動物による破損や種子奪取を防ぐシードトラップ

概要

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Although seed traps are common for estimating seed production, it has suggested that seed traps can be wrecked by animals and it causes an obstacle to know seed production especially in habitats of large animals such as monkeys. In this study, we produced seed traps with nets and robust containers to prevent animals from destroying seed traps or snatching contents of traps, and set them in the habitat of Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) and wild boars (Sus scrofa), Takasakiyama, and in the habitat of Japanese macaques, Koshima. We collected seeds once every month during the fruiting season, from September to December in 2012. As a result, seed traps were neither wrecked nor knocked over, and acorns of Quercus serrata Murray, Q. glauca Thunb. and Q. salicina Blume were collected without substantial destruction of seed traps. Countermeasures for animals were suggested to be effective. The information of our seed traps can be useful for estimating seed production in habitats of large animals.