Lawhon Debra K, Hafner Mark S
Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, 94720, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Museum of Zoology, Louisiana State University, 70893, Baton Rouge, LA, USA.
Oecologia. 1981 Sep;50(3):303-309. doi: 10.1007/BF00344967.
A comparative study of seasonal food hoarding activity and tactile discriminatory ability in four species of heteromyid rodents (Dipodomys panamintinus, D. merriami, Perognathus longimembris, and P. formosus) was conducted in laboratory test arenas. Animals were tested individually to determine their treatment of seed (white millet) and seed mimics (glass beads and gravel) offered as food. In general, all animals showed low levels of millet hoarding activity during winter months with higher levels in fall and spring. Observations revealed that all species manipulated (with the forepaws) each potential food item prior to eating, pouching, or rejecting it. These tactile cues appear to surpass visual and olfactory cues as critical factors in distinguishing between food and food mimics. Pocket mice (Perognathus) showed high levels of tactile discriminatory ability which may serve as the mechanism by which they achieve high foraging efficiency in nature when "filter-feeding" for widely dispersed seed resources. Kangaroo rats (Dipodomys), on the other hand, are less adept at distinguishing between food and very similar non-food items. The fact that, in nature, kangaroo rats depend heavily on clumped food resources may obviate the need for highly efficient tactile discriminatory abilities.
在实验室测试场地对四种更格卢鼠科啮齿动物（巴拿马更格卢鼠、梅氏更格卢鼠、长鼻白足鼠和秀白足鼠）的季节性食物贮藏活动和触觉辨别能力进行了比较研究。对动物进行单独测试，以确定它们对作为食物提供的种子（白粟）和种子模拟物（玻璃珠和砾石）的处理方式。一般来说，所有动物在冬季的粟贮藏活动水平较低，而在秋季和春季水平较高。观察发现，所有物种在食用、装袋或拒绝每种潜在食物之前，都会（用前爪）对其进行操作。这些触觉线索似乎比视觉和嗅觉线索更能作为区分食物和食物模拟物的关键因素。囊鼠（白足鼠属）表现出较高的触觉辨别能力，这可能是它们在自然界中对广泛分布的种子资源进行“过滤取食”时实现高觅食效率的机制。另一方面，更格卢鼠不太善于区分食物和非常相似的非食物物品。在自然界中，更格卢鼠严重依赖集中的食物资源，这一事实可能消除了对高效触觉辨别能力的需求。
