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SV: SV: storing a food source
-----Ursprungligt meddelande-----
Från: owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu [mailto:owner-DINOSAUR@usc.edu] För Graydon
Skickat: den 19 september 2009 22:21
Till: Tommy Tyrberg
Kopia: dinosaur@usc.edu
Ämne: Re: SV: storing a food source
On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 09:20:54PM +0200, Tommy Tyrberg scripsit:
> Woodpeckers are non-passerines
ACK! Right you are. The neuron responsible will receive a stern
warning.
>, and owls also hoard food, so it does occur in non-passerines.
I'd distinguish temporary caching of something being eaten as quickly as
digestively possible?the "I killed it, but I can't eat it all at once"
problem?from storing food the way acorn woodpeckers and
grey jays do.
Among the owls at least the Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium passerinum) falls in
the second category. Since they often use nest-boxes for storage it is
not too unusual when cleaning out nest-boxes in spring in Scandinavia to
find a nest box full of small birds or rodents that the owl for some
reason never got around to eating (durability is usually not a problem
in winter).
Similar behaviour has been reported for Tengmalm's Owl, but is
apparently rare outside the breeding season However in good rodent years
male Tengmalm's owls will sometimes deliver so many rodents to the
incubating female that she barely has room to incubate the eggs. The
males who select a nesting cavity and then try to attract a female also
often put a couple of rodents in the cavity to further improve its
attractiveness.
Who knows? Perhaps male Tyrannosaurus cached ceratopsians to attract a
female? Though I rather doubt it, the plesiomorphic state in birds seems
to be for the males to care for the eggs and nestlings, so I would
expect this to apply to theropods too.
Tommy Tyrberg