THE ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION OF TOXICITY OF NEW GUINEA BIRDS

Dr. Jack Dumbacher, California Academy of Science

When a species is found to carry highly potent toxins, there are many important scientific questions that can be asked related to the natural
history of toxins in that species. When we serendipitously discovered toxins in the Hooded Pitohui (Pitohui dichrous), a songbird endemic to
Papua New Guinea, we embarked upon several studies to isolate and identify the toxins, to learn how the birds might acquire the toxins, how they use toxins, and how toxins have impacted the bird’s ecology and evolution. In this presentation, I will summarize some of our main hypotheses and the evidence we have for them, and present
ongoing work studying why the pitohui birds are not poisoned by their own toxins.

Webex link:
https://oregonstate.webex.com/oregons
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