Asymmetric competition for seeds between two sympatric food hoarding rodents: implications for coexistence

Asymmetric competition occurs when some species have distinct advantages over their competitors and is common in animals with overlapping habitats and diet. However, the mechanism allowing coexistence between asymmetric competitors is not fully clear. Chinese white-bellied rats (Niviventer confucianus, CWR) and Korean field mice (Apodemus peninsulae, KFM) are common asymmetric competitors in shrublands and forests west of Beijing city. They share similar diet (e.g. plant seeds) and activity (nocturnal), but differ in body size (CWR are bigger than KFM), food hoarding habit (CWR: mainly larder hoarding; KFM: both larder and scatter hoarding), and ability to protect cached food (CWR are more aggressive than KFM). Here, we tested seed competition in 15 CWR-KFM pairs over a 10-day period under semi-natural enclosure conditions to uncover the differences in food hoarding, cache pilferage, and food protection between the 2 rodents, and discuss the implication for coexistence. Prior to pilferage, CWR harvested and ate more seeds than KFM. CWR tended to larder hoard seeds, whereas KFM preferred to scatter hoard seeds. Following pilferage, CWR increased consumption, decreased intensity of hoarding, and pilfered more caches from KFM than they lost, while KFM increased consumption more than they hoarded, and they preferred to hoard seeds in low and medium competition areas. Accordingly, both of the 2 rodent species increased their total energy consumption and hoarding following pilferage. Both rodent species tended to harvest seeds from the source, rather than pilfer caches from each other to compensate for cache loss via pilferage. Compared to CWR, KFM consumed fewer seeds when considering seed number, but hoarded more seeds when considering the seeds' relative energy (energy of hoarded seeds/rodent body mass^2/3 ) at the end of the trials. These results suggest that asymmetric competition for food exists between CWR and KFM, but differentiation in hoarding behavior could help the subordinate species (i.e. KFM) hoard more energy than the dominant species (i.e. CWR), and may contribute to their coexistence in the field.