Inter-population variation in hoarding behaviour in degus, octodon degus

Abstract

Although foraging comprises a set of behaviours that typically vary with resource availability and.or climatic conditions, few studies have analysed how foraging, particularly food hoarding, varies across populations inhabiting different habitats. We carried out an inter-population study on foraging behaviour with the caviomorph rodent Octodon degus collected from two geographically separated populations in central Chile, with contrasting climates. One population was located in a mountainous zone (at 2600 m elevation) characterized by a high-altitude climate. The other population was from a low-altitude Mediterranean climate zone (450 m elevation). Under laboratory conditions, we measured population-specific differences in food consumption and hoarding by recording food utilization. We also assessed whether acclimation played a role in behavioural differences, by using two different sets of animals that had been in captivity for (1) 2 wk or (2) 6 mo, under common conditions. The result