Original title: Granivorous forest mice select herb seeds on the basis of native origin, not seed size or microenvironment
Researchers placed seeds from native forest herbs and unfamiliar cultivated plants at feeding stations in an Ohio forest. White-footed mice were the only animals seen removing seeds. The mice took cultivated seeds sooner and more completely, regardless of seed size. Nearby ground conditions made little difference, so the results point to seed origin—not size or location—as the key pattern.
Imagine putting snacks in several spots around a forest picnic area. Some snacks are familiar, some are new, and some spots have more leaves and branches than others. The hard part is working out whether the snacks disappear because of what they are, where they sit, or how big they are. In this paper, the snacks are seeds, the mouse's choices show which ones it takes, and the spots stand for the small habitat differences the researchers measured.
Forest mice can affect whether shade-tolerant native herbs survive and spread in forests recovering from agriculture. The study suggests that native seeds may escape being eaten because the mice find them less attractive, not because the seeds are larger or grow in safer spots.
The study took place at feeding stations in one mixed-mesophytic forest in southeastern Ohio, and seed removal was monitored for 1–3 weeks. It identifies white-footed mice as the only animal removing seeds during that study, but the abstract does not establish whether the observed preferences determine long-term plant survival or seed dispersal across other places and conditions.
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Granivorous forest mice select herb seeds on the basis of native origin, not seed size or microenvironment — Delaney M. Gibbs, Glenn R. Matlack — Plant Ecology — doi:10.1007/s11258-026-01663-w
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.