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Chemical Ecology, Sensory Biology

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Prediction Of Avian Repellency From Chemical Structure: The Aversiveness Of Vanillin, Vanillyl Alcohol, And Veratryl Alcohol, Pankaj Shah, Larry Clark, Russel Mason Jan 1991

Prediction Of Avian Repellency From Chemical Structure: The Aversiveness Of Vanillin, Vanillyl Alcohol, And Veratryl Alcohol, Pankaj Shah, Larry Clark, Russel Mason

Larry Clark

The effectiveness of bird repellents is associated with the presence of an electron-withdrawing group (carbonyl or carboxyl) and an electron-donating group in resonance on a phenyl ring. The present experiments were designed to examine the relative importance of these structural features. European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) were presented with vanillin, vanillyl alcohol, and veratryl alcohol in two-cup and one-cup feeding trials and in one-bottle drinking tests. In feeding trials, veratryl alcohol was significantly more aversive than the other two chemicals. In drinking tests. veratryl alcohol was repellent only at the highest concentration (0.5% ml/ml), and was lethal at that concentration and …