Evidence of high individual variability in seed management by scatter-hoarding rodents: does ‘personality’ matter?
The predation and dispersal of seeds by scatter-hoarding animals is one of the most studied processes in the context of animal–plant interactions. Seed management by these animals has been traditionally approached at the population level: the patterns documented in the field are assumed to be similar for all individuals of the population and the variability […]
Directed seed dispersal by a scatter-hoarding rodent: the effects of soil water content
We examined the effects of soil water content (SWC) on scatter-hoarding decisions of Siberian chipmunks, Tamias sibiricus, when caching acorns of Quercus mongolica. We hypothesized that higher SWC, which favours germination in this and similar oaks, would also be favoured for caching and cache recovery in this rodent. We conducted three sets of experiments: one […]