Effect of plant cover on seed removal by rodents in the Monte Desert (Mendoza, Argentina)
In desert areas, predation risk is one of the highest costs of foraging and is a major influence on animal<br />behaviour. Several strategies are used by foragers for surviving and reproducing in desert areas. The foraging<br />strategies of the small mammals of South American deserts ar...
| Autores: | , , |
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| Formato: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2003 |
| País: | Argentina |
| Recursos: | Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas |
| Repositorio: | CONICET Digital (CONICET) |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/102003 |
| Acesso em linha: | http://hdl.handle.net/11336/102003 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palavra-chave: | https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.6 https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1 |
| Resumo: | In desert areas, predation risk is one of the highest costs of foraging and is a major influence on animal<br />behaviour. Several strategies are used by foragers for surviving and reproducing in desert areas. The foraging<br />strategies of the small mammals of South American deserts are still poorly known. In this study, we investigated the<br />foraging strategies of rodents of the Monte Desert in response to distance from seed sources to sheltered sites (i.e.<br />shrubs) during two different seasons (wet and dry). We evaluated the relative rates of removal of two species of seeds<br />(millet and sunflower) by rodents at two sites by establishing 80 seed sources, 40 in unsheltered microhabitats and<br />40 in sheltered microhabitats. We recorded both the number of caches and seed consumption for each source. We<br />found that plant cover affected the foraging activity of rodents of the sand dunes in the Monte Desert because both<br />consumption and numbers of caches constructed from sheltered seed sources were higher than those from<br />unsheltered ones. Consumption of sunflower was higher in the wet season than it was in the dry season, when millet<br />consumption increased. Sunflower was the preferred seed both from sheltered or unsheltered sources. We discuss<br />the possible causes of the different foraging strategies used by rodents of the Monte Desert. |
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