Behavioral Adaptation to a Desert Environment: An Experimental Comparative Study of Food Hoarding

许多动物在食物充足的时候储存食物，以备日后使用， 资源稀缺。 食物囤积通常有两种类型： 将大量的食物储存在一个集中的地方，如 许多人都在挖洞穴（储藏室囤积），并散布许多小的缓存， 在一个人的家庭范围内的食物（分散囤积）。 袋鼠鼠是一种沙漠啮齿动物， 应对沙漠不可预测性的战略 环境. 共存的袋鼠鼠的食物不同- 囤积模式：一些物种是储藏室囤积者，另一些是 主要是分散囤积者 本研究将使用实验室和 实地实验，以测试三个假设的差异， 袋鼠鼠的食物囤积模式 具体来说，因为 较大的袋鼠鼠对较小的袋鼠鼠具有侵略性的优势， 像梅里亚姆和奥德袋鼠这样的小动物应该 贮藏较少的种子，使更多的宽间隔分散贮藏 和移动缓存更频繁地响应盗窃比大 比如巴拿马鼠和沙漠袋鼠鼠。 詹金斯博士 还将比较同一物种的不同种群， 网站与不同套件的竞争对手，以测试 预测囤积行为是适应竞争 特定群体成员遇到的环境。 这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。 第一，沙漠 啮齿类动物一直是研究 生态系统结构和功能的竞争。 虽然 沙漠啮齿类动物之间竞争的普遍影响， 一种建立良好的特定行为机制， 竞争很少受到关注。 作为一个关键的行为 袋鼠鼠对沙漠环境的适应，食物囤积 很可能与物种间的竞争密切相关。 第二，最佳觅食是最富有成效的领域之一 行为生态学的研究近年来， 理论发展和经验之间的生产性相互作用 对来自理论模型的预测进行检验。 作为 在觅食行为方面，关于食物囤积的工作一直是 到目前为止，主要是描述性的。 这项关于食物的实验研究 袋鼠鼠的囤积行为将导致更广泛的 食物囤积的观点，把它放在背景下， 最佳觅食生态。 第三，分散囤积的动物 许多植物种子传播的重要媒介 物种 这项研究的因素，导致袋鼠鼠， 分散囤积与储藏室囤积将导致更大的理解 这些动物和沙漠植物之间的相互作用 人口，从而有利于保护沙漠 环境.

Many animals store food in times of plenty for use later when resources are scarce. Two general types of food hoarding occur: storing large amounts of food in a centralized location such as a burrow (larder-hoarding), and scattering many small caches of food throughout an individual's home range (scatter-hoarding). Kangaroo rats are desert rodents that use food hoarding as a strategy for dealing with the unpredictability of desert environments. Coexisting kangaroo rats differ in their food- hoarding patterns: some species are larder-hoarders, others are primarily scatter-hoarders. This study will use laboratory and field experiments to test three hypotheses about differences in food-hoarding patterns of kangaroo rats. Specifically, because larger kangaroo rats are aggressively dominant to smaller ones, smaller animals such as Merriam's and Ord's kangaroo rats should larder-hoard fewer seeds, make more widely-spaced scatter-hoards and move caches more often in response to theft than larger animals such as Panamint and desert kangaroo rats. Dr. Jenkins will also compare different populations of the same species from sites with different suites of competitors, to test the prediction that hoarding behavior is adapted to the competitive environment encountered by members of a particular population. This study is important for several reasons. First, desert rodents have been model systems for studies of the role of competition in ecosystem structure and function. Although the pervasive influence of competition among desert rodents has been well established, specific behavioral mechanisms that mediate competition have received little attention. As a key behavioral adaptation of kangaroo rats to desert environments, food hoarding is likely to be closely connected to competition among species. Second, optimal foraging has been one of the most fruitful areas of study in behavioral ecology in recent years because of the productive interplay between development of theory and empirical tests of predictions derived from theoretical models. As an aspect of foraging behavior, work on food hoarding has been mainly descriptive to date. This experimental study of food hoarding by kangaroo rats will contribute to a broader perspective on food hoarding by placing it in the context of optimal foraging ecology. Third, scatter-hoarding animals are important agents of dispersal for the seeds of many plant species. This study of factors that cause kangaroo rats to scatter-hoard vs. larder-hoard will lead to greater understanding of interactions between these animals and desert plant populations, with consequent benefits for conservation of desert environments.