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Most models of resource competition assume that coexistence of consumers depends on tradeoffs in their abilities to exploit shared resources along dimensions of environmental heterogeneity generated by factors external to the consumers. However, consumers may create heterogeneity themselves by modifying resources that they do not immediately consume; such ?resource processing? is predicted to allow coexistence if consumers vary in use of resources in primary vs. modified form. To explore whether external food storage (caching) represents a form of resource processing that contributes to observed patterns of species coexistence, we developed a biologically explicit simulation model of competition for a well-studied...
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North American desert rodents in the family Heteromyidae live in an unpredictable environment characterized by extremes in temperature and food availability; therefore, the ability to hoard food is a vital adaptation. Although much laboratory research has investigated food-hoarding tactics of heteromyid rodents, data from natural systems are scarce. We used a combination of fluorescently labeled seeds and observations of focal individuals to evaluate food-hoarding behavior in wild Merriam's kangaroo rats (Dipodomys merriami) living in different competitive environments. There was considerable individual variation within populations in the tendency to larderhoard seeds in a burrow versus scatterhoard seeds in widely...
    map background search result map search result map Competitive environment affects food-hoarding behavior of Merriam's kangaroo rats (Dipodomys merriami) Competitive environment affects food-hoarding behavior of Merriam's kangaroo rats (Dipodomys merriami)