Pittosporaceae) had limited herbivory and was later found to possess two essential oils in its leaves. Gas chromatography and mass-spectra showed the seven Myrtaceae plants contain between 2 and 9 essential oils in their leaves, particularly the highly volatile monoterpene, 2,5-dimethyl-3-methylene-1,5-heptadine. Three of the above species pairs were used to gauge their effectiveness as nurse plants for a highly palatable legume. Plants placed beside Myrtaceae nurse plants were less browsed than those placed beside non-Myrtaceae nurse plants. We conclude that western grey kangaroos use olfactory cues to avoid foliage containing potentially toxic essential oils, and that this also has implications for seedling recruitment patterns in regenerating communities.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Atsatt, P. R. and O'Dowd, D. J. 1976. Plant defense guilds. Science 193:24–29.
Baker, R. T. and Smith, H. G. 1920. A Research on the Eucalypts especially in Regard to Their Essential Oils, 2nd edn. Technological Museum, New South Wales, Australia.
Bamford, M. J. and Bamford, A. R. 2000. Report to the Whiteman Park Authority. Department of Planning and Urban Development, Perth, Australia.
Bell, D. T. and Koch, J. M. 1980. Post-fire succession in the northern jarrah forest of Western Australia. Aust. J. Ecol. 5:9–14.
Callaway, R. M. and Walker, L. R. 1997. Competition and facilitation: A synthetic approach to interactions in plant communities. Ecology 78:1958–1965.
Christensen, P. E. S. 1980. The biology of Bettongia penicillata (Gray, 1837) and Macropus eugenii (Desmarest, 1817) in relation to fire. Forests Dep. West Aust. Bull. 91:323–329.
Cork, S. J. and Foley, W. J. 1991. Digestive and metabolic strategies of arboreal mammalian folivores in relation to chemical defenses in temperate and tropical forests, pp. 133–166, in R. T. Palo and C. T. Robbins C. T. (Eds.). Plant Defenses Against Mammalian Herbivory. CRC, Boca Raton, Florida.
Croteau, R., Kutchan, T. M., and Lewis, N. G. 2000. Natural products (secondary metabolites), in B. Buchanan, W. Gruissem, and R. Jones (Eds.). Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Plants. American Society of Plant Physiologists, Rockville, MD.
Frid, L. and Turkington, R. 2001. The influence of herbivores and neighboring plants on risk of browsing: A case study using arctic lupine (Lupinus arcticus) and arctic ground squirrels (Spermophilus parryii plesius). Can. J. Zool. 79:874–880.
Ganzhorn, J. U. 1992. Leaf chemistry and the biomass of folivorous primates in tropical forests. Oecologia 91:540–547.
Gardner, C. A. and Bennetts, H. 1956. The Toxic Plants of Western Australia. West Australian Newspapers, Perth, Australia.
Hanley, M. E. and Lamont, B. B. 2001. Herbivory, serotiny and seedling defense in West Australian Proteaceae. Oecologia 126:409–417.
Hanley, M. E. and Lamont, B. B. 2002. Relationships between physical and chemical attributes of congeneric seedlings: How important is seedling defense? Funct. Ecol. 16:216–222.
Hay, M. E. 1986. Associational plant defenses and the maintenance of species diversity: Turning competitors into accomplices. Am. Nat. 128:617–641.
Hay, R. K. M. and Waterman, P. G. 1993. Volatile Oil Crops: Their Biology, Biochemistry and Production. Longman Scientific and Technical, Essex, United Kingdom.
Hume, I. D. 1978. Evolution of the Macropodidae digestive system. Aust. Mamm. 12:37–41.
Hume, I. D. 1999. Marsupial Nutrition. Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, Australia.
Hummelbrunner, L. A. and Isman, M. B. 2001. Acute, sublethal, antifeedant and synergistic effects of monoterpenoid essential oil compounds on the tobacco cutworm, Spodoptera litura (Lep., Noctuidae). J. Agric. Food Chem. 49:715–720.
Hunt, M., Slotnick, B., and Croft, D. 1999. Olfactory function in the red kangaroos (Macropus rufus) assessed using odor-cued taste avoidance. Phys. Behav. 67:365–368.
Janzen, B. J. M. and De Groot, A. 1991. The occurrence of biological activity of drimane sequiterpenoids. Nat. Prod. Rep. 8:309–318.
Jedlickova, Z., Mottl, O., and Sery, V. 1992. Antibacterial properties of the Vietnamese cajeput oil and ocimum oil in combination with antibacterial agents. J. Epidemiol. Microbiol. Immunol. 36:303–309.
Kinnear, J. E., Cockson, A., Christensen, P., and Main, A. R. 1979. Nutritional biology of the ruminants and ruminant like mammals—a new approach. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 64A:357–367.
Kyriazakis, I., Papachristou, T. G., Duncan, A. J., and Gordon, I. J. (1991) Mild conditioned food aversions developed by sheep towards flavors associated with plant secondary compounds. J. Chem. Ecol. 23:727–746
Lawler, I. R., Foley, W. J., Eschler, B. M., Pass, D. M., and Handasyde, K. 1998. Intraspecific variation in Eucalyptus secondary metabolites determines food intake by folivorous marsupials. Oecologia 116:160–169.
Lis-Balchin, M. and Deans, S. G. 1997. Bioactivity of selected plant essential oils against listeria monocytogen. J. Appl. Microbiol. 82:759–762.
Main, A. R. 1981. Plants as animal food, in J. S. Pate and A. J. Mccomb (Eds.). The Biology of Australian Plants. The University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, Western Australia.
Mattiske Consulting 2000. Evaluation of Western Grey Kangaroo Grazing Pressures on the Vegetation of Whiteman Park. Perth, Western Australia.
Oh, H. K., Sakai, T., Jones, M. B., and Longhurst, W. M. 1967. Effects of various essential oils isolated from Douglas Fir needles upon sheep and deer rumen activity. Appl. Microbiol. 15:777–784.
Ott, R. L. 1993. An Introduction to Statistical Methods and Data Analysis. Wadsworth, Belmont, CA.
Paczkowska, G. and Chapham, A. R. 2000. The Western Australian Flora: A Descriptive Catalogue. Wildflower Society of Western Australia, Nedlands, Western Australia.
Palo, R. T. and Robbins, C. T. 1991. Plant Defenses Against Mammalian Herbivory. CRC, Boca Raton, Florida.
Penfold, A. R. and Willis, J. L. 1961. The Eucalypts: Botany, Cultivation, Chemistry, and Utilization. Interscience, New York.
Podani, J. 1995. SYN-TAX 5.02.Mac, Computer Programs for Multivariate Data Analysis on the Macintosh System, User's Guide. Scientia, Budapest, Hungary.
Provenza, F. D., Burritt, E. A., Clausen, T. P., Byrant, J. P., Reichardt, P. B., and Distel, R. A. 1990. Conditioned flavor aversion: A mechanism for goats to avoid condensed tannins in blackbrush. Am. Nat. 136:810–828.
Provenza, F. D., Ortega-Reyes, L., Scott, C. B., Lynch, J., and Burritt, E. A. 1994. Antiemetic drugs attenuate food aversions in sheep. J. Anim. Sci. 72:1989–1994.
Provenza, F. D., Villalba, J. J., Cheney, C. D., and Werner, S. J. 1998. Self-organization of foraging behavior: From simplicity to complexity without goals. Nutr. Res. Rev. 11:199–222.
Rice, W. R. 1989. Analyzing Tables of Statistical Tests. Evolution 43:223–225.
Scholl, J. P, Kelsey, R. J., and Shakizadeh, F. 1977. Involvement of volatile oil compounds of Artemisia in browse preference by mule deer. Biol. Syst. Ecol. 5:291–295.
Seigler, D. S. 1979. Toxic seed lipids, in G. A. Rosenthal and D. H. Janzen (Eds.). Herbivores: Their Interaction with Secondary Plant Metabolites. Academic, New York.
Sheperd, K. A., Wardell-Johnson, G. W., Longeragan, W. A., and Bell, D. T. 1997. Diet of herbivorous marsupials in a Eucalyptus marginata forest and their impact on the understorey vegetation. J. R. Soc. West Aust. 80:47–54.
Soderberg, T. A., Johansson, A., and Gref, R. 1996. Toxic effects of some conifer resin acids and tea tree oil on human epithelial and fibroblast cells. Toxicology 107:99–109.
Specht, R. L. and Specht, A. 1999. Australian Plant Communities: Dynamics of Structure, Growth and Biodiversity. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Australia.
Tewksbury, J. J. and Lloyd, J. D. 2001. Positive interactions under nurse-plants: Spatial scale, stress gradients and benefactor size. Oecologia 127:425–434.
Tuomi, J. 1992. Toward integration of plant defense theories. TREE 7:365–367.
Tuomi, J. and Augner, M. 1993. Synergistic selection of unpalatability in plants. Evolution 47:668–675.
Villalba, J. J., Provenza, F. D., and Bryant, J. P. 2002. Consequences of the interaction between nutrients and plant secondary metabolites on herbivore selectivity: Benefits or detriments for plants? Oikos 97:282–292.
Wann, J. M. and Bell, D. T. 1997. Dietary preferences of the black-gloved wallaby (Macropus irma) and the western grey kangaroo (M. fuliginosus) in Whiteman Park, Perth, Western Australia. J. R. Soc. West Aust. 80:55–62.
Willis, J. C. 1966. A Dictionary of the Flowering Plants. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Zar, J. H. 1999. Biostatistical Analysis, 4th edn. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jones, A.S., Lamont, B.B., Fairbanks, M.M. et al. Kangaroos Avoid Eating Seedlings with or Near Others with Volatile Essential Oils. J Chem Ecol 29, 2621–2635 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOEC.0000008008.91498.62
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOEC.0000008008.91498.62