How much do field mice prefer dwarf bamboo seeds? Two-choice experiments between seeds of and several tree species on the forest floor.

Bambusoideae is a taxon of mass-flowering monocarpic perennials with a long life cycle. Forest ecosystems are affected by Bambusoideae seeding and death events in various ways, including an increased abundance of spp. The utilization and preference of dwarf bamboo seeds over tree seeds by field mice remain elusive. Therefore, we aimed to determine whether field mice prefer dwarf bamboo to tree seeds. We examined one dwarf bamboo species () against four tree species with varying acorn/fruit traits (, , , and ). The seeds were placed in a container in a forest among dead culms, with an automatic camera monitoring the setup. The examined seeds were mainly foraged by two field mouse species, and with preference in the following order: , , , , and . Our findings indicated that during mast seeding years, predation pressure on and seeds could be considerably reduced. This suggests that mast seeding might disrupt the normal pattern of survival, and seed dispersal patterns, potentially altering the forest vegetation composition.