| Abstract: | In the struggle for survival, scatter‐hoarding rodents are known to cache food and pilfer the caches of others. The extent to which rodents utilize auditory/visual cues from conspecifics to improve cache‐pilfering is unknown. Here, Siberian chipmunks (Tamias sibiricus) were allowed to search for caches of Corylus heterophylla seeds (man‐made caches and animal‐made caches) after experiencing cues from a conspecific's cache‐searching events. For each type of cache, 3 experimental scenarios were presented: (1) alone (control); (2) auditory/visual (hearing and seeing conspecific's cache‐searching events); and (3) auditory only (hearing conspecific's cache‐searching events only) with random orders. The subjects located man‐made caches faster, harvested more caches, and hoarded more seeds both in the auditory/visual and the auditory only treatments compared to the control, while scatter‐hoarding more seeds in the auditory/visual treatment but larder‐hoarding more seeds in the auditory only treatment. Compared to the control, the animals spent less time locating animal‐made caches, harvested more caches, ate fewer seeds, larder‐hoarded more seeds and hoarded more seeds in total both in the auditory/visual and the auditory only treatments, while eating more seeds and hoarded fewer seeds in total in the auditory only treatment than in the auditory/visual treatment. The results also show that females spent less time locating the animal‐made caches, but they scatter‐hoarded fewer seeds than males in the auditory/visual treatment. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report that visual and/or auditory cues of conspecifics improve cache‐pilfering and hoarding in rodents. |
