Recording of 150 Gang-gang food items surpassed

Thanks very much to the 195 of you that have added Gang-gang records to the Hungry Parrots project. You have contributed about a third of all the Gang-gang feeding records collected to date. Earlier this week we passed 150 distinct food items of which 66% are native species, 28% are exotic species and 5% are invertebrates. What is intriguing is that many of the food items are only eaten in one part of the Gang-gangs range. For example of the 1400 records that we have, Hughes (a suburb of Canberra) is the only place where Gang-gangs have been recorded as eating cicadas while Penrose in the Southern Highlands is the only place where Gang-gangs have been recorded eating the fleshy fruit of the domestic apple. Whether this apparent diet specificacy is due to not having a large enough sampling, or just reflects what is available within a particular area, or relates to local population preferences is uncertain, but your continued records will help throw light on the situation as well as telling us much more about Gang-Gang diet.

Thanks again for your help in this research

Michael Mulvaney

Posted on October 6, 2021 02:42 AM by michaelmulvaney