Page 54 - Mammal (DK Eyewitness)

Food for later

Few habitats in the world provide a constant, year-round supply of
food. Our distant ancestors recognized this, and they understood the
need to build up a store for later. Planning ahead by planting crops and
storing fruits led to the beginnings of agriculture some 10,000 years
ago. Other mammals, however, have probably been saving food in
times of plenty, to be eaten when times are hard, for millions of years. Seeds a favorite. In a seed,
the parent plant has provided a rich store of nutrients that the embryo (baby) plant will rely on
when it germinates. The seed is therefore a ready-packed, nutritious meal. In return, the seed
storers help the plant. An animal that buries seeds and then forgets about them has helped the
plant to spread. Meat is more of a problem, since it tends to decay, but burying is still worthwhile
for mammals such as foxes. With its legendary cunning the fox does not store all its surplus food
in one place. It makes several stores in different places, so that if another animal discovers one
store, the fox does not lose the lot.

A cheeky way to collect food PACKING THE POUCHES

T
The golden hamster is a rodent (p. 9). Like 2 he nuts are quickly put into
the mouth and are then pushed
many of its relatives it collects food when this into the pouches with the
is abundant and caches it (stores it away in a tongue. The hamster pauses
hidden place). The hamster’s cheek skin is occasionally to check for
loose and floppy, and forms an expandable danger, then hurriedly
pouch in which food is carried. A number of continues.
mammals carry food in this way, including
the platypus.

Pouches are
beginning to
extend

Cheek pouches
are empty

A LUCKY FIND Pile of nuts
1 Golden hamsters are kept as pets, but their
pouch-filling behavior is also shown by their wild
cousins, such as the common hamster of Eastern
Europe and Central Asia. Here the lucky hamster
has found a pile of nuts.

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