Evidence for selective caching by arctic ground squirrels in alpine meadows in the Yukon

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Hik, D.S.
  • Zazula, G.
  • Gillis, E.A.
  • Morrison, S.F.

• Male arctic ground squirrels (Spermophilus parryii) rely on food they cached the previous year for the energy they need to compete for mates each spring. We collected cheek-pouch contents of arctic ground squirrels trapped during three summers (2000–02) as an indication of what squirrels cached. Among adults, both males and females carried material in their cheek pouches, but males did so more frequently than females (4.4% vs. 0.6% of captures). Males carried material later in the summer than females, and also carried different material (seeds and rhizomes as opposed to nesting material). These differences probably reflect different purposes of cheek-pouch contents—females carried material for immediate use, whereas males carried food for caching. Only 24 of over 100 species of vascular plants growing at our alpine study site were carried, and presumably cached, by male arctic ground squirrels. The seeds or rhizomes of one species, Polygonum viviparum, were found in over 90% of cheek-pouch contents examined, even though that species grew at relatively low density and was no more common than another species in the same genus (Polygonum bistorta) that was never found in cheek-pouch contents. Collectively, this evidence indicates that males are highly selective in what species they cache. Many of the species carried by arctic ground squirrels in this study have also been found in Pleistocene fossil caches from central Yukon, indicating that food preferences of this species may have remained stable over time.

• Date created

  2005

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Polygonum
  • Arctic ground squirrel
  • Spermophilus parryii
  • Alpine
  • Food caching
  • Hoarding

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3V97ZV05

• License

  © The Arctic Institute of North America