Lorikeet by John Spurlock

Work Cited

js462_1 — 2024-04-18 17:19:57 UTC

https://www.britannica.com/animal/budgerigar

https://www.britannica.com/animal/koala

https://denverzoo.org/animals/lorikeet/#:~:text=Lorikeets%20have%20zygodactyl%20feet%2C%20two,them%20safe%20from%20potential%20predators.

js462_1 — 2024-04-18 17:26:48 UTC

Binomial- Psittacus moluccanus

Distribution- Eastern seabord of Australia, all over the rest of the Southwest Pacific

Avg. Weight- 5 oz.

Coloration- Red bills, blue heads, green wings, and black feet

js462_1 — 2024-04-19 17:56:33 UTC

js462_1 — 2024-04-19 18:13:11 UTC

The lorikeet can be found in Australia (on the eastern seaboard, as far south as Tasmania), the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and various other islands and places in Polynesia. It lives primarily in forested/wooded areas such as a rainforest or a coastal brush area.

Behavioral

js462_1 — 2024-04-19 18:15:48 UTC

Lorikeets are a species of parrot, and it is widely believed that the defining characteristic of their appearances, their distinctly colorful feathers, evolved in order to make it easier for them to attract mates.

js462_1 — 2024-04-19 18:27:48 UTC

In conclusion, natural selection is the phenomenon in which members of a species that are not adapted to their environment end up dead and are not able to pass on the traits which made them vulnerable, whatever that may be. The environment in which the lorikeets reside are forests which are lush with foliage, allowing such colorful feathers to come into being.

The Budgerigar

js462_1 — 2024-04-22 18:19:04 UTC

The Budgerigar (melopsittacus undulatus, also known as the Common Parakeet), is of the tribe Melopsittacus in the Melopsittaci Genus, which is one of three in the Loriinae subfamily of birds, to which the Lorikeet belongs to through the tribe Loriini. They are found all throughout Southeast Asia, including Australia where its distant cousins live, but also as far west as Sri Lanka and India. Budgerigars typically weigh somewhere between 1.1 to 1.4 ounces.

A notable difference between the budgerigars and the lorikeets is the coloration of their feathers. The lorikeets have a much more diverse spectrum of coloration than their green and yellow extended relatives. The size of their beaks is also exponentially different, with the budgerigars possessing smaller beaks than their lorikeet cousins.

The Koala

js462_1 — 2024-04-24 17:55:01 UTC

The Koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) are a marsupial which also lives on the eastern seaboard of Australia, generally weighing 31 pounds. They are short and plump, they have round, black noses, and their fur is colored gray. This species is as distantly related as it gets from the Lorikeet, but both have adapted to their shared forested environment in different ways. The Lorikeets evolved prominent structural, physiological, and behavioral adaptations in order to help it evade predators and attract mates, such as their zygodactyl feet, the papillae on their tongues, or their distinct coloration and mating rituals. Koalas, on the other hand, have also developed claws on their feet to help perch themselves in trees (Structural), they've developed a cecum (Physiological) in their intestines to help digest the toxins present in Eucalyptus leaves which is the sole aspect of their diet, and they generally live alone and move only as far as 12 trees apart in their life, preferring one over all the others (Behavioral).

Although they are wildly different creatures with different needs, they still need the strength to cling onto the trees in their shared densely wooded environment, as well as the ability to eat and digest the food scattered throughout the lush fauna that the east coast of Australia has to offer.

Physiological

js462_1 — 2024-04-24 17:59:15 UTC

Lorikeets have papillae, short hairs on the tip of their tongue inside their beaks, which allow them to extract nectar and pollen from the lush forested environment in which they live.

Structural

js462_1 — 2024-04-24 18:01:46 UTC

Lorikeets boast what are called zygodactyl feet, which is when two toes face forward and two face back, which provides incredible strength to grip onto tree branches. This allows them the opportunity to hang upside down and feed on nearby nectar and pollen.