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SV: storing a food source



Woodpeckers are non-passerines, and owls also hoard food, so it does
occur in non-passerines. I however agree that it has almost certainly
evolved independently several times among birds. It could easily evolve
from the behaviour of many birds who carry food to their nestlings or
incubating spouse (I can't think offhand of any bird which does not
carry food to nestlings, but does cache food). Some birds, for example
raptors, sometimes carry more food to the nest than the nestlings can
consume immediately which comes pretty close to caching.

Tommy Tyrberg

-----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
Från: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu] För Graydon
Skickat: den 17 september 2009 19:12
Till: dinosaur@usc.edu
Ämne: Re: storing a food source

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 01:59:49PM -0300, Augusto Haro scripsit:
> 2009/9/17 David Krentz <ddkrentz@charter.net>:
> > This thread took an interesting turn, but one that is probably more
factual
> > than the kind of info I was originally looking for.  I guess what I
was
> > after, besides fat stores, was 'hoarding' behavior, you know, like a
> > squirrel storing nuts for the winter etc.
> 
> Well, as far as I know you have laniids, which are predatory
> passeriforms, which impale their insect/small tetrapod (including
> frogs, mice, and smaller passeriforms) prey on spines/broken branches
> in trees. I do not know if they can survive winters with this, nor if
> other birds store for long time. If you meant reptiles in its
> paraphyletic sense, then I do not know...

Food caching is common in extant passerines; grey jays, acorn
woodpeckers,
and the whole chickadee/tit clade are good examples.

I don't know of any non-passerine examples, though, and would suggest
that while the nominal bracket (since crocs are known to cache food
under water) supports this as a general archosaur behaviour, it's not
really one behaviour and should be treated with great caution in fossil
taxa.

-- Graydon