Variable Breeding Strategies in a Fluctuating Environment: A Feeding Experiment in Eastern Chipmunks.

ABSTRACT: Small mammals inhabiting pulsed-resource environments, such as forests with intermittent seed masting of trees, often adjust their allocation to reproduction with the drastic fluctuations in food availability. They could, for instance, plastically allocate capital resources to reproduction when food availability is low or adopt an income breeding strategy when food availability is high. We investigated how eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus), a food-hoarding rodent strongly relying on the masting of beech trees (Fagus grandifolia), anticipate and respond to food pulses to reproduce. We supplemented a study site with sunflower seeds to buffer food availability for 2 years that were characterized by a non-mast and a beech mast. We monitored chipmunks exploitation of the feeders

SUBMITTER: Briau F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11917122 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature