The assisted regeneration of oaks can be achieved through seeding or planting. Whereas direct seeding of acorns has several advantages over planting nursery-grown seedlings, the problem of seed predation by mammals precludes its widespread application. We investigated the potential of diesel as a mammal repellent to prevent the consumption of Holm oak acorns. We tested the effect of submerging ...

In this paper, I analyse the interaction between the holm-oak Quercus ilex, and one of its main dispersers, the European jay Garrulus glandarius, in an heterogeneous Mediterranean landscape. I quantify the spatial dispersal pattern of the seed shadow at two spatial scales, landscape (among patches) and microhabitat (within patches), by directly tracking the movement of seeds. Two main traits of...

We examined post-fire recovery of two components of acorn production (percentage of bearing ramets [stems] and number of acorns per bearing ramet) for four species of oaks in southern ridge sandhill vegetation in south-central peninsular Florida. Annual counts of acorns on two white oaks (Quercus chapmanii and Q. geminata) and two red oaks (Q. laevis and Q. myrtifolia) were conducted annually (...

Abstract Seed hoarding by granivorous animals requires cache-protection strategies which allow to protect hoarded seeds against pilferage. This study reports the first case of acorn in tree cavities Eurasian Jays ( Garrulus glandarius ). Out 116 removed acorns both pedunculate oak Quercus robur ) and Northern red Q. rubra ), we localized 14 consumed 102 stored acorns. Five experimental (4.9% ac...

Native American Pomo communities who live in the Northern Coastal range of California and consume acorns from tanoak trees as part of traditional diets are facing the potential loss of many culturally important trees to sudden oak death. Pomo and other Native American communities are reluctant to use the protective fungicide, potassium phosphonate, on trees used for acorn collection without inf...

(2) Our campus squirrel population provides ample opportunities to explore squirrel feeding preferences or scatterhoarding behaviors. Many of the findings summarized in a series of papers by Steele and Smallwood (e.g., “What are squirrels hiding? Natural History 10: 40-44. 1994. and other findings reported in their articles) offer challenging field experiment ideas. For example, given that spec...

(1) Our campus squirrel population provides ample opportunities to explore squirrel feeding preferences or scatterhoarding behaviors. Many of the findings summarized in a series of papers by Steele and Smallwood (e.g., “What are squirrels hiding? Natural History 10: 40-44. 1994. and other findings reported in their articles) offer challenging field experiment ideas. For example, given that spec...

Pollination patterns within Quercus lobata and interspecific hybridization between Q. lobata and Quercus douglasii were studied in a coastal central California mixed woodland. We first identified hybrids by means of microsatellite genotyping and assignment tests. Hybrids were rare, both among adults (4 of 190, 2.1%) and among acorns collected from Q. lobata trees (6 of 392, 1.5%). These low rat...

Absrrt7c.r: Althul~gh winter foods o f mallards (Annsplat~rh~t tcos) and wood ducks (Aix sporlscl) have been documented in several studies, 110 stich research has been conducted in nati~ral bottomland hardwood forests in eastern 'Texas. We collected 40 mallards and 78 woocl dticks and san~pleil available foods in eastern Texas during winters 1987-1988 and 1988-89 to study food habits and prefer...