How to translate text using browser tools
1 May 2009 Seasonal Differences in Space Use by Clark'S Nutcrackers in the Cascade Range
Teresa J. Lorenz, Kimberly A. Sullivan
Author Affiliations +
Abstract

Clark's Nutcrackers (Nucifraga columbiana) are important seed dispersers for at least ten species of conifer in western North America and are obligate mutualists for the whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis), a subalpine tree. Despite the important role they play in forest regeneration, space use by nutcrackers has not been formally studied. Several hypotheses exist to explain their year-round patterns of space use. We tested the hypothesis that one population in the Cascade Range, Washington, migrates altitudinally between summer and autumn. In 2006 and 2007, we compared seasonal differences in summer and autumn space use by 26 radio-tagged nutcrackers. Five nutcrackers remained as year-round residents on their home ranges; 21 emigrated from the study area in summer. Among residents we found summer and autumn ranges overlapped and summer ranges were contained within autumn ranges. Residents increased their use of low-elevation habitats as autumn progressed, but rather than migrating from summer ranges, they used low-elevation forests only for seed harvesting. High-elevation portions of the summer range were used for all other activities including seed storage even though this required residents to transport seeds from source trees up to 29 km in distance and 1007 m in elevation. We were unable to test hypotheses regarding space use by emigrants. However, our results suggest that emigrants in this study did not migrate altitudinally because they showed no seasonal trend in movements either upslope or downslope.

© 2009 by The Cooper Ornithological Society. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press's Rights and Permissions website, http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintInfo.asp.
Teresa J. Lorenz and Kimberly A. Sullivan "Seasonal Differences in Space Use by Clark'S Nutcrackers in the Cascade Range," The Condor 111(2), 326-340, (1 May 2009). https://doi.org/10.1525/cond.2009.080070
Received: 3 November 2008; Accepted: 1 January 2009; Published: 1 May 2009
KEYWORDS
altitudinal migration
Clark's Nutcracker
emigrant
home range
Nucifraga columbiana
seed dispersal
space use
RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS
Get copyright permission
Back to Top