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Home > Area-restricted search by plains pocket gopher (Geomys bursarius) in tallgrass prairie habitat

Area-restricted search by plains pocket gopher (Geomys bursarius) in tallgrass prairie habitat [1]

TitleArea-restricted search by plains pocket gopher (Geomys bursarius) in tallgrass prairie habitat
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication1993
AuthorsBenedix, JH [2]
JournalBehavioral Ecology
Volume4
Pagination318 -324
Accession NumberKNZ00388
Keywordsarea restricted search [3], foraging [4], Geomys bursarius [5], pocket gopher [6], Psorela [7]
Abstract

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.

DOI10.1093/beheco/4.4.318 [8]
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Source URL: http://lter.konza.ksu.edu/content/area-restricted-search-plains-pocket-gopher-geomys-bursarius-tallgrass-prairie-habitat

Links
[1] http://lter.konza.ksu.edu/content/area-restricted-search-plains-pocket-gopher-geomys-bursarius-tallgrass-prairie-habitat
[2] http://lter.konza.ksu.edu/biblio?f[author]=957
[3] http://lter.konza.ksu.edu/biblio?f[keyword]=1655
[4] http://lter.konza.ksu.edu/biblio?f[keyword]=1652
[5] http://lter.konza.ksu.edu/biblio?f[keyword]=1654
[6] http://lter.konza.ksu.edu/biblio?f[keyword]=1653
[7] http://lter.konza.ksu.edu/biblio?f[keyword]=1656
[8] http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/beheco/4.4.318