HOARDING BEHAVIOR OF EURASIAN NUTCRACKER ANDITS ROLE IN THE DISPERSAL OF KOREAN PINE

The studiy was carried out in Autunm from 1993 to 1995 in Liangshui Natural Reserve in NE China. After eating some seeds, Nuterackers fly over 1 km or more to some area with seeds in its sublingual pouch and cache the seeds in the ground for future use. Each cache contains 1-7 seeds commonly. Caching habitats are in accord with seedlings sites. The quantities of caching seeds are very large. Caching depth is adaptable for seed germination. The Eurasian Nutcrackers have an important effect on seeds dispersal of Korean pine.

Panic buying? Food hoarding during the pandemic period with city lockdown

Food hoarding is prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic.To investigate the mechanism of urban consumers’food hoarding behaviors,we categorize hoarding motives into rational and irrational ones.Using random online survey samples from three cities in China,we employ the multivariate probit model to investigate the rational and irrational motives on food hoarding behavior.Our results confirmed the existence of both rational and irrational food hoarding,and also found factors attributing to the different buying behaviors.The amount of food at hand and the expectation on the infection possibility of COVID-19 are two major factors affecting rational hoarding.Bad mood and herd psychology are factors contributing to panic buying.This study provides an empirical evidence to support intervention policies aiming at mitigating panic buying behavior.

Effects of thinning on scatter-hoarding by rodents in temperate forest

Deforestation and thinning are human activities that can destabilize the forest ecological system and,conse­quently,impact significantly on habitat and behavior of forest-dwelling animals.This hypothesis was tested in Yugong in the Mount Taihangshan area by comparing the tracks of tagged seeds of Armeniaca sibirica.in sites of unthinned and thinned forests.Our results showed that:(i)the diversity of vegetation and rodents drastical­ly reduced in sites with thinned forests,compared to unthinned sites;(ii)the amount of both removed and scat­ter-hoarded seeds significantly declined in sites with thinned forests,compared with the unthinned sites;(iii)there was no significant difference observed in the distance of seed dispersal between the thinned and unthinned areas;and(iv)the thinning did not show a significant change to the model of cache size.These results suggest­ed that the thinning of forests negatively influenced the species richness and food-hoarding behavior of rodents.In addition,the results indicated that the weakened scattered-hoarding might be disadvantageous to seedling re­cruitment and forest restoration.

Seed traits and taxonomic relationships determine the occurrence of mutualisms versus seed predation in a tropical forest rodent and seed dispersal system

Although many studies have been carried out on plant-animal mutualistic assemblages,the roles of function­al traits and taxonomy in determining both whether interactions involve mutualisms or predation and the struc­ture of such assemblages are unclear.We used semi-natural enclosures to quantitatively assess the interaction strengths between seeds of 8 sympatric tree species and 4 rodent species in a tropical forest in Xishuangban­na,Yunnan,Southwest China.We found 2 clusters of species in the seed-rodent network represented by 2 gen­era in the Fagaceae(Castanopsis,Lithocarpus).Compared to seeds of 3 Castanopsis species,seeds with heavy weight,hard coat or caloric content(including 3 Lithocarpus species)were eaten less and more frequently hoarded by rodents.In turn,hoarded seeds showed less predation and more mutualism with rodents.Our results suggest that seed traits significantly affected the hoarding behavior of rodents,and,consequently,the occurrence of mutualisms and predation as well as assemblage structure in the plant-animal seed dispersal system.Taxo­nomically-related species with similar seed traits as functional groups belong to the same substructures in the assemblage.Our results indicate that both seed traits and taxonomic relationships may simplify thinking about seed dispersal systems by helping to elucidate whether interactions are likely to be dominated by predation or mutualism.

Seed traits and rodent community interact to determine seed fate:evidence from both enclosure and field experiments

Animal-mediated seed dispersal is an important ecological process in which a strong mutualism between animals and plants can arise.However,few studies have examined how a community of potential seed dispersers interacts with sympatric seed trees.We employed a series of experiments in the Qinling Mountains in both semi-natural enclosure and the field to assess the interactions among 3 sympatric rodent species and 3 Fagaceae tree seeds.Seed traits all showed similar tannin levels but markedly different physical traits and nutritional contents.We found that seeds with heavy weight,thick coat,and high nutritional contents were less likely to be eaten in situ but more often to be eaten after dispersal or hoarded by rodents.These results support both the handling time hypothesis and the high nutrition hypothesis.Surprisingly,we also found that rodents,maybe,preferred to consume seeds with low levels of crude fiber in situ,and to harvest and hoard those with high levels of crude fiber for later consumption.The sympatric rodent species,Cansumys canus,the largest rodent in our study,harvested and hoarded more Quercus variabilis seeds with high physical and nutritional traits,while Apodemus draco,the smallest rodent,harvested more Q.serrata seeds with low physical and nutritional traits,and Niviventer confucianus harvested and hoarded more Q.aliena seeds with medium physical and nutritional traits.Our study demonstrates that different seed traits play different roles in influencing the seed fate and the shaping of mutualism and predation interactions within a community of rodent species.