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Effects Of Direct And Indirect Predator Cues On Heteromyid Seed Selection And Seed Fate, Kelly J. Sivy

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Many factors affect foraging behavior of rodents, including predation risk, which is thought to influence seed selection and seed handling by desert rodents in patchy environments. Understanding forces that drive seed selection and seed fate can aid understanding of rodents' impacts on vegetation structure and dynamics. In a feeding arena study, we tested how indirect and direct predation cues influence seed selection and handling behaviors (e.g., scatterhoarding and larderhoarding) of two heteromyid rodents, Dipodomys ordii (Ord's kangaroo rat) and Perognathus parvus (Great Basin pocket mouse), foraging on three seed species. The indirect cue was shrub cover: one half of the …