GRE閱讀:飛鼠尋找食物

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飛鼠尋找食物
    The objective of this study was to evaluate how northern flying squirrels (Glaucomys
    sabrinus) locate truffles (Gautieria monticola), a subterranean and ephemeral but primary food
    source. Thus, we evaluated the importance of three factors to the foraging behavior of
    northern flying squirrels: (i) olfactory chemicals that emanate from truffles; (ii) the presence of
    coarse woody debris (decaying logs), which are often associated with fungi; and (iii) we
    explored the potential role animal memory could play in truffle detection as well. In a foraging
    arena, squirrels successfully retrieved buried truffles that lacked aboveground cues in 19 of 30
    trials and failed to search near treatments that lacked truffles altogether, confirming the
    importance of olfaction to squirrel foraging. However, squirrels also retrieved truffles that were
    associated most frequently with surface logs (27 of 30). In addition, the initial detection rate of
    the truffle + log treatment was significantly greater than the truffle-only treatment. Thus,
    although squirrels search for truffles primarily using olfaction, they may also benefit by
    searching near coarse woody debris on the forest floor as an aboveground cue to truffle
    locations. In addition, because 82% of Sierra Nevada truffle-fruiting locations that were marked
    in 1996 yielded truffles again the following 2 years, mycophagous animals like northern flying
    squirrels may benefit by memorizing fruiting locations and foraging at these same locations
    from year to year.