Meeting Abstract
Woodrats (genus Neotoma), also commonly known as packrats, exhibit prolific caching behaviors. Items collected by woodrats include food and items for nest building, as well as things that seem to serve no function, such as shiny objects. Woodrats’ interest in non-useful objects may be a spill-over behavior from food caching and/or high activity levels. While activity, food and object caching have been tested independently in woodrats, all three have not been measured in the same experiment. We therefore investigated activity, food and object caching in a laboratory setting in three different woodrat populations, N. albigula, and two populations of N. lepida from the Mojave and Great Basin Deserts. To test for differences in caching behavior in relation to activity, woodrats were placed in nesting cages that connected to a secondary area where they had access to a running wheel, rabbit chow (food), and jingle bells (object). It was found that both populations of N. lepida handled more jingle bells than N. albigula, indicative of a greater drive to cache non-essential items. Conversely, N. albigula showed a greater drive to cache an essential item, food, and cached more food than both populations of N. lepida. Both N. lepida populations had higher activity levels than N. albigula, as measured by the distance run on the wheels. Based on N. lepida’s higher activity levels and interest in jingle bells we propose that interest in non-useful objects may be a spill-over behavior from high activity levels. N. lepida’s high activity levels and interest in novel items may have allowed them to colonize a greater diversity of habitats than N. albigula.
