The effect of distance on the foraging patterns of the Eastern Chipmunk, Tamias striatus.

Abstract

The optimal foraging theory as it relates to central place foragers predicts that animals must collect more food at farther distances fromtheir burrow, and take more time collecting as the distance increases. Influenced by natural selection, the individual that collected food most efficiently would increase their chances of successfully producing offspring to pass their genes to further generations. The foraging behavior of fifteen eastern chipmunks, Tamias striatus, was studied to see if more seeds were collected from 3 meter distances compared to 12 meter distances. In addition, the time spent collecting and traveling was recorded. In this study, the average feeding time at each distance were seen to be significantly different. The time spent traveling was not signficantly different at the two distances, and the number of seeds hoarded at each distance was not significantly different. The rates of foraging were not different at the two distances as well. In this study, the optimal foraging theory was not supported for Tamias striatus.