The role of urine marking in the foraging behaviour of least chipmunks.
Least chipmunks Tamias minimus, occasionally deposit urine on buried patches of seeds after sampling the patch, a behaviour never before reported for rodents. The results of these experiments show that (1) patch-marking is a deliberate act, bearing no resemblance to routine excretion, (2) marking deters both the marker and conspecifics from harvesting attempts, (3) chipmunks can discriminate their own marks from those of others, and (4) the incidence of marking in the wild is at least as frequent, and its deterrent effect as strong as in the laboratory. Although the message conveyed by a mark is clearly exploited by conspecifics, and may benefit kin, the results accord best with prevailing theory advanced for canids, that an olfactory reminder of patch value improves the marker's foraging efficiency. Copyright 1999 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.
Devenport
L
Department of Psychology, University of Oklahoma
Devenport
J
Kokesh
C