Seed transporting routes and hoarding behaviors of wood mice for Quercus mongolica var. grosseserrata acorns and the distribution of the seedlings in the boundary between a block field and Sasa shrubs
2006
Miura, Y.(Chiba Univ. (Japan)) | Okitsu, S.
The effects of the dispersal behavior of wood mice on the distribution of Q. mongolica var. grosseserrata seedlings were studied in habitats where there is little vegetation cover. Ten, twenty, and eighty-six acorns with a spool were placed in Sasa shrubs, in a block field (a rock lump place), and on the boundary between the two habitat types, respectively. Most acorns in Sasa shrubs were eaten on the spot, all acorns in the block field remained, and about 60% acorns on the boundary were removed. Seventeen of acorns removed from the boundary (N = 51) were carried in the block field, and almost the same number were estimated be carried in Sasa shrubs. Wood mice preferentially moved along fallen trees and cached acorns at considerable density beside rocks (N = 6), but the greater number of acorns was cached at the rocks and soil (N = 11). These results indicate that wood mice used fallen trees and outskirts of rocks as routes of transporting acorns, and cached them in the block field. Seedlings were observed on the outskirts of rocks which wood mice cached many acorns, but not in Sasa shrubs. It was concluded that transporting and caching of acorns into the block field by wood mice could contribute the regeneration of Q. mongolica var. grosseserrata.
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