Chipmunks disperse manzanita seeds

This video was taken on 29-30 August 2009. It shows yellow-pine chipmunks removing a pile of seeds. Although it does not show it, these chipmunks moved around through the landscape and scatterhoarded (i.e., buried many seeds very shallow in many different areas) the seeds all over the area. The seeds are labeled with scandium-46, a radionuclide, and found the next day with the use of a Geiger counter.

This is a classic plant-animal mutualistic interaction. The plants benefit from the scatterhoarding rodents because they bury the seeds in areas conducive for germination, and the rodents benefit by plants producing many, many seeds for them to eat and forget about.

Many think that because manzanitas have small red fruit (manzanita literally means "little apple" in Spanish), that they are dispersed by birds and medium to large mammals. Experiments are the in the process as we speak to delineate dispersers. In addition, rodents have been overlooked as a potential disperser. This is the first time, that I know of, that this has been filmed.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Seed-caching
• food-hoarding
• yellow-pine chipmink
• manzanita
• seed dispersal
• seeds