Conspecific pilferage but not presence affects Merriam's kangaroo rat cache strategy |
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Authors: | Preston Stephanie D; Jacobs Lucia F |
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Institution: | Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA
94720-1650, USA |
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Abstract: | We investigated the effects of pilferage on caching behaviorin the Merriam's kangaroo rat by manipulating two factors associatedwith pilferage: the presence of a conspecific, and the opportunityfor pilferage. In one experiment we assessed animals in either"Stealer" or "Victim" roles and measured changes in caching,space use, and behavior after caches were pilfered. Victimsshifted from a majority scatter-hoarding to a majority larder-hoardingstrategy after their caches were pilfered by the Stealer. InExperiment 2, we measured changes after exposure to a conspecificwhen there was no pilferage, with or without prior exposureto pilferage from Experiment 1. Merriam's kangaroo rats werevigilant when a conspecific was present, but did not changecache strategy. Prior exposure did not have any major effecton caching or behavior. Food storage is an economic decisionthat is often made by a solitary forager. Our results suggestthat social competition nonetheless influences such economic
decisions, even in a nonsocial forager. |
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Keywords: | anxiety decision processes Dipodomys kangaroo rat pilferage scatter hoarding |
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