東方蜂鷹(Pernis ptilorhynchus)的嗅覺潛能與其輔助覓食的功能

The olfactory potential of Oriental Honey-buzzard (Pernis ptilorhynchus) as an auxiliary sense in foraging

楊書懿(Shu-Yi Yang)

指導教授 ： 翁國精 博士

國立屏東科技大學/農學院/野生動物保育研究所/碩士(2013年)

https://doi.org/10.6346/NPUST.2013.00013

摘要

論文摘要內容：
除了少數一些鳥種，如禿鷹、管鼻類海鳥(Procellariiform seabirds)和奇異鳥(Apteryx australis)會利用嗅覺輔助覓食之外，一般認為鳥類為嗅覺微弱或甚至是沒有嗅覺能力的動物。不過最近幾十年間，越來越多研究發現嗅覺在鳥類的生態上所具有的功能。
東方蜂鷹會進入養蜂場覓食，並食用蜂農餵飼蜜蜂的花粉糰。花粉糰為蜂農將花粉、黃豆粉及糖水所混合而成，提供蜜蜂冬季期間額外的食物，並非自然界的產物，但東方蜂鷹卻知道花粉糰可以食用，因此本研究推測東方蜂鷹是利用嗅覺得知花粉糰可以食用。
本研究設計了操作性實驗來測試蜂鷹是否有能力在兩個以視覺無法辨識但內容物不相同的花粉糰中選出真正的花粉糰。另外，本研究也利用分子生物實驗技術估計蜂鷹的嗅覺受體基因數量，並探討嗅覺受體基因數量與嗅覺潛能的關係。 
實驗結果發現東方蜂鷹幾乎僅取食含有花粉的花粉糰，缺少花粉的假花粉糰幾乎不被蜂鷹取食，而缺少糖或黃豆粉並不影響蜂鷹的選擇，顏色也不影響蜂鷹正確選擇真正的花粉糰。因此，本研究推斷東方蜂鷹聞到了花粉的味道而得知此花粉糰可食，而且相對於顏色而言，氣味是蜂鷹判斷食物時更重要的線索。東方蜂鷹的嗅覺受體基因總數估計為283條，低於一般鳥種的平均值369條。而蜂鷹的功能性嗅覺受體基因所占比例為81.5%，與一般鳥種的平均值83.4%差異不大。此實驗結果表示兩百多條的嗅覺受體基因數即足夠提供蜂鷹相當的嗅覺能力，也顯示出鳥類應普遍具備良好的嗅覺潛能。

關鍵字：東方蜂鷹、嗅覺、嗅覺受體基因、輔助覓食

關鍵字

東方蜂鷹 ； 嗅覺 ； 嗅覺受體基因 ； 輔助覓食

並列摘要

The Contents of Abstract in This Thesis:
It was generally believed that birds have little or even no sense of smell, except for a few species such as vultures, tube-nosed seabirds and kiwis. However, researches in recent decades discovered more and more functions of olfaction in avian ecology.
Oriental Honey Buzzards (OHB) forage in apiaries and eat pollen dough, a mixture of pollen, soybean meal, and sugar provided by beekeepers as a supplementary food for bees in winter. Although the pollen dough does not naturally occur, OHB are able to identify the pollen dough as a potential food. We hypothesized that OHB identified the pollen dough as food through olfaction.
This study designed a manipulative experiment to test our hypothesis by presenting to OHB true pollen dough and visually indistinguishable dough lacking of pollen, soybean meal, or sugar. In addition, this study estimated the number of olfactory receptor genes in OHB to reveal the relationship between the number of olfactory receptor genes and olfactory potential.
Results showed that OHB predominately chose any dough containing pollen and ignored dough without pollen, regardless of other contents. Sugar or soybean meal did not affect the choice by OHB. The color of dough did not affect the choice by OHB, either. Therefore, the study concluded that the OHB could smell the pollen in pollen dough and recognized the pollen dough as edible. The odor of food played a more important role than color in identification of food by OHB. The estimated olfactory gene repertoire in OHB was 283, lower than the average of 369 of other birds. The proportion of functional olfactory receptor gene in OHB was 81.5%, close to the average of 83.4% of other birds. This result indicated that 200 olfactory genes were sufficient to provide OHB considerable olfactory abilities. This finding supports that birds have a good sense of smell.

Keywords: Oriental Honey Buzzard、olfaction、olfactory receptor gene、auxiliary sense in foraging

並列關鍵字

Oriental Honey Buzzard ； olfaction ； olfactory receptor gene ； auxiliary sense in foraging

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