Foraging dynamics in Steller's jays: size and viability of cacheable food items

Rockwell, Christina; Gabriel, Pia O.; Black, Jeffrey M.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2013.07.018

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Assessment of food items before consumption or storage is a common and important behavior in diverse species, including primates, fish and birds [14] – [19] . Western scrub-jays ( Aphelocoma californica ), Piñon jays ( Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus ) and Stellar's jays ( Cyanocitta stelleri ) use visual cues and handle food items to determine quality before eating, caching or rejecting seeds.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fox Squirrels Match Food Assessment and Cache Effort to Value and Scarcity

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Scatter hoarders must allocate time to assess items for caching, and to carry and bury each cache. Such decisions should be driven by economic variables, such as the value of the individual food items, the scarcity of these items, competition for food items and risk of pilferage by conspecifics. The fox squirrel, an obligate scatter-hoarder, assesses cacheable food items using two overt movements, head flicks and paw manipulations. These behaviors allow an examination of squirrel decision processes when storing food for winter survival. We measured wild squirrels' time allocations and frequencies of assessment and investment behaviors during periods of food scarcity (summer) and abundance (fall), giving the squirrels a series of 15 items (alternating five hazelnuts and five peanuts). Assessment and investment per cache increased when resource value was higher (hazelnuts) or resources were scarcer (summer), but decreased as scarcity declined (end of sessions). This is the first study to show that assessment behaviors change in response to factors that indicate daily and seasonal resource abundance, and that these factors may interact in complex ways to affect food storing decisions. Food-storing tree squirrels may be a useful and important model species to understand the complex economic decisions made under natural conditions.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fox Squirrels Match Food Assessment and Cache Effort to Value and Scarcity

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Who’s watching influences caching effort in wild Steller’s jays (Cyanocitta stelleri)

2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Steller's jays (Cyanocitta stelleri) often store food and return to retrieve the stored items at a later time. Between caching and consumption, stored food has the potential to be pilfered by conspecific observers. We investigated whether individually marked Steller's jays in suburban neighborhoods of Arcata, California, USA, adjusted cache concealment effort when in the presence of conspecifics. Both male and female jays traveled the shortest distances to cache when alone, traveled further when a mate was present, and traveled furthest when neighbors from adjacent territories were present. These results suggest that Steller's jays recognize and respond to social contexts when concealing food items.

show abstract