%0 Journal Article %J Behavioral Ecology %D 1993 %T Area-restricted search by plains pocket gopher (Geomys bursarius) in tallgrass prairie habitat %A Benedix, J.H. %K area restricted search %K foraging %K Geomys bursarius %K pocket gopher %K Psorela %X Because pocket gophers have the high energetic cost of excavating burrows and an inability to detect distant food items through the soil, I hypothesized that individuals within established burrow systems would use area-restricted search as a foraging strategy. To examine this hypothesis I compared gopher foraging effort over a 10-month period between areas in which overall plant densities were experimentally varied. Gophers expended approximately 50% of their foraging effort in areas with the highest plant density, even though these made up only 33% of the available area in experimental plots. In large, gridded areas sampled for an entire season as well as in small areas in which gophers foraged for less than 1 week, gopher foraging effort was related to the density of a single leguminous plant species, Psoralea argophylla. In small plots where this plant species was at high density, gophers created more tunnel branches, thereby intensifying their search effort. Thus, area-restricted search appears to increase the rate of encounter with the patchily distributed Psoralea plants. %B Behavioral Ecology %V 4 %P 318 -324 %G eng %M KNZ00388 %R 10.1093/beheco/4.4.318