Publication Type: | Journal Article |
Year of Publication: | 1985 |
Authors: | W. Johnson, C, Adkisson, CS |
Journal: | American Midland Naturalist |
Volume: | 113 |
Issue: | 2 |
Date Published: | 1985 |
ISBN Number: | 00030031 |
Keywords: | Corvidae, Cyanocitta, Cyanocitta cristata, Garrulus, Garrulus glandarius |
Abstract: | In September 1981, many thousands of green Fagus grandifolia nuts were dispersed by blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata) from a woodlot in southeastern Wisconsin and cached in their former breeding territories. Dispersal distances ranged up to 4 km. Jays dispersed an average of seven nuts per trip, with a range of 3-14. During dispersal trips, jays routinely followed wooded fencerows. This practice allowed for escape from avian predators whose migration coincided with the dispersal period. Jays selected the best nuts for dispersal, because all nuts recovered from jays were sound and most germinated in the laboratory. Only 11% of nuts on seed trees were sound. Dispersal by blue jays may be the primary means by which beech seeds are dispersed to patches of forest without beech trees and which are isolated by human land uses or by different natural habitats. |
URL: | http://www.jstor.org/stable/2425577 |
Short Title: | American Midland Naturalist |
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