methyl anthranilate and birds
Mar. 13th, 2005 11:38 pmMethyl anthranilate, the compound that makes grape soda taste somewhere in the direction of Concord grapes, is apparently to birds as capsaicin is to mammals.
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/207/5/709/-a
http://www.beckerunderwood.com/new/innovator/January2003.pdf (note PDF)
This fact brought to you by the Grāpple, the apple that tastes as if it's been impregnated with synthetic grape ester, because it has.
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/full/207/5/709/-a
Bruce Bryant explains that methyl anthranilate in grape skins is so unpleasant to birds that a dose is enough to trigger vigorous head shaking `in an effort to rid themselves of the offensive substance'. But how methyl anthranilate inflicts pain on its feathered victims wasn't clear, until Bruce Bryant and his colleagues at the Monell Chemical Senses Center began teasing apart the cellular mechanisms of pain transduction in chicken neurons.
http://www.beckerunderwood.com/new/innovator/January2003.pdf (note PDF)
Becker Underwood's Rejex-It brand products, Fog Force and Migrate, work by imprinting in birds a negative association with the site and food source in order to modify roosting and feeding behavior.
[...]
When applied by a thermal or ULV fogger, Methyl Anthranilate (Fog Force) makes the area unsuitable for loafing, roosting, or nesting. Sprayed over turfgrass, Methyl Anthranilate (Migrate) makes the food source unpalatable.
This fact brought to you by the Grāpple, the apple that tastes as if it's been impregnated with synthetic grape ester, because it has.
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Date: 2005-03-15 09:05 pm (UTC)coyote/coyote