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Repeated radicle pruning of Quercus mongolica acorns as a cache management tactic of Siberian chipmunks

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Abstract

Many rodents hoard seeds as a means of ensuring food availability during scarcity. Siberian chipmunks (Tamias sibiricus) feed on acorns of white oak Quercus mongolica and hoard them for future use. Such caches may deteriorate due to the early germination of the acorns in autumn, which can be inhibited by radicle pruning or embryo excision. Siberian chipmunks are found to frequently prune the radicles of germinated acorns of Q. mongolica; however, whether this behavior is a kind of cache management tactic remains unclear. Here, we performed semi-natural enclosure and field experiments to test the role of radicle pruning in cache management of T. sibiricus. We found that T. sibiricus preferred non-germinated acorns and tended to prune radicles of germinating acorns when scatter-hoarding them, but did not perform the behavior of embryo excision by squirrels. Both semi-natural enclosure and field experiments showed that T. sibiricus not only pruned radicles repeatedly but removed radicles varied in length from acorns, which significantly postponed acorn germination and radicle growth. These observations suggest that radicle pruning would be an evolutionary tactic for cache management of Siberian chipmunks.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Alicia V. Linzey who provided editorial assistance for earlier version of this manuscript. We also thank the Dongfanghong Forestry Center for support. Funds were provided by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (No. 2007CB109102) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Key Program, No. 30930016/C0302).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiguan Street, Xining, 810008, China

    Yueqin Yang

  2. College of Agriculture, Henan University of Science and Technology, Xining Road 35, Luoyang, 471003, China

    Yueqin Yang, Xianfeng Yi & Fei Yu

  3. State Key Laboratory of Integrated Pest Management, Institute of Zoology, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beichen West Road, Beijing, 100101, China

    Xianfeng Yi

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  1. Yueqin Yang
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  2. Xianfeng Yi
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  3. Fei Yu
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Correspondence to Xianfeng Yi.

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Yang, Y., Yi, X. & Yu, F. Repeated radicle pruning of Quercus mongolica acorns as a cache management tactic of Siberian chipmunks. acta ethol 15, 9–14 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-011-0102-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-011-0102-0

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