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© 1992 International Society for Behavioral Ecology

research-article

Spatial patterns of food storage by Merriam's kangaroo rats

Stephen H. Jenkins and Rebecca A. Peters

Department of Biology, University of Nevada Reno, NV 89557, USA

ABSTRACT

We investigated scatter-hoarding behavior by Merriam's kangaroo rats (Dipodomys merriami) in a complex arena in the laboratory. Animals cached seeds in four sand-filled boxes connected by runways, with an artificial burrow at one end of the system and a food source at the other. Animals initially cached more seeds in boxes close to the food source, but amounts cached became more evenly distributed among boxes as sessions progressed. The results were consistent with the hypothesis that scatter hoarding by kangaroo rats may represent a compromise between rapidly sequestering seeds, hence making them unavailable to nondigging competitors, and spacing-out caches, making them less vulnerable to pilferage by other rodents.


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