Banksia pollen in the diet of Australian mammals

Abstract

Mammals are frequent visitors to flowers in some Australian plant communities. Nectar is usually considered to be the food sought, because pollen is thought to be of low digestibility. This study compared the abilities of four non-flying mammal species to extract the protoplasts from Banksia pollen grains and quantified the amount of pollen in the diets of the species over 16 months. All four species were capable of extracting the protoplast from a large proportion of the pollen grains that they ingested: the mean percentage of empty Banksia pollen grains in the faeces ranged from 37% to 66%. Banksia pollen was a major component in the faecal samples from two species, Cercartetus nanus and Petaurus breviceps, between March and October. It occasionally comprised a large proportion of Antechinus stuartii faeces but was rare in the faeces of Rattusfuscipes. Other major components of faeces included invertebrates and plant material other than pollen and fungal spores. As the four mammal species tested were all from separate families and all capable of extracting the protoplast from a large proportion of the pollen grains, it is concluded that the extraction of pollen protoplasts by mammals may be widespread and may require no special adaptations.