Scatterhoarding of Cape Proteaceae nuts by rodents

Most large.seeded shrubs and trees from Mediterranean shrublands are either serotinous (canopy stored seeds) or myrmecochorous (ant·buried). It has been hypothesized that these traits evolved to prevent access to the seeds by rodents. Here we present the first field evidence of a third guild, scauer·hoarding of nuts in the genus uucadendron (Proteaceae) from the south·west Cape. The rodent concerned is Acomys subsplnosus, a small «20 g) south·west Cape endemic murid. Seeds are typically buried singly, less than 2 em deep and at distances of up to 5 m from seed depots. This finding has implications for the understanding of the evolution of myrmecochory and serotiny in shrublancls. It extends the evolution of cached·nuts to a new family and is one of the first records of scatter-hoarding, outside of forests., in the southern hemisphere