In the behavior called anting, birds rub insects on their feathers, usually ants, which secrete liquids containing chemicals such as formic acid, that can act as an insecticide, miticide, fungicide, bactericide, or to make them edible by removing the distasteful acid. It possibly also supplements the bird's own preen oil. Instead of ants, birds can also use millipedes. Over 250 species of bird have been known to ant.
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History
This behaviour was first described by Erwin Stresemann in German as einemsen in Ornithologische Monatsberichte XLIII. 138 in 1935. Salim Ali interpreted an observation by his cousin Humayun Abdulali in the 1936 volume of Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society with discussion on Stresemann's paper and the suggestion that the term could be translated in English as "anting".[1]
Variations
Some birds, including starlings, babblers, tanagers, blue jays, and weavers, ant actively; that is, they pick up ants with their beak and rub them over their feathers. There are also passive anters, who simply lie over anthills, such as the Eurasian Jay, crows and waxbills.
Some birds have been seen dusting themselves with soil from ant-hills and this has been considered by some as equivalent to anting.[2]
Function
It has been suggested that anting acts as way of reducing feather parasites such as mites or in controlling fungi or bacteria, however there has been no convincing support for any of the theories.[3][4] The choice of ants used however indicates that the chemicals that they release are in some way important. Some cases of anting involved the use of millipedes and these too are known to release powerful defensive chemicals.[5]
Another suggested function that has been observed in Blue Jays is that it allows the bird to make the ants edible for consumption, by discharging the acid on to their feathers. The birds were found to show anting behaviour only if the ants had a full acid sac and if the acid sac was experimentally removed, the behaviour was absent.[6]
Some suggestions have been that anting may be related to feather moulting however this correlation may also be attributed to greater activity of ants in summer.[7]
References
- ^ Ali, Salim (1936) Do birds employ ants to rid themselves of ectoparasites? Journ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 38(3):628-631.
- ^ Kelso, L. and Nice, Margaret M. 1963 A Russian contribution to anting and feather mites. The Wilson Bulletin 75(1):23-26 PDF
- ^ Revis, H.C. and Waller, D.A. (2004) Bactericidal and Fungicidal Activity of ant chemicals on feather parasites: an evaluation of anting behavior as a Method of Self-medication in Songbirds. The Auk 121(4): 1262–1268
- ^ Lunt, N, P.E.Hulley, A. J. F. K. Craig (2004) Active anting in captive Cape White-eyes Zosterops pallidus. Ibis 146:360–362 PDF
- ^ Clunie, F. (1976) Jungle mynah “anting” with millipede. Notornis 23: 77
- ^ Eisner, T. (2008) “Anting” in Blue Jays, evidence in support of a food-preparatory function. Chemoecology 18(4): 197–203
- ^ Power, E. E and D. C. Hauser 1974. Relationship of anting and sunbathing to molting in wild birds. Auk 91:537-563. PDF
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